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" v r . >y; j MY. D1I. TALMAGE. r ^HE BROOKLYN I>i FINLTS SUN* DAY SERMON. (Subject: "Tbe City oi Ephesus.* JTkxt: liGreat is Diana of the Ephesians* Actsxix., 84. have landed this morning at Smyrna, ft city of Asiatic Turkey. One of the seven churches of Asia once stood here. You read In Revelation, "To the church in Smyrna Hrrite." It is a city that has often been haken bv earthauake. swent bv conflaura taon, blasted hy plagues and butchered by iirar, and here Bishop Polycarp stood in a crowded amphitheater and when he was asked to give up the advocacy of the Christian religion and save himself from martyrdom, the proconsul saying, "Swear and I release thee; reproach Christ," replied, "'Eiptfcy and six years have I served Him, and He never did me wrong; how then can I cervile my King and Saviour!" 't When be was brought to the fir^s into which he was about to be thrust, and the officials were about to fasten him to the stake he said "Let me remain as I am, for* He ^rho giveth me strength to sustain the fire drill enable me also without your securing 4mo with nails to remain unmoved in the fire." History says the fires refused to conMimft Him nnH at! fha trinH fka flamon PM??V UiUij UUU UUUCi IUV TTIUU l>uy UMLUVO fcent outward so that they did sot touch his person, and therefore he was slain by swords land spears. One cypress bending over his grave is the only monument to Bishop Polycarp. I, But we are on the way to the city of EpheCTia, about fifty miles from Smyrna. We are advised not to go to Ephesus. The {bandits in that region have nadan ugly practice of cutting off the ears of travelers {and sending these specimens of ears down to (Smyrna, demanding a ransom The banditti suggest to the friends of the persons from whom the ears have been subtracted that if they would like to have the rest of fehe body they will please send an appropriate mm of money. If the money is not sent the mutilated prisoners will be assassinated. jOne traveler was carried off to the robber's den, and $7500 was paid for his rescue. The bandits were caught and beheaded, and pictures of these ghastly heads are on sale in jthe shops of Smyrna for ar.y person who hnnv f/% kntTA /% Irvnlr af nn piuiT ucoiio IAJ ua?o auuiouLuug iw ivva wu their -way to Ephesus. '.There have been cases where ten and twenty and thirty and forty thousand dollars have been demanded by these brigands. We did not feel like putting our friends to such expense, and it was suggested that we had better omit Ephesus. But that would have been a disappointment from which we would never recover.' We must see Ephesus? associated witl the most wonderful apostolic cenes. We hire a special railway train, and In about an hour and a half we arrive at the City of Ephesus, which was called "The Great Metropolis of Asia," and -'One of the Eyes of /Asia," and "The Empress of Ionia," the capital of all learning and magnificence.. Here, as I said, was one of the seven churches ol Asia, and first of all. we visit the ruins of thai churcu where once an ecumenical council ol two thousand ministers of religion was held. < Mark the fulfillment of the prophecy. Of the seven churches of Asia four were commended in the Book of Revelation and three Were doomed. The cities having the four commended churches still stand; the cities having the three doomed churches are wiped oat. It occurred just as the Bible said it would occur. Drive on and you come to the theatre, which was 060 feet from wall to wall capable of holding 56,700 spectators. Here And there the walls arise almost unbroken, but for the most part the building is dowu. As I took my place at the centre of this (theatre and looked around at its broken lay* ersof stone, gallery upon gallery, gallery upon gallery, and piled up into the bleat skies of that winter day, and thought that every hand that swung a trowel on those iwalla, and every foot that trod those stairs, and every eye that gazed on that amphitheatre, and every voice that greeted the Combatants in that arena had gone out of bearing and sight for aees on ages, I felt a thrill of interest that almost penetrated me amid the ruins. Standing there we could not forget that ,in that building onoe assembled a riotous throng for Paul's condemnation, because fwhat he preached collided with the idolatry of their national goddess. Paul tried to get . Into that theatre and address the excited multitude, but his friends held him back, lest he be torn to pieces by the mob, and the recorder of the city had to read the riot act among the people who had shrieked for two mortal hours till their throats were sore and they were black in the face, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." .< Now we step into the Stadium. Enough Of its walls and appointments are left to show what a stupendous placo it must have been when used ror foot-races and for flghtB with wild beasts. It was a building 680 feet long by 200 feet wide. Paul refers to what transpired there in the way of spectacle when he savs. "We have been made a spec tacle." "Yes," Paul says, "I have fought ,with beasts at Ephesus," an expression usually taken as figurative, but i suppose it was literally true, for one of the amusements in that Sta iium was to put a disliked man in the arena with a hungry lion or tiger or panther, and let the fight go until either the man or the beast or both were slain. It must have been great fun for these baters of Christianity to hear that on the morrow in the Stadium in Ephesos the missionary Paul would, in the presence of the crowded galleries, fight a hungry lion. Tho .people were early there to get the best seats, and a more alert and enthusiastic crowd sever assembled. They took their dinner with them. And was there ever a more unequal combat proposed? Paul, according to tradition, small, crooked backed and weak eyed, but the grandest man in sixty centuries, is led to the center as the people shout: '"There he comes, the preacher who has nearly ruined our religion. The lion will make but a brief mouthful of him." It is plain that all the sympathies of that crowd are with the lion. In one of the underground rooms I hear the growl of the wild beasts. They have been kept for several I days without food or water in order that they may be especially ravenous and bloodthirsty. . ."What chance is there for Paul? But you cannot tell by a man's size or looks how stout a blow be can strike or bow keen a blade he can thrust. Witness, heaven and earth and hell, this struggle of Paul with a wild beast. The coolest man in the Stadium is Paul. (What has he to fear? He has defied all the powers, earthly and infernal, and if his body tumble under the foot and tooth of the wild beast, his soul will only the sooner find disenthral lment. But it is his duty, as far as possible, to preserve his life. Now, I hear the bolt of the wild beast's door shoved back, and the whole audience rise to their feet as the fierce brute springs for the arena and toward its small occupant. I think the first plunge that was made by the wild beast at the apostle was made on the point ore sharp blade, and the snarling monster, with a howl of pain and reeking "with gore, turns back. But now the little missionary has his turn of making attack, and with a few well directed thrusts the monster lies died in the dust of the arena, and the apostle puts his right foot on the lion and shakes him, and then puts his left foot on him and shakes him?a scene which Paul afterward uses for an illustration when he wants to show how Christ will triumph over death?"He must reign till He hath nnt all enemies under His feet"'?yes, under Ms feet. Paul told the literal troth when ha said: 'I have fought with beasts at Ephesus,"and as the plural is used I think he had more than one such light, or several beasts were let loose upon him at one time. As we stood that day in the middle of the Stadium and looked around at the great structure, the whole scene came baci upon us. But we pass out of the Stadium, for we arc in haste for other places of interest in Ephegus. To add to tlie excitement of the day one of our party was missing. No man u safe in that region alone unless he be armed and Jcnow now to take sure aim and not miss fire. Our companion, Dr?- Louis Klopsch, now the publisher of the Christian Herald, had gone out on some explorations of his own, and through the gate where Paul had walked again and again, yet where no man unaccompanied should adventure now. But after some time had passed and every minute seemed as long as an hour, and we had time to imagine everything horrible in the way of robbery and assassination, the lost traveler appeared, to receive from our entire party a volley or expostulation for the arousal of so manv anxieties. * In the midst of this city of Ephesus once ~ floated an artificial lake, brilliant with painted boats, and through the river Cayster It was connected with the sea, and ships from all part* of th? known earth floated in and out carrying oa a commerce which made Ephesus the envy of the world. Great was Ephesus! Its gymnasia, its hippodrome, its oaeon, its atheDaeum, its forum, its aqueducts (whose skeletons are still drawn along the city), its towers, its Castle of Hadrian, its quarries, which were the eranito cradle of cities; its temples, built to Apollo, to Minerva, to Neptune, to Mercury, to Bacchus, to Hercules, to Caesar, to Fortune, to Jupiter Olympus. What his tore and Doetrv and chisel and cauvas have not presented has come up at the call of archaeologists' powder blast and crowbar. But I have now to unveil tha chief wonder of this chiefest of cities. In 1863, under the patronage of the English Government, Mr. Wood, the explorer, began at Ephesus to feel along under the ground at great depths for roads, for walls, for towers, and here it is?that for which Eohesus was more celebrated than all else besides?the temple of the goddess Diana, called the sixth wonder of the world, and in 1889 we stood amid the ruins of that temple, measuring its pillars, transfixed by its sculpture and confounded at what was the greatest temple of idolatry In all time. As lsat on a piece of one of its' fallen columns I said, "What earthquake rocked it 1 down, or what hurricane pushed it to the earth, or under what strong wine of centuries did the giant stagger and fall?" There L--'v ??***/??% nmnlflB r\f Dinnn t.hft ruinq WtVO UUCU JQTOU VVUl^/tW VA ^ ?... ? of each contributing something for the rolendor of its architectural successors. Two hundred and twenty year3 was this last temple in construction. Twice as long as the United States have stood was that temple in building. It was nearly twioe as large as St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Lest it should be disturbed by earthquakes, which hare always been fond of making those regions their"playground, the"temple' was built on a marsh, which was made firm by layers of charcoal, covered by fleeces of wooL The stone came from the quarry near by. After it was decreed to build the temple it was thought it would be necessary to bring ,the building stone from other lands, but one day a shepherd by the name of Pixodorus, ,while watching his flocks, saw two rams fighting, and as they missed the interlocking of their horns and one fell his horn knocked a splinter from the rock and showed by that splinter the lustrous whiteness of the rock. The shepherd ran to the city with a piece of that stone, which revealed a quarry from which place the temple was built, and every month in all ages since the Mayor of Ephesu3 goes to that quarry to offer sacrifices to the memory o? that shepherd who discovered this source of splendor and wealth of the cities of Asia Minor. In removing the great stones from the quarry to their destined places in the temple, it was necessary, in order to keep the wheels, which were twelve feet in diameter, from sinking deep into the earth under the unparalleled heft, that a frame of timbers be arranged over which the wheels rolled. To put the immense block of marble in its place over the doorway of one of these temples *""" /-.iflRnntf. on imrJorf-ftlrinc fhafc the architect at oae time gave it up, and in his chagrin attempted suicide, but one night in his sleep he dreamed that the stone had settled to the right place, and the next day he found that the great block of marble had, by its own weight, settled to the right place. The temple of Diana was four hundred and twenty-five feet lone by two hundred and twenty-five feet wide. All Asia wa3 taxed to pay for it It had one huDdred and twenty-seven pillars, each sixty feet high, and each the gift of a king, and inscribed with the name of the donor. Now you see the meaning of that passage in Revelation, just as a king presenting one of these pillars to the Temple of Diana had his own name chiseled on it and the name of his own country, so says Christ, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and I will write upon him the uiime of My God and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, and I will write upon Him My new name." How suggestive and beautiful! In addition to those pillars that I climbad over while amid the ruins of Diana's temple, 1 saw afterward eight of thosa pillars at Constantinople, to which city they had been removed, and are now a part of the Mosque of St Sophia. Those eight columns are all | preen jasper, but some of those which stool in Diana's temple at Epheaus were fairly drenched with brilliant colors.' Costly metals stood up in various parts of the temple, where they could catch the fullest flush of the sun. A flight of staira was carved out of one grapevine. Doors of cypress wood, which had been kept in glue for years and bordered with bronze in bas relief, swung against pillars of brass and resounded with echo upon echo, caught up and sent on and hurled back through the corridors. In that building stood an image of Diana, the goddess. The impression was abroad as the Bible records, that that image had dropped plumb out of heaven into that temple, and the sculptors who really made the image were put to death, so that they could not testify of its human manufacture and so denv its celestial origin. It was thought by intelligent people that the material from which this idol was formed might have dropped out of heaven as an aerolite. We have seen in the British museum, and in universities of our own west, blocks of stone hurled off from other worlds. These aerolites were seen to fall, and witnesses have gone to the landing places, and scientists have pronounced them to be the product of other worlds. But the material out or which the image of Diana was fashioned contradicts that notion. This image was carved out or ebony and punctured here and there with openings kept full of spikenard so as to hinder the statue from decaying and make it aromatic, but this ebony was covered with bronze and alabaster. A necklace of acorns coiled grace- I fully around her. There were four lions on fnniAal cfranrrfh ffflp hAA.fl DttUU mui, bjr (/igai Vk B?4 vu^him MV> MVW. wfts coroneted. Around this figure stood statues which by wonderful invention shed tears. The air by strange machinery was damp with descending perfumes. The walls multiplied the scene by concaved mirrors. Fountains tossed in sheave3 of light and fell in showers of diamonds. Praxiteles, the sculptor, and Apailes, the painter, filled the place with their triumphs. Croesus, the wealthiest of the ancients, put here and there in the temple golden heifers. The paintings ware so vivid aud lifelike that Alexander, who was moved at nothing of terror, shuddered at one battle scene on these walls, and so true to life was a painting of a horse that when Alexander's horse was led up to it be began to neigh, as ona horse is accustomed to greet another. One painting in that temple cost $193,750. The treasures of all nations and the spoils of kingdoms were kept here for safe deposit. Criminals from all lands fled to the shelter of this temple, and the law could not touch them. It seemed almost strange that this mountain of architectural snow outside did not malt with ttu fires of color within. The temple was surrounded with groves, in which roamed for the temptation qf hunters, stags and hares and wild boars, and all styles of game, whether winged or four* footed. There was a cave with statue so intensely brilliant that it extinguished the eye of those who looked upon it, unless, at the commaud of the priest, the haud of tin spectator somewhat shaded the eye. Nn wonder that even Anthony and Alex ander and Darius cried out in the woras of my text, "Great is Diana of the Epheginnit." v | one wnoie month or each year, the month of May, was devoted to her worship. Pro ' cessions in garbs of purple and violet and scarlet moved through it, aud there were torches and anthems, and choirs in white, aud timbrels and triangles in music, sacrifices and dances. Nations voted large amounts to meet the expense of the worship. Fisheries of vast resources were devoted to (the support of this resplendence. Horace and Virgil and Homer went into rhapsodies while describing this worship. I All artists, all archaeologists, all centuries. , agreed in saying, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Paul, in the presence of thi3 Temple of Diana, incorporates it in his figures of speech whiie speaking of the spiritual I temple, "Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, etc.," and no doubt with reference to one or hh? nr?vinti<5 which had bean set on fire ty Herostratus just for the i ame of destroying it, Paul says, "If any man's work sballbe burned, he shall suffer loss, etc.," and all up and down Paul's writings you realize that he had not only seen, but had been mightily impressed with what he had seen of the Temple of Diana. In this city the mother of Jesu3 was said to have been buried. Here dwelt Aquilla and Priscilla of Bible, mention.. j?h<L_ wsis proreswjra in jiporisea vucvn^tuat letninaiy, and they taught the eloquent Apollos how to be eloquent for Cnrist. Here John preachdQ, and from here because of his fidelity he was exiled to Patmos. Here Paul warred against the magical art* for irhich Ephesus was famous. The sorcerers of this city pretended that they could core diseases, and perform almost any miracle, by pronouncing these senseless words, "Aski Cataski Lix Tatrai Damnameueus Alston." i But, all the glory of Ephesus I have described has gone now. At some seasons of the year awful malarias sweep over the place and put upon mattress or in graves a large portion of the population. In the approximate marshes scorpions, centipedes and all forms of reptilian life crawl and hiss and sting, while hyenas and jackals at night slink in and out of the ruins of buildings which once startled the nations with their almost supernatural grandeur. ! Bat here is a lesson which has never yet been drawn out. Do you not see in taat temple of Diana an expression of what the worfd needs. It wants a God who can provide food. Diana was a huntress. In pictures^onjnany^of the coins she held a stag bv the horn with one hand and a" bundle of arrows in the other. Oh, this is a hungry world! Diana could not give one pound of meat or one mouthful of food to the millions of her worshipers. She was a dead divinity, an imaginary god, and so In idolatrous lands the vast majority of people never bare enough to eat. it is only in the countries where the God of heaven and earth La worshiped that the vast majority have enough to eat. Let Diana have her arrowB and her hounds. Our God has the sunshine and the showers and the harvests, and in proportion as He is worshiped does plenty i jcTalso in the Temple of Diana the world expressed its need of a refuge. To it from all parts of the land came deotors who could not pay their debts and the offenders of the law that they might escape incarceration. Bat she sheltered them: only a little while, and while she kept them from arrest she could not change their hearts, and the guilty remained guilty. But, our God In Jesus Christ is a refuge into which we may fly from all our sins and all our pursuers, and not only be safe for time, but safe for eternity, and the guilt is pardoned and the nature is transformed. What Diana sould not do for her worshipers, our Christ iccomplishes for U3. Bock of ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself In thee. Then, in that temple were deposited treasures from all the earth for safe keeping. Chrysostom says it was the treasure house of nations; they brought gold and silver and precious stones and coronets from across the ea, and put them under the care of Diana of the Ephesians. But again and again were those treasures ransacked, captured ordeitroyed. Nero robbed them, the Scythians icattered them, the Goths burned them. Diana failed those who trusted her with treasures, but our God, to whom we may intrust all our treasures for this world and the - * * a j next, and fall any one who puts coquubouo In Him He never will. After the last jasper column has fallen, and tbe last temple on Barth has gone into ruins, and the world Itself has suffered demolition, the Lord will keep for us our best treasures. But notice what killed Ephesus and what has killed most of the cities that lie buried in the cemetery of nations. Luxury 1 The sostly baths, which had been the means of Health to the city became Its ruin. Instead I it the cold baths that had been the invigora[ (ion of the people, the hot baths, which are only intended for the infirm or the invalid, were substituted. In these hot baths many lay most of the time. Authors wrote books while in these baths. Business wa3 neglected and'a hot bath talcen ""four or "Ave times a day. When tbe keeper of the baths was reprimanded for not havingthem warm enonzh one of the rulers said, "You blame him for making the bath warm enongh; I blame you because you have it warm at alL" But that warm bath which enervated Ephesus, and which is always enervating except when followed bv cold baths (no reference, of course, to delicate constitutions), was only a type of what went on in all departments of Ephesian life, and in luxurious indulgence Ephesus fell, and the last triangle of music was tinkled in Diana's temple, and the last wrastler disappeared from her gymnasiums, and the last racer took his garland in the Stadium, and the last plea was heard j In her Forum, and even th? sea, as 11 to withdraw the last commercial opportunity [ from that metropolis^ retreated down the beach, leaving her without the harbor in which had floated a thousand ship3. Brooklyn, New York, London and all modern cities, cisatlantic and transatlantic, take warning What luxury unguarded aid for Ephesus, luxury unguarded may do for aU. Opu. lence and splendor God grant to all the peo* pie, to all tne cities, to all the land, but at the same time, may He grant the righteous use of them. Gymnasiums? Yes, but see that the vigor gained in them be consecrated to God. Magnificent temples of worship? Yes, but see that in them instead of conventionalities and cold pomp of service there be warmth of devotion and the pure Gospel preached. Imposing court houses? Yes, but in them let justice and mercy rule. Palaces of journalism? Yes, but let all the printing presses be marshaled for happiness and truth. Great postofflce buildings? Yes, but through them day by day, may correspondence helpful, elevating and moral pass. Ornate dwelling houses! Yes, but in them let there be altars of devotion, and conjugal, filial, paternal and Christian fidelity rule. London for magnitude, Berlin for universities, Paris for fashions, Rome for cathedrals, Athens for classics, Thebes for hieroglyphics, Memphis for tombs, Babylon for gardens, Ephesus for idolatry, but what shall be the characterise tire of our American cities when they shall heve attained their full stature? Would that "holiness to the Lord" might be inscribed upon all our municipalities. One thing is certain, and that is that all idolatry most come down. When the greatest goddess of the earth, Diana, enshrined in the greatest temple that ever stood, was prostrated at Ephesus, it was a prophecy of the overthrow .of all the idolatries that have cursed the earth, and anything we love more than God is an idol, and there is as much idolatry in the Nineteenth century as in the First, and in America as in Asia. As our train pulled out from the station at Ephesus, the cars surrounded by the worst looking group of villains I ever gazed on, all of thein seetnine in a wrangle with each other and trying to get into a wrangle with us, and we moved along the columns of ancient aqueducts, each coluaxi crowned with storks, having built their ?'?sts there, and we rolled on down toward Smyrna, and that night in a sailor's bethel as we spoke of the Christ whom the world must know or perish, we felt that between cradle and grave there could not be anything much more enthralling for body, mind and souJ than our visit to Ephesus. 1,1??u ? 4 r> 4-V*/-* nvla+anpfl XUUSK WLIU UC1ICVC m wmn/uvu of such a disease as hydrophobia will be interested in the minute directions of its treatment which are given in a recent number of a Chinese medical journal. "The presence of the disease having been ascertained," the authority in question observes, "the next step to be taken, and one which is of prime importance, is to search the hair of the patient. There will certainly be found one hair of the color of vermilion, rather stronger and coarser than the ordinary hairs. This must be entirely pulled out, not even the smallest part of the root to be left, since otherwise the disease cannot be cured." If it could be firmly fixed in the minds of people in general that if the vermilion hair aforesaid were not to be found it may be safely taken for granted that the disease is not hydrophobia, it would an pTppllftnt thiner. It must have been a blow to New York to learn that the very day after Chicago unveiled a Grant monument the contracts for the last of the great publio buildings of the World's Fair were let. It's a way Chicago has, to get a second great enterprise well under way while setting the capstone upon one just- completed^ The results of an attempt to create a popular demand for the recently issued memoirs of Jefferson Davis prove very conclusively that the peoare not clamoring for any more information regarding Davis' life. - ?V..- ' .... >.'i . . "RELIGIOUSKEADIIfG. RETURX TO THY REST. He watches o'er His lilies pale; He sees His sparrows when they fall; Sexl-time and harvest never fail; The wild winds answer to His call; All things obey His high behest; Return, my soul, unto thy rest. The life that His own has given, Shall he not keep it to the end? Through every step of earth and heaven He will uphold tnee and befriend. Trust Him; thy doubts and fears control; Return unto thy rest, my soul. Whether through Dastures ereen and sweet Tby pathway wind In pleasant ways? Whether He guide tby tired feet 81owIy through dark and troubled days, He surely leads thee to thy best; Return, my soul, unto thy re9t. There is no death; there is no loss; He holds thy treasure safe for thee In other mansions of his house A little while, and thou Bhait see He will restore thee more than all; Return unto thy rest, my soul. ?[Rebecca Palfrey Utter. THE CHRISTIAN AND TJIK CHURCH. Rev. Dr. J. R. Miller, writing in the Evangelist, gives a happy description of the relation of the Christian to the Church. He says: Krummacher gives us a pleasant story of Zaccheus, who found Christ by climbing up into a sycamore treo that grew by tbe wayside. He says that Zaccheus, in his advanced years, dwelt in Jericho, humble and pions before God and man. Every morning at sun rise he went out into the fields near by for a walk; he invariably came back to begin his work with a calm and happy mind. His wife noticed this and wondered. Once she secretly followed him, and he went straight to the tree from which he first saw the Lord. She hid behind the bushes to watch what he would do. He simply took out a pitcher and poured water at tne roots, which were getting a little dry in the sultry climate. Then he pulled np some weeds here and there; and after that passed his hands fondly along the trunk. Then he looked up at the branches where be had sat, ami with a gentle smile, patiently returned Into the town. Afterwards his wife ques- , tioned him saying, "Why do you not send a | servant to take care of the sycamore you seem to love so?" And the good old Christian answered: "You have not done well J to search my doings and feelings, which you cannot share. Feelings like these ever prefer secrecy, for they are born In secret. But, my beloved, let me* be alone in the care of this tree; it was the tree which brought me Him whom my soul loveth, and to peace." We can readily understand how this pretty story might be true of Zaccheus, how in bis ajre "he would naturally love and seek to cberish the tree amid the branches he first looked on the upturned fares of the Saviour, and where heard words which brongbt salvation to him. No wonder he wanted to water the roots and nourish the life of that sacred tree. This little story nas its suggestions for good Christian people as they gather back from tbeir vacations, and take their places once more in their several churches. What the sycamore tree was to Zaccheus, that and far more the Church has been to us who are its children. It not only brought us face to face with Christ at the first, but ever since Kaiiw J4- Kno Knnn tKa honrl nf PKfi'af f A IUAI 1IUUI lb UOO IA/WU WUO uauu VI w- ? us. It has guided our steps and brightened our path. It has comforted us In our Borrow, speaking its words of divine consolation to our hearts in many an hour of pain and loss. It has shielded us from temptation, or inspired ub for tbe struggles we had to make. It has brought down to us a heritage of blessing. It has enriched our lives in countless ways. It is fitting, therefore, in view of our great debt to the church, that we should do for it, as long as we live in this world, what Zncchues'did so lovingly for his tree. We should revercnce it. We should water its root*. We should see to gather away the weeds which we find growing under its shade. We should keep its life pure and clean. We should cherish it and nourish it in every possible way. WORK AMONG THE f.OST. In Ballington Booth's new book, " From Ocean to Ocean," occurs tbe following which is well worthy of a place here: O that something which we could say would impress upon nil in the Salvation Army and tho Cburch of God at large the direct gain-of the faithful visitation of the poor and lost! Generals MeCIellan. Sherman, Grant and others, in walking through their hospitals, where their men lay wounded, raaink'd and dying, saw afresh the necessity of striking a ?iecisive blow to end the bloody an4 disastrous war. Is there not a great hospital, composed of the wounded, bruised and shaitered souls of men and women, lying close to our doors, and have not all who have visited it received a fresh insight to the harm and blight done by the great enemy of man, and gone forth with fresh nerve and courage to meet the foe? Talk of wanting something to say to the people from our platform! We could gain from the depths of these broken and agonized hearts stories that would move to tears the fiends of hell. How much blessing and profit, also, such visitations would be to us individually it is impossible to measure. I remember the visit, as though it were yesterday, that I made, of which the mere recollection spurs me onward in our work of saving the outcast. It was tbe triumphant end of one whom the Army had reached and saved from an abyss of sorrow and woe. I trroped my way into the shade of a dimly-lighted f[arret, where a poor, weat and dying woman ay on a miserable bed. I had heard that she was very near the border line. The poverty without formed a striking contrast to the wealth of grace within, for she was saved. Though it was with difficulty that the necessaries which the doctor bad ordered at hi? rmrchiised. vet we did not require to spend many moments gazing on her heavenly-lit face to understand that she had the wine and milk which could be purchased without money and without price, having been bought for her by His blood. "Ah, he has come," Baid she, as I sat down on one of the much-worn bits of furniture, " he has come." "They tell me you are very happy and very ntar the kingdom." I said. ''Happy!" said the dying woman, as the tears ran down her faded, shriveled face. "Happy! Ah, why shouldn't?I be? How could I be otherwise when the Lord is with me and I am so fully His, and In Him dying means only living ?" "Take my place?my place among the angels," she said afterwards, half aloud and half to herself. There was a small broken window near the bed ami the failing light fell upon her face, but a far brighter light than that was reflected there?the light of the Sun of Righteousness?the suu that uever sets. Not many months before, one wet, cold night, this poor woman was attracted into one of our halls by ?he singing ot a song. It was not the song, but it was the officer's face that led to her soul-stirring, and so deeply was she convinced that " that voung woman possessed as well as talked salvation," that she came forward herself to receive it. 0. how she had Jovcd ami unceasingly praised Christ since, and sought to win all* around her to His feet. Death entered the: little garret and seized its feeble yet fearless victim, and the poor? nay, rich?woman was dying in contentment, counting up the jewels "that she had won to God since she herself had been won. A little longer watching and patient waiting, and I she died. Yet.no; to use her own words, she did not die, hut passed from death unto life. I came down from that room into the busy whirl of city life, and I thought. O, that these woebegone, weary-hearted ones around us. when brought to the same border line, might prove the same rest from care and peace in God as the heir to heaven who had died a few moments ago iu tnat lonesome garret. When Manager Daly left for home with the manuscript of Tennyson's new comedy in his Inside pockct the poet said to him: "If here or there you want any more words, send me the idea in the roughest prose and I will supply the text." There has never been any doubt of the laureate's ability to supply words if somebody would send him the ideas. Thx man wholeofrareeon (hebenefits of physical exercise takes the elevator when he might climb one flight of tiaira. mm >,?iSil. ' ..." l>;., .V sabbath School INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOB DECEMBER CI. Lesson Text: "Christ Crucified," Jobn xix., 17-30?Golden Text: 1 Peter ill., IS 3 ?Commentary. 17. "And He, bearing His cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, I which js called in the Hebrew, Golgotha." rni-- fall mo nf nna STmna A 1UO UtUCi gvopvio boil Ud v* WMV w Cyrenian, who was compelled to bear the < cross, but it is evident from this'account that Jesus started for the place of crucifixion carryingit Himself. ' 18. "Where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, on either side one and < Jesus in the midst." Consider well the meaning of the words "They crucified Him," make it all as real to your mind as if you . saw it, see the nails driven through His quivering flesh into the wood, note the intense pain, and yet you cannot realize a tithe 1 of it. People now rejoice to have found what they consider a painless way of executing criminals by electricity?what a contrast 1 to the awful cruelty of crucifixion. 19. "And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of 1 Nazareth the King of the Jews." Pilate once asked Jeeus, "What is truthf (rviii.), but whether intentionally or not he wrote the truth when he wrote this title. 30. "This title then read many of the Jews; for the place where Jesus was cruci- . fied was nigh to the city; and it was written . in Hebrew, and Grezk, and Latin." These ' three languages represented the whole ! known world, and thus it was indicated that I the fact that this crucified one was the king | of the Jews was also a matter of interest to I the whole world. This also the prophets had I foretold, "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth?in that day shall there be ono Lord and His name one." "And it shall coma i to pass that every one that is left of all the j nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep thefeast of tabernacles." Zxh. xiv., 9, 16. 21. en said mo uuioi pi iwm ? ?? Jews to Pilate, Write not The King of the Jews; but that He said, I am Xing of the I Jews." That He said He was the king of the Jews, they were willing to have acknowledged, for His crucifixion as a malefactor would be proof of the folly of His saying. But if He really was the king of the Jews then His crucifixion at their instigation would prove their rebellion against and rejection of their king, and this they were not willing to acknowledge. It is not what we say that amounts to anything, but what we are. 22. "Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." This reminds us of the words of Ahasuerus: "The writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring may no man reverse." (Est. viil., 8), as in Dan. vi., 8. "The law of the Medes and Persians altereth not." If this be the character of tne words of mere men what shall be said of the words of Him who says: "I am the Lord. I change not." And i how firm a foundation for all who trust in j Him and in His words of which we read; "Forever. O Lord. Thy word is settled in I Heaven/' 33. "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments aha made ! four parts, to every soldier a part, and also 1 His coat: now the coat was without seam, I woven from the top throughout." Sinners dividing among themselves the results of sic j ?for wfiat sin ever committed on earth could ! compare with this! Bat observe also that all the clothing which we wear reminds us of Adam's sin, and that we are sinners in him, for there can be no doubt that man made in the image of God was ere the fall clothed > with light as with a garment. 24. 'They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be; that the Scripture might be fulfilled which saith. They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did." See this prophecy in Ps. xxii., 18; remember that it was writtenabout 1000 years before its fulfillment, and bow down and humbly worship God, to whom all things are known from the foundation of the world (Acts xv., 18); who declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things ttiat ore not yet done (Isa. xlvL. 10). Observe also how literally the prophecy was fulfilled, even to one piece of His clothing, for which they cast lots; then see in Ps. xxii., 27, 2S, how the same person so illtreated shail yet be the ruler of all nations, and all the world shall worship Him. Ex- , pect as literal a fulfillment of all this. 25. "Now there stood by tha cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." | 26. "When Jesus therefore saw His moth* " "** * -1 - 3-?? TirViAm PTQ er, ana ine aiscipie siauuiug uj, uvu. --? loved, He saith unto His mother. Woman, behold thy son!" As in the upper room with the apostles at the passover, with suffering enough before Him to overwhelm Him, He forgot Himself and sought to comfort them; so now in indescribable agony of body and soul He can yet forget Himself enough to make provision for the temporal welfare of His mother, and give her a new son who will ? in some measure take His place. 27. "Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that dis- i ciple took her unto his own home." If his mother's sister was Salome, the mother of John and James and wife of Zebedee, as we would infer from Math, xxrii., 56; Mark j cxv., 40; then she stood by and heard the chargo of Jesus concerning His mother. Happy John to have the privilege of b2ing a son to Mary instead of Jesus. Happy Salome to welcome such a sister to her home, if John still made his home with her. But neither son nor sister could fill the aching void in Mary's heart?resurrection and reunion in glorified bodies is the only cure? till then it must be faith and patience. 28. "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the 8cripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." The three hours' darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour would seem to intervene between the last verse and this; during which He probably uttered the cry, "My God. my Goo, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And uow the end has come, but there is vet another Scripture to be fulfilled, for till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Math, v., 18). 29. "2fow there was set a vessel full of thnv filled a snonce with vine ~??J . gar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to Hismouth." Thus was fulfilled Ps. lxix., 21, "In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink." But wbile we read this and see its fulfillment, let us uot forget the broken heart because of reproach and heaviness, and the vain search for pity and human comforters (Ps. lxix., 20). 80. "When Jesus therefore had received the vineear, He said, It is finished; and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost" His very last word is found in Luke xxiii.. 46, "Father, into Thine hands I commend I My spirit." But it is noticeable that John seems carefully(to|omitall His sayings except such as might fall from Him as don of God, equal with the Father. Let the great word, "It is finished," remind you of Gen. ii., 1, and point you forward to Rev. ii., 16. See also Ps. xxii., 31, R. V., last clause. Rest calmly in this great finished work and seek not bv any works of yours to add to it; but rather by good works show your appreciation of His finished work and thus glorify God.?Lesson Helper. There is a two-fcaaded boy in a New York dime museum who presents the strange phenomenon of having one head very fond of beer while the other drinks nothing but soda-water. What a candidate he'll make some day. The task of governing Austria does not seem to be an enviable one. The present heir-presumptive talks of resigning before he has tasted the sweets of ruling. Italy has decided to take no part in the World's Fair. She will have no imitators. Even the State of New York will come In with the rest When a~fiolsery "dealer buys a lot of new goods he may be said to ba stocking ' 4 -* * ' : .. ' s ' * \ \y #; : ; " v\, ./? WORDS OF WISD02L We sadden as the sun setsJustice is a symbol of dreams. Wit is the sparkle of conversation. I A love of nature is a renewer of youth.1 Age know3 what is ahead; youth seeks t it. Friendship is an oasis in the desert of t Life. The mind is the atmosphere of the f soul. How many counterfeit people pass c current! f Pleasure for the many; happiness for the few. 8 Friendship lasts longer than love and' c Is more reliable. Our poor relations annoy ?s; we an- * noy our rich ones. ( Tears shbuld.be shed by children, but not by man and women. , ] A woman without a laugh in her is the i greatest bore in existence. A flower cannot blossom without sun- < shine and man cannot lire without hope, t We sometimes forget in the ashes the glow and the warmth that preceded * them. 1 It is the characteristic of pleasure that rre can never recognize it to be pleasure < till after it is gone. < A life of leisure and a life of laziness i are two things. Many, without labor, would live by their wits only, but they i break for want of stock. i "We sleep, but the loom of life, never ' stops, and the pattern which was' weaving when the sun went down is weaving j when it comes up to-morrow. < A brave man thinks no one his su- 1 perior who does him an injury; for he has it then in his power to make himself ] superior to the other by forgetting it. i Nothing appears more surprising to j those who consider human affairs with a < philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the 1 lew. i Army Swimming Exercises. While the swimming service in the German Army is obligatory on the pion- , eers, and lately also on the cavalry, it is , optional irith the members of the other departments of the army, and the fact < that the annual subscription list is alwayB more than full is a pleasant indication of iX- ~ 1 nmnn/v A11P tiRlllA (116 IOVC UJL BjpUlU) aiuvug vw4 Boys." Many an. enthusiastic admirer J of Neptune must, to his great sorrow, be turned away on account of the great number of applicants. The instruction is given, under the direction of lieutenants, by under officers. It begins with the regular practice of the swimming strokes, the pupil being supported meanwhile by the socalled "fishing rod." "When he lias learned the movements well enough to be able to support himself above the water, he begins to swim on a loose line. At this stage it is often found that those for whom the higest hopes had been entertained lack one quality that is indispensible for a good swimming; we mean that Olympic calm without which tha> most carefully acquired knowledge of the strokes is useless. When the pupil is able to keep himself on the surface safely and quietly, he must go into the water without the helping line, but a rod is placed a certain distance above his head for use in case of need. After this he must submit to the test cf swimming alone for fifteen minutes, then for 1 half an hoar, accompanied by a boat, , and then comes the "Todtenfahr" i (death trip), which lasts an hour. The swimming exhibitions held at the end of the summer before the commanders of the battalions or regiments are pleasant festivals and those held in Berlin or Potsdam are often attended by any princes of the reigning house who happen to be in the neighborhood. Classes ! of men exhibit their proficiency in swim ming, jumping, and diving, and this water exercise in regularly formed lines, squads and sections is a pleasant eight. Lastly comes the most important feature of the programme, the exhibition of the finest swimmers in full marching uniform and with bayoneted guns in their hands. They jump from a high tower into the cool water, on the surface of which these fully armed sons of Mars amuse themselves until the command ot the officer in charge calls them from the damp element. The swimming service of the German army is an excellent institution, for be' sides giving the men healthy excrcise, it tests the courage and self-control of the men in time of peace.?lUutlrirlt Zii tung. ~ The Styles iu Pill Boxes. Did you know that styles in pill boxeu change almost as often as mode3 of women's gowns? No? Welltheydo, and the maker of pill boxes has to keep mov ing to be with the times. Otherwise he will lose custom. Druggists and musicians are cranky people anyway, but in the matter of pill boxes the former are really exasperating in their demands. Tou would naturally think that it wouldn't make any difference just how a 3 - ?t? . ?1-. box was snapea or wu?i mvivl vi was used so long as a box was neat, would you? Well, it makes all the difference in the world. Some druggist) won't use round boxes at all, others won't buy square ones or oval-shaped ones, and some of them want theirs red colored, or blue, or green, or white. Most of them don't know what they want except that you haven t got it. It isn't so much the fault of the druggist as of his customers. Druggists tell me that their customers are as cranky about pill boxes as they are about corn cure. They want only one sort, and won't buy from any place where they can't get it. We manufacture pill boxes by the million, and sell them in lots of from 1000 to 1,? 000,000. About 250,000 pill boxe3 ore used in this country every day. These cover at least $2500 worth of pills, countinsr Quinine and every other sort, so you see the pill box industry is au important one. Over ten big firms manufacture thein.?St. Louis Globt Democrat. Bees as Aerial Navigators. When bees leave the hive, says John Burroughs, unless there is some special attraction in some other direction, they generally go against the wind. They would thus have the wind with them when they returned home heavily laden, and with these little navigators the difference is an important ons. With a full cargo, a stiff head wind is a great hindrance, but fresh and empty-handed ' they can face it with more ease. Virgil says bees bear gravel stones as ballast, | but their only ballast is their honey bag. * *.rA : - ' . jcii _ ! ' ????? ; '.?: CURIOUS PACTS. Chile women shop at night only. The "bang" is called "fringe" is England. There are 1,000,000 more women tha& ;jp nen in Germany. The consumption of steel peas is esimated at 3,500,000 daily. Joseph Walker, of Massachusetts, in- . xnted the wooden shoe-peg in 1818. In eight per cent, of the marriaget , 'J ine of the parties has been married bo- ,. Jj ore. Kanorado is in Sherman County, Kanas. It is a combine of Kansas and Col* .v| irado. A Baltimore (Md.) boy of tea yean fs| las acquired a morbid diwire to jakli gasoline. J& There are as many as 7090 men in th*. H,? mW foat /, ;a JlibUU aruijf nuu aiv WVt? vuw MA -WW - .<.. ,-^p a height. Children under the age of ten wear n* % slothes in the West Indie* and on the Spanish Main. Every year 35,006,000 people die? is many as -there were altogether in til* I:% United -States two decades ago. The common cockroach, so famiHar iit rar kitchens, is not a natire of thi* . ' ''Jg country, but was originally imported [rom Asia about 200 years ago. ; $8 A private in the Highland InfantiJVX f. S stationed at Dover, England, recently levered two of his fingers with a raxor ':.%i in order to escape from the service. \ The grave of Washington Alston, die /? & South Carolina artist and poet, is in one jf the cemeteries of Cambridjge, Msss.* ; - J irith no suitable memorial to mark it. Black potatoes called "cetewajo" are jvl raised in Zululand. Some philologist should explain whether the famous king gave them their name or took' his own '* ippellatiro from them. A Virginian mosquito measured from the tip of his beak to the end of hi* tail -. \ jg one and one-half inches, while his wings \ from tip to tip covered two inches. ffia /;I legs were each fully an inch long. TVia rUnaiA cmlnimdiii. con. Rating of 5000 volumes, was published'' during the reign of Emperor Kang. It | is the largest cyclopaedia in the world. Only 100 copies have been completed. >1 The gem known as hiddeniU and . $8 called "the diamond's twin outer, " g?* its name from William E. Hidden, formerly Edison's right hand man, who lives now in Alexander Couijty, N. C. ,; There are records of elephants that v'^ have lived for 200 years, and aa age of , % 150 years is not regarded as so very old |g for an elephant. It takes about a quarter of a century to get the elephant to - vj|| full maturity. The Battenkill River, in Vermont, is to be stocked with 3500 yearling California salmon. The experiment is regarde d with great interest, and it is ronomiw hftll?ir?d that the salmon thrive, for the river contains abundant / :*; $? food for the fish and is free from refuse. D. H. Dickinson, a Deep Rirer, Conn., 1 farmer, found a package or 100 thousand. j dollar bills last week in a corner of bk barn, where it had Iain for many years. . : He sent the bills to Washington and the* Treasury Department returned tfiem tft L!? *?' V?rt7oa anH nArlrMt' ' W9 III HI pUUUUDU iUU Vi uvmw iuam. _ j "counterfeit." The highest building in the world ha* M Just been completed ?i the Signal Peak - ^ of Monte Bosa, In the Alps, An JJ|pSai?: club and Queen Margaret of Italy ooafed-).. buted the money for this hat. wlnebt^^ j boasts of an altitude of neuij 15,000 i$eti :jj5| It is supplied with a copper roof, to'pro* aSgi tect it from lightning. How Solly Tars Kill Time. The officers of the United Stater steamship Portsmouth, while |t ley i> .ly^l the vicinity pf New York some time ago, r'TOg invented a form of diversion for the dinner hour which is said to have qpita jraB done aw?y w<w uuj uwuvbiiwv?B>?t- -;:t sation. Whenever they ran iato New "?|H York City on a day's leave (hey scanned' in the most careful way the advertisemeats which line the can of the elevated v; roads, and whenever they discovered new one they felt like sckool boys on the 0 eve of vacation. On their retorn to th? ship the offlcei? : '^ would pot their powers of observation te .: the proof in the following waj: One el \ them would remark, "Have yau used I so-and-so's tooth wash? Put it on at j night and rub it off in the morning." A || second would follow with: "There k-' ./Js| cold meat in the cave, bat eaten with ' the right sort of lamp chimney 'tis not so bad." So it would go around th?~ ;eS| board until every member of themes* had repeated one or more of the quesr '"{M formulas adopted by advertisers to ^ v-^8 tract notice. Frequently, it is odd, not> I ~u'* - ??' ???? M h? nHMtttd fit th? ' !/ j mess table. J It was one of the officers of the Ports- J1 mouth who took all the wind out of a ' *3 German officer's sails one day at Fortress I Monroe. The foreigner had ceae aboArd Cj from his owrn vessel with the avowed in- 1 tention of showing his knowledge of English. His first remark as ha pointed . to the sky was: "It's a fine day." , "Yes," returned the Ameiican; "bat it is not so fine as it might hare been if : the weather had been so fine as it was on the day it was finer than it had been Oft -3 any other day of the year." The German officer met this rigmarole ] with a look of bewilderment and coa- y':|| fined his observations on the weather to Kjjl his native lauguago thereafter.?jfe* j Terh Newt. I Plant Life Amid Glatlen* pjBm A correspondent ?f the FUtadeip&ft ;qm Public Ledger gives reasons for bit 7,;JS belief that the general opinion regarding -|j the utter destruction of vegetable life T?| by the advance of a glacier w erroneous. j He believes that plants will exist in a state of rest under au ice sheet for > possibly centuries, and push up .it ^ Vigorous as evor, when the glacier ^ J, recedes. He notes tho statement of Kotzcbue that a peninsula near Pyramid > Harbor in Alaska, was wholly covered, t by ice 150 years ago, and had no doubt been in that condition for ages. The ios has now rcccdcd some fifty miles, and -j the author made large collections of .;j of plants thero. Unquestionably, some . ?; would have been brought down with, the glacial Sow, and. on thawiug, leave the plants to grow there; but he gives reasons for his faith that all conld not i have been brought in that way, and con- .i, cluds that it is just as likely that the 1 plants remained for years Bate under the J