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Si; . . -. ">'. / REV. DR. TALMAGE. , THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'3 SUN- i v niv SRRMOV Subject: "The Glorious Palm .* Text: "They took branches of palm trees i \mnd went forth to meet Him."?John xii.,13. How was that possible? How could palm ifcranches be cast in the way of Christ as He approached Jerusalem? There are scarcely any palm trees in Central Palestine. Even the one that was carefully guarded for many years at Jericho has gone. I went over the very road by which Christ approached Jer?isalem, ana there are plenty of olive trees and fie trees, but no palm trees that I could see. You must remember that the climate has changed. The palm tree likes water,but by the cutting down of the forests, which aro leafy prayers for rain, the land has become unfriendly to the palm troe. Jericho once stood in seven miles of palm grov*. 0?ivat was crowned wfth palms. The Dead Sea has on its banks ths trunks of palm trees that floated down lrom some oldtime palm grove and are preserved from decay Jby the salt which they received from the l>ea1 Sea. ' Let woodmen spare the trees of America, If they would not ruinously change tbe climate and brine to the soil barrenness instead of fertility. Thanks to God and the legislatures for Arbor Day, which plants trees,trying to atone for the ruthlesaaess which has destroyed them. Yes, my text is In harmony with the condition of that country on the morning of Palm Sunday. About three million people have come to Jerusalem to | attend the religious festivities. Great news! Jesus will enter Jerusalem to-day. The sky is red with the morning, and the peopie are flocking out to the foot of Olivet, and up and on over the southern shoulder of the mountain, and tbe procession coming out from the city meets tne procession escorting Christ, as He comes toward the city, mere Is a torn in the road where Jerusalem suddenly bunts upon the vision. We had ridden that day all the way from Jericho,and had visited the ruins of the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and were somewhat weary of sight seeing, when there suddenly arose before our vision Jerusalem, the religious capital of all Christian ages. That was the point of observation where my text comes in. Alexander rode Bucephalus. Duke Elie rode his famous Merchezay, Sir Henry Lawrence rode the high mettled Conrad, Wellington rode his proud Copenhagen, bat the conqueror of earth and heaven ndes colt, one toat had been tied at the roadside. It was unbroken, and I have no doubt fractious at the vociferation of the populace. An extemporized saddle made ont of the garments of the people was put on the beast. While 6ome people griped the bridle of the oolt, others reverently waited upon Christ at the mountain. Thn fwrt nrnr^winns of neoDle now become one?those who came out of the city and those who came over the hill. The orientals are more demonstrative than we of the western world, their voices louder, their gesticulations more violent and the symbols by which they express their emotions more significant. The people who left Phocea, in the far east, wishing to make impressive that they would never return, took a red hot b&li of iron and threw it into the sea, and aid they would never return to Phocea until that ball ro3eand floated on the surface. Be pot surprised, therefore, at the demonstraI tion in tne text. As the colt with its rider descends the slope of Olivet, the palm trees lining the road are called upon to render their contribution to the scene of welcome and rejoicing. The branches of these trees are high up, and some must needs climb the trees and tear off the leaves and throw them down, and others make of these leaves an emerald pavement for the colt to trod on. Long before that morning the palm tree had been typical of triumph. Herodotus and Strabo had thus described it. Lsyard finds the palm leaf cut in the walls of Ninsveb, with the same significance. In the Greek athletic games the victors carried palms. I am very glad that our Lord, who five days after had thorns upon His brow, for a little while at least had palms strewn under His feet. Ob, the glorious palm! Amarasinga, aqIIc if Irino flmnnor HUO X11UUW OVUV/mi, VOMO ?W ?ruv >?Q ? -o ; the grasses." Linnaeus calls it "the prince of vegetation." Among all the trees that ever cast a shadow or yielded fruit or lifted their arms < toward heaven, it has no equal for raulti\ tudinoua uses. Do you want nowers? One palm tree will put forth a hanging garden of them, one ciuster countod bv a scientist containing 207,000 blooms. Dc you want food? Itis the chief diet of the whole nations. [ One palm in Chile will yield ninety gallons of boney. in Polynesia it is the chief food of the inhabitants. In India there are multitu es of people depsndent upon it for sustenance. Do you want cable to hold ships or cords to hold wild beasts? It is wound into ropes ' unbreakable. Do you want articles of house furniture? It is twisted into mats and woven into baskets and shaped into drinking cups and swung into hammocks. Do you want medicine? Its nut is the chief preventive of disease and the chief cure for vast popula tions. Do you want houses? Its wood turn, iebes the wall for the. homos, and its leaves thatch them. Do you need a supply for the pantry? It yields sugar and starch and oil and sago and milk and salt and wax and vinegar aud candies. Ob, the palm! It has a variety of endowments, such as no other growth tbat ever rooted the earth or kissed the heavens. To the willow, God says, "Stand by the water courses ana weep." To the cedar He says, "Gather the hurricanes into your bosom." t To the flg tree He says, "Bear fruit and put it within reach of all the people." But to the palm tree He says, "Be garden and j _ storehouse and wardrobe and ropewalk and chandlery and bread and banquet and manufactory, and then be type of what I meanl k when I inspired David, My servant, to say, f The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree." k Oh, Lord God, give us more palm trees? \ men and women made for nothing but to be \ iioctui, uis^vDtiiuus ou auiwui, viauvuco m J influence laden with fruit; people good for \ everything, as the palm tree. If kind word* \ are wanted they are ready to utter them. I If helpful deeds are needed tbey are ready I to perform them. If plans of usefulness are I to be laid out they are ready to project ahem. If enterprises are to be forwarded toey are ready to lift them. People who si^y "YesI YesT'when they are aslced for assistance by word or deea, instead of "Nol NdT Most of the mysteries that bother others do not bother me, because I adjourn them; but che mystery that really bothers me is why God made so many people who amount to nothing so far as the world's betterment is concerned. They stand in the way. They object. They discuss hindrances. They suggest possibilities of failure. Over the road of life, instead of pulling in the traces, they are lying back io the breechings. They are the everlasting JJo. They are t> ram Die trees, they are willows, always mourning; or wild cherry trees, yielding only the bitterror crab apple trees, producing only the sour, while God would have us all flourish like the palm tree. Planted in the Bible that tree always means usefulness. But how little any of us or all of us accomplish in that direction. We take twenty or thirty yeare to get fully ready for Christian work, and in the after part of life we take ten or twenty years for the gradual cloeingof active work, and that leaves only so little time between opening an 1 stopping work that all we accomplish is so little an angel of (Jodneedj to exert himself to see it all. Nearly everything I see around, beneath and above in the natural world suggest) useful service. If there is nothiag in the Bible that inspires you to usefulness, go ou/t and study the world around you this spring**? loom the or eat lesson of useful ' nees.' "What art thou doing up there, little star? Why not shut thine eyea and sleep, ftr who cares for for thy shining?" "No,' eaith the star, "I will not sleeo. I guidi the sailor on the sea. I cheer the traveler among the mountains. I help tip the dew with light. Through the window of the poor man's cabin I cast a beam of hops, and the child on her mother's lap asks in glee whither I come and what I do and whence I go. To gleam and glitter, God set me here. Away I I have no time to sleep." The snowflake comes straggling down. 'Frail, fickle wanderer, why comest thou hare J" "1 am no idle wanderer," responds the snowflake. "High up in the air I was born, the child of the rain and the cold, and at the divine behest I come, and I am no straggler; for God tells me where to put my crystal beeL To help cover the roots, the grain and grass, to cleanse the air, to make sportsmen more happy and the ingle fire * : : ' , at? moreTirfg&t, I come. Though 90 lijrht I am that you toss me from your muffler and cru9h me under your foot, I am doing my best to fuimi what l was made for. Clothed in white 1 come on a heavenly mission, and, when my work is done and God shall call,in morning vapor I shall go back, drawn by the fiery courses of the sun." "What doest thou, insignificant grass blade under my feet?" "I am doing a work," says the grass blade, "as best I can. I help to make up the soft beauty of field an l lawn. I am satisfied, if, with millions of others no bigger than I. we can give pasture to flocks and herds. I am wonderfully made. He who feeds the ravens gives me substance from the soil and breath from the air, and He who clothes the lilies of the field rewards me with this coat of green." j "For what, lonely cloud, goest thou across the heavens?" Through the bright air a voice drops from afar, saying: "Up and down this sapohire floor I pace to teach men that like me they are pa&sing away. I gather up the waters from lake and sea, ana then, when the thunders toll, I refresh th9 earth, making the dry ground to laugh with harvests of wheat and fields of corn. I catch the frown of the storm and the hues of the rainbow. At evening tide on the western slopes I will pitch my tent, and over me shall dash the saffron, and the purple, and the Are of the suoset. A pillar ot cloud like me led the chosen across the desert, and surrounded by such as I the Judge of Heaven and Earth will at last descend, for "Behold He cometh with clouds!" Oh, my friends, if anything In the inanimate world be useful, le't us immortal men and women be useful, and in that respect be like the palm tree. But I mast not be tempted by what David .says of that grsen shaft of Palestine, that living and glorious pillar of the eastern gardens, as seen in olden times?the palm tree;I must not be tempted by what the OJd Testament says of it, to lessen my emphasis of what John, the evangelist, says of it in my text. Notice that it was a beautiful and lawful robbery of the palm tree that helped make up Christ's triumph on the road to Jerusalem that Palm Sunday. The long, broad, green leaves that were strewn under the feet of the colt and in the way of Christ were torn off from the trees. What a pity, some one might say, that those stately and grace ul trees should be despoiled. The sap oozed out at the places where the branches broke. The glory of the palm tree was appropriately sacrificed for the Saviour's triumphal procession. So it always was, so it always will be in this world?no worthy triumph of any sort withcut the tearing down of something else. Brooklyn Bridge, the glory of our continent, must have two architects prostrated, the one slain by his toils and the other for a lifetime invalided. The greatest pictures of the world had. in their richest coloring, the blood of the artists who made them. The mightiest oratories that ever rolled through the churches had in their pathos, the sighs and groans of the composers, who wore their lives out in writing the harmony. American independence was triumphant, but it moved on over the lifeless forms of tens of thousands of men who fell at Bunker Hill and Yorktown and the battles between which' were the hemorrhages of the nation. The kingdom of God advances in all the earth, but it must be over the lives of missionaries who die of malaria in the jungles or Christian workers who preach and pray and toil and die in the service. The Saviour triumphs in all directions?but beauty and strength must be torn down from the palm trees of Christian heroism and consecration and thrown in His pathway. To what better use could those palm trees on the southern shoulder of Mount Olivet and clear down into the Valley of Gethsemane put their branches than to surrender them' for the making of Christ's journey toward Jerusalem the more picturesque, the more memorable and the more tiuinphantl And to what better use could we put our * ' -*?? ?? r*\ lives than into toe saurjuuo xui ^u uv auu His causa and the happiness of our fellow creatures? Shall we not be willing to be torn down that righteousness shall have triumphant way? Christ was torn down for us. Can we not afford to be torn down for Him? If Christ could suffer so much for us, can we not suffer a little for Christ? If He can afford on Palm Sunday to travel to Jerusalem to carry a cross, can we not afford a few leaves from our branches to make emerald His way? The process is going on every moment ia all directions. What makes that father have such hard work to find the hymn to* day? He puts on his spectacles and holds the book close up, and then holds it far off. and is not quite snre whether the number of the hymn is 150 or 180, and the fingers with which be turns the leaves are very clumsy. He stoops a good deal, although once he was straight as an arrow, and his eyes were keen as hawk's, and the hand he offered to his bride on the marriage day was of goodly shape and as God made it. I will tell you what is the matter. Forty years ago he resolved his family should have no need and his children should be well educated and suffer none of the disadvantages of lack of schooling from which he had suffered for a lifetime, and that the wolf of hunger should never put its paw on his doorsill, and for forty or fifty years he has been tearing off from the palm tree of his physical strength and manly form branches to throw in'the pathway of his household, iz has cost him muscle and brain and health and eyesight, and there have been twisted off more years from his life than any man in the crowd on the famous Palm Sunday twisted off branches from the palm trees on the road from Bethpage to Jerusalem. What makes that mother look no much older than she really is? You say sh9 ought not yet to have one gray line in her hair. The truth is the family was not always as well off as now. The married pair had a hard struggle at the start. Examine the tins of the forefinger and thumb of her right hand, and they will tell you the story of the needle that was plied day in and day out. Yea, look at both her hands, and they will tell the story of the time when she did her own work, her own mending and scrubbing and washing. Yea, look into the face and read the story * " "* * ?' ? ? J anri 01 scariet levers suit uuuus ouu watching tnen none but God and herself ia that bouse were awake, and then the burials and the loneliness afterward, which was more exhausting than the preceding watching had been, and no one now to put to bed. How fair she oaee was, and as fair as the palm tree, but all the branches of her strength and beauty were long ago torn off and thrown into the pathway of her housebold, Alas! that tons and daughters, themselves so straight and graceful and educated, should ever forget that they are walking today over the fallen strength of an industrious and honored parentage. A little ashamed, arc you, at their ungrammatical utterances? It was through their sacrifices I that you learned accuracy of speech. Do I yoa lose patience with them because they are a little querulous and complaining. I guess you have forgotten how querulous and complaining you were when you were getting over that whooping cough or that intermittent fever. A little annoyed, are you, because nor n earing is poor auu ju? hare to tell her something twice? She was not always hard of hearing. When you were two years old your first call tor a drink at midnight woke her from a sound sleep as quick as any one will waken at thi trumpet of the resurrection. Oh, my young lady, what Is that onder the sole of your fine shoes* It is a palm leaf which wa>> torn off the tree of maternal fidelity. Young merchant, young lawyer, young journalist, young mechanic, with good salary and fine clothes and refined surroundings, have you forgotten what a time your father had that winter, after the summer's crops had failed through droughts or floods or locust, and how he wore nls old coat too long and made his old hat do, that he might keep you at school or college? What is that, my young man, under your floe boot to-day, the boot that so well fits your foot, such a boot as your father could never afford to wear? It must be a leaf from the palm tree of your father's self-sacrifices. Do not be ashamed of him when he comes to town, and because his manners are a little old fashioned try to smuggle him in and smuggle him out, but call in your best friends and take him to the house of God and introduce him to your pastor, and say: "This is my father." If he i had kept for himself the advantages which he gave you he would be as well educated and as well gotten up as you. When in the English Parliament a member was making a great speech that was unanswerable a Lord derisively cried out, "I remember you when you blackened my father's boots!" "Yea," reDlied t&e man, -ana l did not ao ie well?" Never be ashamed of your early surroundings. Yes, yes, all the green leaves we walk over were torn off some palm tree. 1 have cultivated the habit of forgetting the unpleasant things of life, and I chiefly remember the smooth things, and as far as J I remember now my life has for the most " -V-. part moved over a road soft with green leave*. They were torn off two palm trees that stood at the start oC the road. The prayers, the Christian example, the good advice, the hard work of my father and mother. How they toiled! Their fingers were knotted with hard work. Their foreheads were wrinkled with many cares. ineir Dacira stoopec irom carrying our burdens. They long ago went into slumber among their kindred and friends on the banks of the Raritan, but the influences they threw in the way of their children are yet green as leaves the moment they are plucked from a palm tree, and we feel them on our brow and under our feet, and thay will strew all the way until we lie down in the same slumber. Self sacrifice! What a thrilling word. Glad am I that our world has so many specimens of it. The sailor boy on shipboard was derided because he would not fight or gamble, and they called him a coward. But when a child fell overboard and no one else was ready to help, the derided Bailor leaped into the sea, and, though the waves were rough, the sailor, swimming with one arm, carried the child on the other arm till rescued and rescuer were lifted into safety, and the cry of coward ceased and all huzzaed at the scene of daring and self sacrifice. When recently Captain Burton, the great author, died, he left a scientific book in manuscript which be expected would be bis wife's fortune. He often told her so. He said, "This will make you independent and affluent after I am gone." He suddenly died, and it was expected th^t the wife w6uld publish the book. One publisher told' her ne could himself make out of it $100,000. But it was a book which, though written witn pure scl entitle design, she fait would do immeasurable damage to public morals. With the two large volumes, which had eost her husband tbe work of years, she sat down on the floor before the fire and said to herself, "There is a fortune for me in this book, and although my husband wrote it with the right motive and scientific people might be helped by it, to the vast majority of people it would be harmful, and I know it would damage the world." Then she took apart the manuscript sheet after sheet and put it into the fire, until the last line was consumed. Bravo! She flung her livelihood, her home, her chief worldly resources under the best moral and religious interests of the world. How much are we willing to sacrifice for others? Christ is again on the march, not from Bethpage to Jerusalem, but for the conquest of the world. He will surely take it, but who will furnish the palm branches for tbe triumphant way? Self sacrifice is the word. There is more money paid to destroy the world than to save it. There are more buildings put up to ruin the race than churches to evangelize it. xnere is more aeE raved literature to blast men than good. terature to elevate them. Ob, tor a power to descend upon us all like that whioh whelmed Charles G. Finney with mercy, when, kneeling in his law office, and before he entered upon his apostolic career of evangelization, he said: "rhe Holy Ghost descended on me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression like a wave of electricity going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love. It seemed like the breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense wings. I wept aloud with joy and love. These waves came over me and over me one after another, and until I recollect, I cried out, 'I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.' I said, Lord, I cannot bear any more.'" Ana when a gentleman came into the offlcq and said, '"Mr. Finaey, you are in pain?" hereplied, "No, but so tiappy that I cannot live." My hearers, the time will came when upon the whole church of God will descend such an avalanche of blessing, and then the bringing of the world to God will be a matter of a few years, perhaps a few days or a few hours. Ride on, O Christ! for the evangelization of all nations. Thou Christ who didst ride on the unbroken colt down the sides of Olivet, on the white horse of eternal victory ride through all nations, and may we, by our prayers, and our self sacrifices, and our contributions, and our consecrations, throw palm branches in the way. 1 clap my hands at the coming victory. I feel this morning as did the Israelites when on their march to Canaan, they came not under the shadow of one palm tree, but of seventy palm trees standing in an oasis among a dozen gushing fountains, or as the Book puts it, "Twelve wells of water and threescore and ten palm trees." Surely there are more than seventy such preat and glorious souls present to-day. Indeed, it is a mighty grove of palm traes, and I feel something of the raptures which I shall feel when our last battle fought, and our last burden carried, and our last tear wept, we hall become one of the multitudes St. John describes "clothed in white robes and palms in their hands." Hail thou bright, thou swift advancing, thou everlasting Palm Sunday of the skies! Victors over sin and sorrow and death and woe, from the hills and valleys of the heavenly Palestine they have plucked the long, broad, green leaves and all the ransomed? some in gates of pearl, and some on Battlements of amethyst, and some on streets of gold, and some on seas of sapphire, they shall stand in numbers like the stars, in splendor like the morn, waving their palms I The Century Plant is Valuable. The century plant is a species of cao? tus, which matures at different ages in different climates. In tropical countries it attains its perfect state in about ten jears, while in colder climates it often requires from seventy years to a full century to reach its maturity. When the plant has matured it send? up a stem which grows to the height of from ' * fant out nf iweay-iuur iv ?uu tj-? ? which grows numerous branches, forming a perfect cylindrical pyramid, and each is crowded with a cluster of greenish, yellow flowers, which continues in perfect bloom for several months. After flowering the plant always dies to the ground, but the rot continues to live and send up new shoots. The century plant, or Agave Americana, its botanical name, grows through all the central part of the American Continent, from Mexico to Chile. It is called the maguey in South America and the mezcal in Mexico. From the leaf fibres of the plant a coarse flax is made. The dried flcwer stems make a thatch which is perfectly impervious to rain. From its sap is obtained a fermented liquor known as pulque. .From the centre of the stem, split longitudinally, a substitute for a hone or razor strop is obtained; and an extract of the leaves is made into 9oap balU, which are largely u?ed in Mexico for washing.?St. Louis Kepublic. Remarkable Case of Longevity. Cases of longevity el ways have a peculiar interest for the public apart altogether from their scientific value aa showing the possible extent to which the human life may be prolonged. News received from Drezaica in the district Mostar, in Hertzegoviuia tells of a peasant named Anton Jurictch who, if the documents he has made are to be credited, and there seems to be no reasonable grounds | for disbelief, is 130 years old. One would think that at such a patriarchal age he had been exempted from all the toils of life, yet such is by no means the case, i for this old man still works in the viaeJ . t? ? ? A.. yaru as ue uaa uceu atuuaiumcu ij uu lor generations past, and he goes to church every Sunday, although it tikes him two hours to walk the distance which separates it from his home. His eyes are still bright and he can see at a considerable distance. His eyebrows, however, in all these years have bccome long and very bushy, and they meet I over his nose and hang down so far that I fkon Kono #-/v Ka ouf an aq nnK t.n rth. struct his sight. The old chap likes to sit and talk with the young people, to whom he tells interesting anecdotes of his young days, and the incidents he remembers. His mother died a good while ago at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty, but his father died when quite joun?. ?iBoston TranaCriot. I RELIGIOUS READING. i i EASTER CAROr.. 1 Break, 0 glad morning, break thou in splendor; Night, with thy sceptre and darknetta be crone ! 'Tis morning, glad morning, that early should render The homage now due to the conquering One ! Go tell his disciples the Master is risen, He has buret from the tomb with its thrall and its chain; He has freed him from death, he has broke from its priuon: He's risen, he's living, and ever shall reign! They in their sorrow the news scarce believing, Haste to the sepulchre empty and lone, And there a sweet vision of angels receiving, They knew that the night of their weeping was done. Oh great was the power, the strength oh so mighty, That broke from the grave and conquered its sting, That opened death's gate so massive and weighty, Ob praise ye his power as our Saviour and King! Down from high heaven an angel came flying a nA fmm fcliA ilurk .<w>nulnhre rolled the great stone, And he who so lately bung bleeding and dying Arose iu his migbt ns the conquering One. Oh spread tbe glad tidings, go tell every nation; Oh spread the glad tiding, go spread them abroad. Our Jesus has risen in robes of salvation; Yes. Jesus has risen, our Saviour and Oud! ?[Anna D.Walker, in American Messenger. LOOKING UNTO JEf 03. A lady bad a dream, in which she fancied herself ac the bottom of a deep pit. She looked around lo see if there were any way of getting out; but in vain. Presently, looking upward, she saw in that part of tbe heavens immediatelv above the mouth of the pit a beautiful, bright star. Steadily gazing at it, she felt herself to be gradually lifted upward. She looked down to ascertain how it was, and immediately feund herself at tne bottom of the pit. Again her eye caught sight of the star, and again she felt herself ascending. She had reached a considerable height. Still desirous of an explanation of so strange a phenomenon, she turned her eye downward, and fell to the bottom with fearful violence.On recovering from the effect of the shock, she bethought herself as to tbe meaning of it all, and once again turned her I eye to the star, still shining so brightlv above, and yet once again she felt herself I borne upward. Steadily did she keep her eye upon its light, until at length she found I Horanif nut nt the hnrrlblc Dit. and her feet | safely planted on the solid ground above. It \ taught ber the lesson that, in the hour of danger aad trouble, deliverance is to be found, and found only in looking to Jesus.? [Dr. Guthrie. TRANSLATED INTO LIFE. In an address before the British and Foreign Bible Society, Rev. Dr. R. W. Dale spoke eloquently on this topic as follows: You translate the Scriptures into a new tongue. You print and distribute them. Then is your work done? No; it is only just beginning. That which you have translated begins to be translated again into the life and conduct of men whom you will never see. The power of it Is revealed in a new faith in God, in a new reverence for God's authority, In a new joy in his love. It is revealed In habits of purity and habite of truthfulness and acts of compassion. It is revealed in the peace of families,in new tenderness and affection between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children. It is revealed in all the virtues which constitute tne strengm 01 earimy states, and which reveal in this mortal order the august dignity of God's etornal kingdom. These are the translations we want tbo most. We want tbem in .England as well as every other part of tbe world. We want to see tbe contents of Holy Scripture translated into tbe lives and characters of merchants and of tradesmen, of masters and of working people, of politicians and of journalists ; and God grant that every member of this society who has contributed to the translation of Holy Scripture into the tougaes of people of foreign race may remember that his first duty is to get the Holy Scriptures translated into his own life in such a form that its contents may become intelligible to those who are nearest to him. The real meaning of Holy Scripture is never discovered until that translation has been effected. You never know the meaning of the acorn until the acorn has appropriated to itself tbe mysterious powers of tbe sun and tbe rain and the dew and the light and the air. If anybody asks you the meaning of tbe acorn, point to tbe oak with its massive trunk and its mizhty branches and its pomp of leaves. That is what tbe acorn mean*. If anybody asks me for a final proof that there is life and the very life j ofGodintbe book that we are assembled this morning to circulate all tbe world over, I anmsiir The lunf nrnnf fhst JL ft, I?0 IUC OBU1U AUgn^it ?.uv Vw? tbe acorn is not dead, and that God made it, is that the oak come* from it; and tbe best proof that the very life of God is in the Bible is to be found in the Bible's power. No, sir. you do not know what you are really doing. You send off bales of Btble9 from Queen Victoria street to India or to China. You are like a seed merchant sending bales of seed to the farmer. If he wants to know what it is doing he must go in autumu and see the country covered with the brown corn ripening in the autumn sun. If you want to know what your Bibles are doing, follow them in thought to the people to whom thev are sent. Measure the moral and spiritual results which the Bible has produced in you. What has been done for you by the story of the descent of the ?ternal Son from the heights of God to effect our redemption by his death for tbe sin of the world, by his resurrection and ascension into heaven and his eternal glory?what has been done for you by these great contents of Holy Scripture will be done for the people of every land and under every sky to which your Bibles are sent. Ah. sir! but if you could follow your Bibles and discover their results in human life and character in this world, still you would not know the magnitude of the work you ore doing. The Word of the Lord Hve'th and abideth forever. It is a Divine force. Eternal life is in it. It cannot reveal all its powers and all its grace under the limitations of these mortal years. The Word of God in human life in this present world is like a tropical tree planted on a Yorkshire moor. Tbe life in it cannot be revealed under these grey skies. Our winds are too cold, tne son 13 100 pmu iui ncc w <** ?.. ifeat all its perfection. You must carry It back to the land from which it came, a land nearer the sun, before nil the stateliness aud beauty of it can be achieved; and not until the life which is rooted iu the Divine Word is carried back to the world from which that Divine Word came, that it may grow in the 1 verv light and glory of the Eternal, ca? we linow the power, the beauty, the perfection thai come to human nature from receiving the living Eternal Word of God. Prejudice is tbe conjurer of Imaginary wrongs?overpowering reason, strangling truth, making strong men weak and weak men weaker. God give us the large-hearted 1 charity which -beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 1 things"?which thinketh no evil.?[J. R. Macduff, D. D. Every temptation to evil temper which can assail us today will be an opportunity to decide the question whether we shall gain 1 the calmness and rest of Christ, or whether we shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation of the world.?' K. W. Robertson There 1b trouble In Washington because the German minister hangs his washing out In his front yard, to the scandal of passers-by. The astute diplomat is trlng to combat the curcent belief that clean linen and for* eign noblemen do not so together. The Dubuque News is said to be th?i smallest full-fledged weekly paper in the country. Its size is about 6x9 inches, and it has two editors. Persons who dislike "blanket sheets* should try the Dubuyue News. ' V'- . .? Witt 3 - MARY WASHINGTON. A MOUNFMENT TO THE MOTHER OP THE IMMORTAL HERO. The First Tribute ot Its Kind. Erected by Women For a Woman? What the Nation Owes to Mary 6all. tioa was given the Lyceum Theatre. It was an interesting occasion. The Secretary of the Navy sent orders to the New York Navy Yard to supply all the National colors for trimming the theatre. Mr. Lewis F. Gottschalk, the composer, wrote a gavatte, which waa danced by young ladies and gentlemen in colonial costumes, and some of the best known amateurs in New York appeared. The entertainment was given under the patronage of the Daughters of the American Revolution and was brought about, says the New York World, by the indefatigable labors of Mrs. Roger A. Pryor, who is absorbed in the praiseworthy work of raising funds to build e suitable monument to the mother of George Washington, a monument which, with the grounds and lodge, shall cost not less than $60,000, and which will be the first monument ever erected to a woman by women. It is to be erected on the spot near Fredericksburg, Va., where Mary Washington was wont to spend her hours in meditation and prayer during the dark days of the Revolution, where she desired to be buried and where her lonely, neglected grave is now marked only by a tumbledown, uncompleted monument, blackened and riddled by the shot and shell from both Confederate and Federal armies. ? 1 4 . THE OLD HOUSE OF Tbe monument will stand near the rock shown in the picture and overlook the former bed of tbe Rappahannock. Twenty thousand dollars have already been collected for the monument fund from various States of the Union, Virginia havin? donated $1000 of that sum. To Mrs. Pryor, one of the Vice-Presidents of the association, belongs the credit of having set the ball rolling. Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, Mrs. Levi P. Morton, Mrs. Nicholas Fi9h and Mrs. Spencer Trask guaranteed tneir patronage to Mrs. Pryor for any entertainment she might plan for this purpose. The latter is a stately Virginia lady, whose resemblance to Mary Washington is so striking that she was selected to impersonate her at the colonial ball given last summer at White Sulphur Springs. On that occasion Mrs. Pryor wore a kerchief or needle point and cap which belonged to the mother of Washington. From her throat daDgled a medallion containing a painted miniature of the General. These xelics, furnished by the ladies of Fredericksburg, were secured from sotne of Mary Washington's descendenta. Mary Ball was born at Epping Forest, in that part of the Old Dominion known ?- V/vafkAvn Tho Kroxra nl^ U5 LUC lU'UUClu XI?. uu w>??v manor-house is yet standing. Mary Ball was a beauty and belle, and was known far and wide as "the Rose of Epping Foiest." The portrait herewith, which has never before been published and which represents her at the age of eighteen, is from an original painting taken in England, and now in the possession of one of her decendants, Sirs. Benjamin Story, of New Orleans. The authenticity of this picture is discussed and established by Lossing in his "Mary and Martha Washington." Wc owe Mary Washington a good ileal. ISot oniy aia sae give us ucurgs but she preserved him to fight our battles for us. But for, her wisdom and Bpirit he would have passed his youth upon the deck of a British man-of-war. Colonel Lawrence Washington procured for his half-brother, when not quite I fourteen years of age, a midshipman's warrant in the British navy, and George's | lugjjage was actually on board a British ship in the Potomac when Madam Washington forbade his going. Let your imagination run riot for a moment- and fancy George in a scarlet coat whistling "God Save the King!" The entire current of the nation's history would have been turned by a mother's weakness. The nation owes the mother of Washington an endless debt and a suitable monument to mark her iast resting-place. Mrs. Ella Bassett Washington says in a Century article that those who remembered Mary Wishington's appearance in the later years of her life describe her person as being of medium size and well proportioned, the dignity of bearing, the erect carriage, giving something ol statelmess to her presence, while her features were regular aud strongly marked, her brow fine and her eyes a clcar blue. At Fredericksburg, on the day of her r..nn^ot .,11 Wtttinpas whs stisnendprl _ I X UUtKHj ?*?' 1 7 knd, though the August sun shone hot, crowds of citizens Irorn town and the country around "througed St. George's Church, * * where the impressive funeral service of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America * * * was conducted by the lie v. Thomas Thornton, her pastor." And then, borue reverently in her coffin by stong men, the mortal remains ot Mary Washington were conjtV.W.'j--. j.-..; : . i eyed to the spot she had chosen for her burial, followed by a long procession. MART WASHINGTON AT EIGHTEEN. . Colonel Custia, Dr. Lossing and other !a. 1 - t _ writers uave eiupiioai4cu iuc ti?u?uiittou accounts of her death, telling how "clergymen throughout the land spoke eloquently from their - pulpits of the honored dead, while members of Congress and many private citizens wore the usual badge of mourning in respect of her memory." In a long letter to his sister?recently givea in Ford's publication?Washington speaks religiously and tenderly of their mother's death and her Christian character. For many years her grave remained unmarked. About the year 1830 there was a plan proposed to remove the remains, and to place them in a vault under the Presbyterian Church; but to this the Washington family positively refused to consent. Many other suggestions and proposals were made,but nothing was done till at last, in 1833, the Hon. Silas E. Burrows, of New York, offered to raise a monument at his private expense. The cornerstone was laid with imposing ceremonies by the President of the United States, Qederal Andrew Jackson, in the presence of the TAlnfiirAB mnnr riiatinoriliflhed fTUfcfltfl and a large concourse of people. Unfortunately, 'when the monument' MARY WASHINGTON. was almost completed, the generous donor, meeting with sudden and severs reverse of fortune, was unable to finish the work of placing the obelisk upon its handsome base. Hoping to rally from his financial prostration, Mr. Burrows requested the committee to wait awhile until be could have the work finished, but not long afterward he died before recovering anything of his fortune. Then disagreements arose regarding the matter, and the shaft lay prone upon the ground, slowly disintegrating for .nearly sixty years,until the women of the country rallied to the rescue, as they did for Mount Vernou, and the Mary Washing ton Monument Association, organized a few years ago and now successfully working, will before loug complete their patriotic plan, and perfectly restore the now mutilated monument. Onward to the North Pole. Dr. Trityof Nansen, who is known from having traversed Greenland from east to west, is of the opinion that all the expeditions which have hitherto gone out to iind the north pole have gone the wmng way. The pole can only be approached from Asia, he thinks. Some objects found on the coast of, Greenland cannot have come from parts south af that country, but only from the north. It is concluded that they have most likely been carried there by a current running from the northern coasts of Si bena across, or arouna toe poie iowmu Greenland. Dr. Nansen proposes to go to the mouths of the river Yenisei either around the North Cape of Norway and the coast of Russia or through Bering's Strait all along the northern coast of Siberia. Should he find the current which he expects to discover he will steam along it toward the pole. His steamer holds about two hundred and fifty tons and is built so that pressure from the bottom must lift it out of the water before it can be crushed by ice. He will take a crew of twelve men and provisions for six years. The engine also produces electric light. A balloon and gas to fill it will be taken. Tents will be taken | for expeditions that may become necessary, also sleighs and boats.?Chicago I Hwald. Determined to Get Even. 'Well, little boy. what's your name?" "Shadrack Xebucbadnezzcr Jones." "Who pave you that name?" "I don't know. But yer bet c'ner life if I find out, when I gets me growth they'll be sorrv for it."?Life. The largest library in the world is that at Paris, France. . "V " "..-'Sjs . _ , ? ' ('Jf Jndge Ljuch'e First fallows. 'Lynch law" is a synonym for tha prompt and effectual infliction of the popular will without due recourse to tha legal tribunals of justice. Out West l(Tnilm) T.imM." io onnivwtil hr mnm | ?-"Pi" i popular fiction to be the presiding ofli- ' ?| cer, but whc he originally was history ; yyijB says not. Theories are "as thick as the * leaves of Vallambrosa." That, however, /M which bears upon its face the expression of greatest credibility is one which goes > ;= back to the colonial times. On the lawn before the old family mansion in Lynchburg, Va., still stands the famous walnut tree under which V oQ Tories and other miscreants were pun- ' ^ ished. Death was never inflicted. "Thirty-nine strips on the bare back was / the usual penalty for giving information to the British or for minor crimes* the culprit being tied to the tree." Part of it is dead, as it is at least 150 years old, but the rest bears an annual crop of nuti. After receiving punishment the victim had to shout "Liberty forever." Such to ^ thp Virginian account of the origin of 'M the phase "lynch law," and it is more ^THE^OLD LtSCH LAW TRUE. than likely that from this acorn of ex*' preasion of popular indignation grew the :y.|a spreading oak of lynch law as it is understood in modern times. ?Mail and Express. ; Oxen in India. To the stranger (in Iodia) the great 'Ipl variety of breeds and their adaptation to 'Jj&a a wide range of needs and conditions are " not at flrst.apparent He sees an ox and ., $ another ox as he qees a native and an- '% >'>3! other native, witnont noticing that they belong to distinct families. Orientals hare a passiontfor classifying things, and see scores of differences m rice, cotton, ?| wheat, cattle, and horses, which are - barely perceptible even lo trained English eyes. But among cattle, though . *" there is a bewildering variety of load ^ breeds, some broad differences may be ^ easily learned. The backward slope of , | the horns of the large and small breeds ,?3 of Mysore cattle?perhaps the most popu- lar type in use?the royal bearing of the enlaniiirl n/ViifA or fswn oxen of OiiMrnt, and the transport and artillery cattle i A bred in the Government farms, at once --? strike the eye. These are the aristocrats of the race, but they have appetites pro- '/Jg 'portioned co their size, and are too costly ... jg for the ordinary cultivator. They trot ' ^ rftMPJBATrVE RI7.R8 OF INDIAN OXEN. " in bullock coaches or draw the Hpnngleas and uncomfortable but delightfully picturesque native rath or canopied oxcart, the wagons ot the Government cominissariat and of the various Government baggage services.?Kipling's "Beast and Man in India." A Mighty Squirt Gun. One of the fireboats in New York harbor has recently been equipped with a ~ u"ll A INCH VIBJ^KOZZLS. fire nozzle that throws a stream !5^ inches in diameter a distance of 280 to 290 feet. . .. The manner in which this stream is controlled may be gathered frcm this illus- ... -i tratioD, taken-from Engineering News: A hand wheel with a worm aud gear not unlike the steering apparatus of some yachts serves to control the nozzle, which V 3 can be moved from a lit'le below the r' J horizontal to the vertical position, and plso rotated in a complete circle. A 6tream from this nozzle at full pressure -'v., would make short work with a solid * brick wall. -.Vrs l ? Curious Cat Tnils. -^f The Isle of Man has varictv of cat that is entirely destitute of tails. Another variety of tailless cat is found in the Crimea. The domesticated Malay cat has a tail only about half the length . of the ordinary variety, and nature haa oddh enough tied it up into a sort of . ^ knot which cannot be itraightcued out. ?Picayune. ia In Newloundland, the pine, spruce, birch, iuniper, aspen, mountain ash an t |arch furnish plenty of timber lor the lumber trade and for shiobuiLiinar. 4 { \4 jfc'.v . ? -t . . . . - i v- , *v