Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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BffiEY'. dT TAMAGE. ^ THE'BROOKLiYN DIVINE'S SUNBjjg DAY SERMON. |l KnDjecr: '"The Resurrection." SV "Surely the bitternets of death it ?I Samuel xv., 32. BW*'80 cried Agag, and the only objection 1 H^Btave to this text is that a bad man uttered IWt. Nevertheless it is true, and in a higher |Hud better sense than that ia which it was Mforiginally uttered. Years ago a legend j^Bjsomething like this was told me: In a hut j^Hlfveda ver? poor woman by the name of Misery. In front of her door was a pear tree, MH which was her only resource for a living. Christ, the Lord, in poor garb was walking SH through the earth and no one woa'd enterH tain Him. In vain He knocked at v'fie door |H of palaces and of humble dwellings. Cold and hungry and insufficiently clad, as He wel=, none received Him. But coming one day to the hut of this woman, whose name HH was Misery, she received Him. and offered BH Him a few cruets and asked Him to warm BH Himself at the handful of coals, and she sat ^ jbp all night that the wayfarer might have Ha pillow to rest on. [Hi In the morning this divine being asked her jHjas He departed what she would have Him do in the way of reward, and told her that He (owned the universe and would give her what |H?he a$ked. All she asked was that her pear > U *reo might be protected, and that the ooys EH who stole her fruit, once climbing the tree, H might not be able to get down without her H consent. So it was granted, and all who B climbed the tree were compelled to stay Mjjthere. After awhile Death came " ugand , H told the poor woman she must go w '? him. EH But she aid not want to go, for, however . poor one's lot is, no one wants to go with Death. Then she said to Death, "I will go B With you if you will first climb up into my H pear tree and bring me down a few pears 39 before I start." This be consented to do, nut. h a vine climbed into the tree he could I Dot again come down. 1 Then the troubles of the world began, for Death did not come. The physicians had no patients, the undertakers no busines" lawyers no wills to make, the people who waited Cor inheritances could not get them, the old men staid in all the professions and occupations so that th9re was no room for the youns who were coming; on, and the earth got overcrowded, and from all the earth the cry went up: "Oh, for Death! Where is DeathThen the people came to the poor woman and bagged her 'to let Death descend from the tree. In sympathy for the world, ahe consented toletDea'jh comedown on one condition, and that was that he should never molest or take her away, and on that condition Death was allowed to come down, and ne kept his wort and never removed her, and for that reason we always have Misery with us. In that allegory some one has set forth the i maan nr^?flnt on this Blaster I. ??bich celebrates the resurrection of Christ and our coming; resurrection?that one of the grandest and mightiest mercies fcf the earth is our divine permission to quit ft Sixty-four persons every minute step off this planet. Thirty million people every year board this planet. As a steamer must onload before it takes another cargo, and as the passengers of a rail train must leave it in order to'have another company of passengers enter it, so with this world. Wfcat would happen to an ocean steamer If a man, talcing a stateroom, should stay in ft forever? What would happen to a rail train if one who purchases a ticket should always occupy the seat assigned him? And what would happen to this world if all who came into it never departed from it? The grave is as much a benediction as the cradle. What sunk that ship in tho Blacfc Sea a few days ago? Too many passengers. What was the matter with that steamer on the I Thames which, a few years ago, went down I with 600 lives? Too many passengers. Now this world is only a ship, which was launched some six thousand years ago. It is sailing at the rate of many thousand miles an hour. It is freighted with mountains and cities, and has in its staterooms and steerage about sixteen huadrei million passengers, ou many are coming aboard, it is necessary that a good many disembark. | Suppose chat all the people that have : lived since the days of Adam and Eve were j silll aiive. What a cluttered up place this j (world would be?no elbow room?no place | ,to walk?no privacy?nothing to eat or wear, or if anything were left tbe human race would,'like a shipwrecked crew, have ito be put on small rations, each of us having j>erhaus only a biscuit a day. And what chact-2 would there be for the rising genera1 toons? The men and women who started , wben toe world started would keep the modem people back and down, saying: ' We are six thousand years old. Bow down. History is nothing, for we are older than history." What a mercy for the human race was death! Within a few years 1 jou can get from this world all there is in It. After you have had fiftv or sixty cr seventy springtimes, you nave seen enough blossoms. Aftor fifty or sixty or seventy autumns you have seen enough of gorgeous foliage. After fifty or sixty or seventy winters, you have seen enough snowstorms and felt enough chills and wrapped yourself in enough blankets. In the ordinary length of human life you have carried enough burdens, and shed enough tears, and suffered enough injustices, and felt enough pangs, and been clouded by enough doubts, and surrounded by enough mysteries. We talk about the shortness of life, but if we exercised good sense we would realize that life is auite long enough. If we are tbe children of' God we are at a [banquet, and this world is only the first course of the food, and we ought to be glad E that there are other and better and richer |r ,courses of food to be handed on. We are \ (here in one room of our Father's house, but > there are rooms up stairs. They are better I (pictured, better upholstered, better fur1 Sighed. Why do we want to stay in the V anteroom forever, when there are palatial 1 apartments waiting for our occupancy? VWhat a mercy that there is a limitation to 'tearthly environments! I \ Death also makes room for improved payfucal machinery. Our bodies have wondrous powers, but they are very limited. ,'Thfcre ore beasts that can outrun us, outlift us, butcarry us. The birds have both the 'earth and air for travel, yet we must stick to the one. In this world, which the human race takes for its own, there are creaturbs of God that can far surpass us in some things; Death removes this slower and less (adroit taachinerv and mates room lor something better. These eves that can see half a mile will be removed for those that can see from world to world. These ears. which can hear a sound a few feet off, will be removed for ears that can bear from zone to zoiro. These feet will be removed ) for powers of locomotion swifter than the reindeer's hoof or eagle's plume of lightn* ing*s flash. Then we have only fire senses, and to these we are shut up. Why only Ave senses? Why not tifty; why not one hundred; why not a thousand* We can have, and we will have tbem, but not until this present physical machinery is put out of the way. Do not think that this body is the best that God ! can do for us. God did not half try when . <" * be contrived your bodily mechanism. Mind you, 1 believe with all anatomists and with 'all physiologists and with all scientists and witn the psalmist that "we are fearfully and ' J????! Ma^A)> Rnh T ImIiava And I wonuenuuj inwjt. - know that God can and will get us better physical equipment. Is it possible for a man to make improvement in almost anything and God not be able to make improvements in man's physical machinery? Shall canal boat give way to limited express train? Shall slow letter I give place to telegraphy, that places San Francisco and New York within a minute of 'communication* Shall the telephone take the sound of a voice sixty miles and instantly bring back another voice, and God, who made the man who does these things, not be able to improvo the man himself with infinite velocities and infinite multiplication* Beneficent Death comes in and makes the necessary removal to make way for these lopernatural improvements. So also our Blow process of getting information must have a substitute. Through prolonged stwdy we learned the alphabet, and then we learned to spell, and )then we learned to read. Then the book is pat before us and the eye travels from word Ito word and from page to pa?e. and we take Iwhole days to read the book, and if from that book of foar or five hundred pages we have gained one or two profitable ideas we feel we have done well. There must be woe nwifter way and mora satisfactory wav of taking in God's universe of thoughts <and facts and ^notions aad information. (But this oanaot b? doss with your, brain in . Ita present state. Many a brain jiv?8 war under the present facility. This whitish mass in the upper cavity of the skull and at the extremity of the nervous system?this center of perception and sensation cannot endure more than it now endures. But God can make a better brain, and He sends Death to remove this inferior brain that He may put in a superior brain. "Well." you say, "does not that destroy the idea of a resurrection of the present body?" Oh, na It will be the ola factory with new I machinery?new driving wheel, new bands, I new levers and new powers. Don't you see? So I suppose the dullest human brain after the resurrectionary process will have mora knowledge, more acutenesa,more brilliancy, more breadth of swing than any Sir William Hamilton or Herschel or Isaac Newton or Faraday or A.gas3iz ever had in the mortal state or all their intellectual powers combined. You see God has only just begun to build you. The palace of your nature has only the foundation laid and part of the lower story, and only part of oue window, but the great architect has made His draft of what you will be when the Alhambra is completed. John was right when he saiJ, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." Blessed be death! for it removes all the hindrances. And who has not all his life run against hindrances? We cannot go far up or far down. If we go far up we get dizzy, and if we go far down we get suffocated. If men would go high up they ascend the Matterhorn or Mount Blanc or Himalaya, bnt what disasters have been reported as they came tumbling down. Or if they went down to a far, hark to the explosion of the firedamps, end see the disfigured bodies of the poor miners at the bottom of the coal shaft. Then there are the climatological hindrances. We run azainst unpropitiom weather of all sorts. Winter blizzard and rammer scorch, and each season seems to batch a brooi of its own disorders. The rammer spreads it3 wings and- hatchs3 out fever and sunstrokes, and spring and autumn spread their wings and hatch out malarias, and winter spreads its wings and hatches out pneumonia and Russian grippes, and the climate of this world is a hindrance ! which every man and woman and child has felt. Death ia to the good transference to luperior weather?waather never fickle, and never too cold, and never too Hot, ana never too light, and never too dark. Have you any doubt that God can make better weather than is characteristic of this planet? Blessed Is death 1 for it prepares the way for change of zone, yea, it clears th j path to a semiornnipresence. How often we want to be in different places at the same timel How perplexed we get being compelled to choose between invitations, between weddings, between friendly groups, between three or four places we would like to be in the same morning; or the same noon or the same evening. While death may not open opportunity to be In many places at the same time, so easy and so quick ani so instantaneous will be tha transferaaca that it will amount to about tUe same thin?. Quicker than I can speak this sentence you will be among your glorious kindred, among the mar tyrs, among tne apostles, iu tae gate, on the battlements, at tae temple, and now from world to world as soon as* a robiu hops from one tree branch to another tree branch. Distance no hindrance. Immensity easily compassed. Semiomnipresencel "But," says soma one, "I cannot see how God is going to reconstruct my body in the resurrection." Oh, that will be very easy as compared with what He has already done with your body four or six or ten times. All scientists tell us that the human body ! changes entirely once In seven years, so that if you are twenty-eight years of age you j have now your fourth body. If you are forty-two years of age you have had six 1 bodies, [f you are seventy years of age you ' have had ten bodies. Do you not, my unKolioffintr frinnrl think if Oort fionld build ' for you four or five or tea bodies He could 1 really build for you one more to be called ' the resurrection body. Aye! to make that ' resurrection body will not require half as ] much ingenuity and power as those other bodies you have had. Is it not easier for a sculptorto make a statue out of silent clay thau it would ba to make a statue out of some material that is alive and moving, and running hither and thither* Will it not be easier for God to make the resurrection body out o? the silent dust of the crumbled body than it was to make your body over five or six or eight times while it was in motion, walking, climbing,faliing or rising? God has already on your lour or five bodies bestowed ten times more omnipotence than He will put upon the resurrection body. Yea, we have the foundation for the resurrection body in us now. Surgeons and physiologists say there are parts of the human body the uses of which they cannot understand. They are searching what these farts are made for, but have not found out. can tell them. They are the preliminaries of the resurrection body. God does not make anythiogfor nothing. The uses of those now surplus parts of the body will be demonstrated when the glorified form is constructed. Now, if Death clears the way for all this, why paint him as a hobgoblin? Why call him fchn kin? of terrors? Whv think of him as a great spook? Why sketch him with I skeleton and arrows, and standing on a bank of dark watars! Why have children bo j frightened at his name that they dare not go to bed alone, and old men have their teeth chatter lest some shortness of breath hand them over to the monster? .'All the a get have been busy in maligning Death, hurling repulsive metaphors at Death, slandering Death. Oh, for the sweet breath of Easter to come down on the earth. Right after the vernal equinox, and when the flowers are beginning to bloom, well may all nations with song and with congratulation and garlands celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and our own resurrection when the time is cone by. and the trumpets pour through the flying clouds the harmonies that shall wake the d?ad. By the empty niche of Joseph's mausoleum, by the rocks that parted to let the Lord come through, let our ideas of changing worlds be torevar revolutionized. If what I have been sayiug is true, hovr differently we ought to tbialc of oar friends departed The boiy they have put oft -s only a->, when entering a hall lighted and resounding with musical bands, you leave your hat and cloak in the cloakroom. What would a banqueter do if he had to carry those encumbrances of apparel vi?h him into the brilliant reception? What would your departed do with their bodies if they had to be encumbered with them in the king's drawing room? Gone into the light! Gone into the music! Gone into tfce festivity! Gone among kings and queens ar.u conquerors ! Gone to meet Elijah and hear hkn tell of the chariot of fire drawn b*?- horses of fire and the sensation of mounting the sapEhire steeps 1 Gone to meet with Moses and ear him describe the pile of black basalt that shook when the law was given! Gono to meet Paul and hear him tell how Felix trembled, and how the ship went to pioces in the breaker*, and how thick was the darkness tn the Mamertine dungeon! Gone | to meet John Knox and John Wesiey and Jtiannan More ana rrancis navergai. uono to meet the kindred who preceded them! Why I should not wonder if they had a larger family group there than they ever had here. Oh, how many of them have got together again! Your father and mother went years apart, but they have got together. and their children that west years ago got together again. Gont where they have more room! Gone where they have more jubilant society! Gone where they have mightier capacity to love you than when they were here! Gone out of hindrances into unbounded liberty! Gone out of January into June! Gone where they talk about you a* we always talk about absent friends and say: "I wonder when they will come up here to join us. Hark! the outside door of heaven swings open. Hark! there are feet on tha goldnn staii-3. Perhaps they are coming!" I was told at Johnstown after the flooi that many people who had been for months and years bereft for the first time got comfort when the awful flood came to think that their departed ones were not present to see the catastrophe. As the people were floating down on the housetops they said: "Oa, how glad i am that father and mother ar? not here," or "How glad I am that the children are not alive to"see this horror!" And ought not we who are down here amid th? upturnings of this life be glad that none of the troublps which submerge us can ever affright our friends ascended? Before this I warrant our departed ones have been introduced to all the celebrities of heaven. Some one has said to them: "Let me introduce you to Joshua, the man who by prayer stopped two worlds for several hours. Let me make you acquainted with this group of three heroes?John Huss, Philip Melancthon and Martin Luther. Aha! here is FenelonI Here is Archbishop Leighton t Here are Latimer and Ridley 1 Here is Matthew Simpson I Here is poet's row?James Montgomery and Anna Bar* bauld and Horatius Bonar and Phoebe Palmar sod Lowell Mason." ' ;'-,v ? ""t ' ' And the rupture of those rocks, and the snap of that Govdrnmantal seal, and the crash of those walls of limestone, and the BtoDof the lacerated but triumphant foot bf the risen Jesus we to-day celeorate with acclaim of worshiping thousands, while with all the nations of Christendom, and all th9 shiDine hosts jf heaven we chant, "Now is Christrisen from the dead and become the first Iruits of them that slept." Ob, weep no more your comforts slain, The Lord Is risen, He lives asjaiu. "And now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, throuzn the blooi of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good word and work." Halieiojah 1 Amen. "Were your departed ones fond of music* What oratoris led on by Handel and Hayden. Were they fond of pictures* What Raphaels pointing out skies with all colors wrought oat into chariot wheels, wings of seraphim and coronations. Were they fond of poetry? What eternal rhythms led on by John Milton. Shall we pity our glorified kindred? No, they had better pity us. Wo, the shipwrecked and on a raft in the hurricane, looking up at them sailing on over calm seee, under skies that never frowned with tempests, we hoppled with chains; they lifted by wings. '"Surely the bitterness of HAflth ia nnot " Further, if what I havo beeu saying is true, we should trust the Lord and be thrilled with the fact thafour own day of escape cometh. If our lives were going to ?nd when our hearts ceased to pulsate and rfur lungs to breathe, I would want to take tea million years of life here for the first installment. But, my Christian frienta, we cannot afford always to stay down in the cellar of our Father's house. We cannot always be postponing the best things. We cannot always be tuning our violins for the celestial orchestra. We must get our wings out. We must mount. We cannot afford always to stand out here in the vestibule of the house of many mansions, while the windows are illuminated with the levee angelic, and we can hear the laugh* ter of those forever free, and the ground quakes with the bounding feet of those who hare entered upon eternal play. Ushers of heaven I Open the gates! Bering them clear back on their pearly hinges! Let the celestial music rain on us its cadence. Let the hanging gardens of the king breath oc us their aromatics. Let snirreiesmea ones jusrc lootr our ana give us one glance of their glorified faces. Yes, there they are now I I see them. But I cannot stand the vision. Close the gate, or our eyes will be quenched with the overpowering brightness. Hold back the song or our <sars will never again care for eartnlv anthem. Withdraw the perfume or we shall swoon in the fragrance that human nostrils was never made to breath. All these thoughts are suggested as we stand this Easter morn amia the broken rocks of the Saviour's tomb. Indeed, I know that tomb has not been rebuilt, for I stood ia December of 18S9 amid the ruins of that, the most famous sepuicber of all time. There are thousands of tombs in our Greenwood and Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn with more polished stone and more elaborate masonry and more foliage surroundings, but as I went down the^ateps of the supposed tomb of Christ on my return from Mount Calvary, I said to myself: "This is the tomb of all tombs. Around this stand more stupendous incidents than around any grave of all the world since death entered it." I could not breathe easily for overmastering emotions as 1 walked down the four crumbling steps till we came abreast of the aiche in which I tbink Christ was buried. I measured the sepulcher and found it four* teen and a half wet long, eight feet high, nine feet wide. It is a family tomb and seams to have been built to hold five bodies. But I rejoice to say that the tomb was empty, and that the door of the rock was zone, and the sunlight streamed in. The lay that Christ rose and came forth the sepulcher was demolished forever, and no trovrel of earthly masonry can ever reDuua its Tiie Island of Tauitl. Tahiti, with its adjacent islands, was on June 29, 1680, formally annexed to France. The king, Pomare V., who accomplished the act by his own free will retained the honorary title of king. He had been the nominal ruler of the islands since 1877, when he succeeded, as the nearest relation of royal blood, Qtieen Pomare, who, in 1842, signed the convention with the French Admiral Dupetit Thomas about the establishment of a French protectorate over the islands. Tahiti is about 108 miles in circumfer- I ence and thirty-two miles long, and is | in tbe torm ot two peninsulas, cuuueuteu by an isthmus about three miles broad. The larger of these is Tahiti proper, while the smaller is named Tairaboo,and both are surrounded by coral reefs. The highest summit in the island is a mountain in the northern part, 8500 feet above the sea level. The fertile part of the island lies in the valleys, which are of small extent, and in the plain, which stretch from the seashore to the spurs of the mountains. These producc tropical plants in great abundance and luzur lauce. ine climate 13 agreeaoie, ueiug warm, but not enervating. The natives have teen converted to Christianity by the labors of missionaries, and there are few of them who cannot reai aod write. The island is divided into seven districts and is the seat of a Supreme Court, consisting of seven judges. Most of the vessels that visit Tahiti are whalers, though until lately they only averaged less than 100 annually. Ite principal town and port is Papiete, and its ^estimated population is sjmewhat over 9000. ?Detroit Free Press. All Abont Toes. A new and great German AnatomyArt book tells about toes: "Some authorities insist that the great toe ought to project furthest, others that it should not project quite so far as the second toe; while others, again, maintain that the two should be ?f equal length. It is well known that in antique statues the second toe is usually the longer of the two, while the first is longer in living men. Some persons are of opinion that the latter condition is a consequence of wearing boots and shoes, while others hold that the longer second toe in the antique is an artistic figment. Both are in the wrong." To prove this, the author then gives the exact measurements of the foot of an old man in whom the second toe was obviously longer than the first, and yet the man had worn ordinary iooigear irotn nu sariiest yumu. iu show that ia addition to external influences personal and racial characteristics must be considered, he next instances an Egyptian fellah girl, in whom the gteat toe was conspicuously longer than tne second, although she had certainly never worn ahoe3 of the European pattern, and probably not any at all. That it is not an artistic tiction is clear from the statament of an Italian sculptor, that though in Italy it is the exceptiou for the second toe to exceed the first iu length, yet this is not infrequently to be moc with. Hence Professor Brucke concludes that an artist is justified in representing the feet on the type which he regards as the most beautiful among the forms actually observed by him. and not necessarily as iu his model.?New York Sun. The Economical WFdow's Joint. *'R. N." wants to marry an economical widow with whom he is acquainted, says the New York Journal. Her week runs this way: On Sunday morn a simple joint, On Monday fricasee; On Tuaeday eve as curried veal We have it served at tea; Then daily, punctually at two. The joint comes up a* Irish st?w... .'V, Aj- s . : iji: r%;~m< TEMPERANCE. THE DRUNKARD'S POSITION. At the hall of the Central Temperance Association in London last month, Mrs. Annie JBesant delivered a notable temperance address, in the course of which she said that instead of the drunkard's being "no man's enemy but his own," he is ' a focus of poison I to the community in which he has a physical presence;" and it is th9 views which she holds of the relationship of on9 man to an other, and the influence which he exerts upI on another, that have made her a total abstainer. LIQUOR IN GKRMA.XV. Whatever the mistakes made by Emperor William of Germany, he is not mistaken in the deep interest he feels in the drink question. Whether from the social, the military, or the industrial point of view, he discerns the vital bearings of this question. A nation whose defenders are sodden with drink leans on an unreliable support. A country whose work-people are besotted with alcohol and who waste their wages on that which does them no good, is liable to get into the lurch in the sliarp, eager, unresting competitions of industrial manufacture and commerce. Asa leading military journal in Germany declares, unless Germany redeems herself from the saloon, she will look in vain tor competent defenders when the test of war Is to be met. in ureas cnuuu wc expenditure for drink the past year was considerably over suvea hundred, million dollars; twice as large as the total national revenue. It is a blind and fatuous statesmanship which would ignore such?fact8 as these.?rho Witness. LIQUOR-SELLING AT THfi WORLD'S PAIR. The Christian at Work publishes the National Temperance Society's memorial to the World's Fair Commissioners against liquorselling in connection with the Fair, and makes a vigorous editorial protest against the preliminary action of the Board of Control in granting, for a money consideration, concessions to hquor-sellers. It says: "The haste with which the local management came to a decision on the liquor question is in striking contrast with the dilatory manner with which the requests ot tue friends of Sunday closing have been treated. The latter have been trying now for nearly a year to secure some decision on this point, but no decisive action has been taken. The question of the sale of liquor, however, was decided, so far as the . local directory could decide ir, without any delay. The local di rectory hag, perhaps, taken this way of giving notice to the world at large that it nas no sympathy, as one .of our daily papers has expressed it, with 'Sabbatarians and tern-, perance crank?.' It could hardly have taken a more direct way to express that sentiment. But these '.Sabbatarians and temperance cranks' compose a very large and influential portion of the people of the United States, and it may be found in the end that it is neither wise nor safe to ignore them entirely." ALCOHOL AS A POISON. 'Is alcohol a food,and does the human system crave it as it does tea, coffee, cocoa, etc.? That question," said a learned female physician, "was discussed by the St Louis Medical Society at its meeting last Saturday night. I could hardly believe I was living in the close of the nineteenth century when three sons of ^culapius undertook to inJ ?u drtiw rli 1 man litra uurse suua aouuiuiauio. uu>< u. ? >uuu ... . before its discovery in the thirteenth century? Since that time it has been proved that alcohol is not a food, but a poison. It enters the stomach as alcohol, passes through the system as alcohol unchanged, is found in the tissues and brain after death as alcohol, and will burn as alcohol then. It is not converted into tissue building or blood making, and not assimilated any wnere in the system as food. Alcohol will retard destructive metamorphosis of tissue in diseased body, and may thus serve as a medicine, a stimulant to tide over the disease, as arsenic and strychnine do good as medicine often, though deadly poisons: That alcohol is assimilated in the system and aids in building muscular tissue is false. Temperance societies have proved that it is not a necessary stimulant in disease, for in Chicago a hospital has bjen opened in whicn alcohol has been prohibited, and' the records of recovery are proof of its success. The people of India never used it until British rulo came mere a few years ago. Then the spirit of gain induced Great Britain to 3end barrels of the liquor to destroy the men of that country. "?St. Louis Globe-Democra t. THEKVIL3 0F lYTIMPSRAN'CB. In his sermon before the Springfield C. T A. Union Convention, R9V. John F. Leon* an. sets forth the evils of intemperance it. the following clear and convincing manner, In all causes which have a baneiui ana evil effect, in the great battle of life, -and which tend to wrecz the future hopes of success and to blight the brightest prospect-s for good; there is none, not one more to bfl dreaded than the evil of drunkenness. Tbi I evil has made such inroads among all classec: of people in our daj, and its pernicious ef > fects are so far-reaching and wide-spread, that it is time to stem tnis torrent of destruct ion. It has swept over this fair land like a pestilence, marking its coursa by wrecked and ruined homes; filling the poor-houses, the or* phanasjes, the insane asylums, the jails and the prisons. God Himself commands us to guard and protect with care our strength and health. He even renounces the rigat He his of our aervices, when we cannot serva Him, with out the danger of injuring it. Ana yec, u i precious health! so useful and valuable to J man, so precious in the sight of God, how many ore they who wrecklesaly ruin and destroy thee? Ah! but how? By frequent and excessive drinking. The life that is so preciojs, and that would not otherwise ba ezoosed to dan* ger by any one, is willingly and deliberately shortened and brought to a premature end. Nearly all diseases come from ill-digestel humors in the stomach, and these humors must necessarily and frequently arise in a stomach charged with beer and strong drink wnich beat the blood and retard digestion. Hence the dumb brute will not drink unless it is thirsty; and poor people as a class, have not the diseases of the ricn who drink liquors. All sorts of fevers, diseases of the chest and lungs, dropsy, consumption, palsy, apoplexy, gout, trembling of cha limbs and imparity of toe blood, come, for the most part, from excessive drink, and are not apt to be found in temperate men. . The providence of Ood has wisely ordained that excessive drinking should bring its own punisnment, and should cause all those evils, to those who are addicted to it,in order that, if they are still capable of using their reason, and following its dictates, they may be deterred from this evil and ruinous habit of intoxicating drink. TEMPKRA.VCE NEWS AND JfOTFS. An exchange inquires, "What does a horse know?" He knows more than some men He knows enough to let whisky alone. "No member saall be permitted to drink the white man's grog" is tn9 oercinent r?;u> lation of a newly formed Zulu church in Africa. The directors of the Columbian Exposition have refused to grant space to the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union for the erection of a building in which to exhibit the work and progress of the temperance reform. Eleven gentlemen met at lunch in Shanghai, and it cime out that they had all been life-long abstains. They had eac^ lived in the trying temperature of North Chmi for periods ranging from twenty-four to thirtyfive years, and not one of them had been once sic ; from climatic causes. j Neal Dow has written to tne head of VV. | C. T. U. in Maine that he will bequeath his [ sirrap-booK to cue arjaiv<is ui mc n=?. j perance Temple itt Chicago. Tnt-re aw twenty-three voiumes now. very large and thicK and balf-bouud in strong morocco. Neal Dow's scrap-books must contain a great. <1e*l of matter of value to the temperance cause. The Mississippi Legislature ha3 just passed a scientific temperance instruction bill, by which every grade of the public schools is now compelled to teach the subjsct under exactly the same regulations waich govern every other study in the schools. The saun Legislature has also passed a law forbidding the sale of tobacco in any form to boys under eighteen years of age. Mr. Charles Booth has made a very careful study of poverty and its causes in England, and of 4000 cases analyzed, finds twenty-seven per cent, attributable to "illness, large families and other-misfortunes; fifty-five per cent, to lack of employment," and only fourteen per cent, to drmtt, Probably drinn has muca to do with the other causes m on Clonal. * : -5, ?-Ssiia?: '1 ..... RELIGIOUS READING. M083K3 7R0M AN* Ol.D MASSE. The minister'^ wife had finished her chores. By calling on all the church people. And some she found open as both the church doors. And some she'd found at iff as the steeple. For while all the deacons had slept on the wall, A committee had ccra i'ke a lion; * ...] Unn u..uk i ? aiih \jy uci uuoumiu a ^cucivuo va?i? Had shaken the bulwarks of Zion. For years they bad paid him wbo taught them the Word, About six hundred dollars or seven; For tliey felt th?t a preacher should "trust in the Lord." And grow fat on the "manna from Heaven.'' And tbe cash question often had come to annoy: Which so many ministers rankles: For tbe lord hud sent children?three girls and a boy, And tbe bay?hollow down to his anklea. Sister Blodgett, the wife of ' a pillar," had cried. (Tbey supported a carriage and horses) "Beware! lest yousinagain.it God," she had sighed; "A rolling stone gathers no mosse?." The preacher looked up from the book which he read, And bis merry eyes twinkled with laughter :'Why didn't you tell sister Blodgett." he said. "That moss isn't what we are after?" ?fG. T. Dowllng, New York Independent. A If!NINO COUNTKNANCK. That is a pleasant story which comes from the mission field, how a Japanese civil officer who was feeling depressed! and perplexed with his religion saw a Christian lady whose face wore such an expression of peace and joy that he argued her religion must make her happy. He decided to in quire into rue aocinnes 01 uurisunnuy unit was finally led to cmbracc it. The religion of Christ is calculated to make itatlf known in the faces of its believers." It is said the faces of tbe Christian women of Syria are far more intelligent and beautiful than the faces of their Mohammedan sisters. They ire of the same race; it is different religion that makes the difference. Christianity is a 3heerful religion.- Jesus said. "Be-not of ?id countenance." JJetter than his precept was the truth be taught, which transforms the face of him who receives it ioto his heart. f the companionship of christ. If we can eutet into the company of Christ and live there, then our unknown possibilities shall open to us, and in the light of chose unknown possibilities we shall be able to despise and to escape from the baaer things that cling to us. Do you remember bow ne went snapping this chain and tbat chain among the sons of men whom his life touched? Mcodemus came to him, and the creedbound Pharisee became the faith-clad man. Christ came to the poor Magdalen, and in her sin he touched her, and she lifted herself up aud was free, not'only from her sin. but from the tyranny of her dark remorse, and entered into bis" service, and bv and hv was with him at his crucifixion. ric came" to twelve plain men, and touched their lives, and each and every one of those men became that which any one of us would give bis life if he nii<ht become?one of the apostles of the new redemption, one of the saviors of the world.?[Phillips brooks. j THE COST OF BEING LIKE CHRIST. He who would be most like Christ must pay the cos'. If a furnace is needed to purify and biighten you, do not shirk the furnace. Patience is an admirable grace; but it Is not oftenest worn by those who walk on the sunny side of the street in silver slippers. It is usually the product of bead winds and bard fights?of crosses parried and of steep hills climbed on the road to heaven. "The trial of your laith workith patieuce.'' So it is with all the noblest traits of a robust, healthy and symmetrical character. No man is*rocked into godliness in a hammock. Christ offers you no free ride to heaven in a cushioned parlor car. John Bunyan sent his sturdy "Pilgrim" to tbe "Celestial City" on foot, and some pretty rough walking and bard conflicts did he encounter before the pearly portals welcomed him to tbe streets of Hashing gold. Mis piety was seii-aenyin?, stalwart, and uncompromising; be relished even the stiff severities of duty, and was never codilled with confectioneries. Selfindulgence is the besetting sin of the times; but if you long to be a strong, athletic Christian. you must count the cost. It will cost you the cutting up of old favorite sins by the roots, and the cutting loose from entangling alliances, and some sbarp set-tos with the tempter; it will cost you the submitting of your will to the will of Christ; hut it is worth all its costs, ana more.?[Dr. Cuyler. WHY THE YOKE IS EASY. Mark Guy Pearse tells of an incident which occurred in connection with a sermon of his on Christ's invitation to the weary and henvy laden. I bad finished my sermon, when a good man came to me and said: "I wish I had known what you were going to preach about. I could bavetold you something." "Well, my friend." I said, "it is very good of you. May 1 not have it still?" "Do you know why His yoke is light, sir? If not, I think I can tell you." "Well, the good Lord helps us to carry it, I suppose." "No, sir,'' he explained, shaking his head, "I tbink I know better than tliat. You see, when I was u bov at home, I used to drive ? - ? ---I -L- ..A|,A the oxen in ray ratuer s yosc. ahu iuc ?u&c was never made to balance, Mir, as you said." (I had referred to the Greek word. But how much tietter it was to know the real thing.) He went on triumphantly: ''Father's yokes were always made heavier on one aide than the other. Tlien, you see, we would put a weak bullock alongside of a strong bullock, bee iuse the stronger one had the heavy part of it on his shoulder." "Then his face lit up as he said: "That is why the yoke is easy and the burden is light: because the Lord's yoke is made after the same pattern, and the hedvyend is upon His shoulder." So shall ye tiud rest to your souls. There are those who tell us there must be a larger .iberty. But these balloons are apt to come to grief. The wr.in that swin;s the j farthest off is counted the broadest. Planets areata discount; meteors ut a premium. The mrteor goes out of sight ami then returns. and brings consternation, or used to; | but we come to understand that it's too thin.?fDr. P. S. Henson. Dr. Phillips Brooks once said. "Blessed is the old man who has the tire of twenty and -* Kofmnnmiu. IUC peace ui seventy, v*vw?i??aA ly iu lib soul." \Vhy should we become less valuable and less attractive as we advance in years? The ripe fruit and the mature grain, are more desirable and attractive at that stage thnn at any other. It should be equally true with human character. Mellowed by varied experiences, educated in so many .school* of life, with more knowledge and a widercxperience. we should be as happy aud lresh. useful and attractive, when our head* are silvered with advancing years, as when we first began the journey of life with buoyant hearts and brightening prospects. \Ve are irarer God. nearer Heaven, and whv should we not he holier, happier and brighter in new experience i which old age brings to the servants of God? I Il.-ippy is the man who never seems to grow old, but who looks brighter and work* a'l the hanlt-r. as he ncirs his Father's House. ? [The Central Bap! ist. A Boston lady writes to one of the papers of that city: "Will some or your readers be kind enough to tell me what to do for a canary bird that has lost its voice?" Keep it, dear madam, care for it tenderly, and be thankful. Ward McAllister favored the readers of a New York Sunday paper with an article on "How to Get Into Society." If society Is what he haa described it to be, ona would think a more popular article would be one telling how to get out. sBS&ai V UP m A BALLOON. PERILS OP AERONAUTS AND PARACHUTE JUMPERS. No Trip Ever Blade That is Not Awful With Danger?How the W/xwlH f .svsvlra Punm Hfffh Above in the Clouds. I t .. T this time every It I 1 ?ear maaagera // *1 &Sr V C0UQt7 ^a'ra an<^ 11 circuses may be I/jj\ ffl 8ure that they will ^V' fflkreceive letters with ^Sss^j 5?y jr gorgeous printed heading, together \^&f! with lithographed 1 *msJ posters exhibiting. .1 d* men and women in . - the act of plunging j T* from a height. 1 These indicate that the balloon season has arrived and that the aeronaut and parachutist is preparing for his season's work. Few people who witness a balloon ascension comprehend its fascinations, I its perils or its methods, and only those who have made the trip into the clouds can accurately describe its accompanying sensations. Professor Mortimer McEim, an aeronaut of experience, gives it as his opinion that the aeronaut lives a life- j time in the few brief moments of his voyage. To those interested in aerial navigation, a description of the airship | is necessary. The material employed in the construction consists of a superior rmalitv of ahfifitintr. the breadths beinsr stitched together firmly, with the edges felled. The average balloon, being 150 feet in circumferencc and seventy-five feet in height, requires eight hundred or more yards of cloth. At the mouth of the balloon a hoop the size of a wagon wheel, and made of wood, is attaohed to keep the mouth open while the hot air is being forced into it, and this onfice remains open during the ascension. The * "* * L* ' 11 ? ?_ mSfK | losiae 01 cne nre unuuuu is tuarau *** ?* I a sizing of glue, whiting, alum and I other non-combustibles, as a precaution against sparks, which, with the hot air, arise frequently to a height of thirty feel during the inflation. On being released, the balloon rises at first slowly until at about a height of filty feet, when its velocity is at the rate of forty-fire miles an hour. At the expiration of two minutes the oalloon has attained an altitude of a mile and a half, then it commences to sail with the air current which strikes it. This drifting about continues for a period of four minutes, when the escaping hot air caus&s u gradual shrinking of the balloon and its consequent descent. The unique sensations of the aeronaut begin with the moment he mounts the trapeze bar attached to the balloon. Grasping the ropes, the feeling is much like that of being seated in a swing. For the first ? . ?L i i.; 1 iuu reec mere 10 a reauuiMuu vi wc accent; objects below appear smaller and smaller until gradually they fade from view. At a height of 200 feet in the air, rushing past with tremendous volocity, gives one the impression of leaning out of the car window of a limited express, the sounds of earth die away in a mur In I 1! Sv \ '?m v INFLATING THE BALLOON. mur, and it is then that the balloon seems stationary, the earth falling away from it. Looking downward from the height, ' m/Minfoino fln^ all sanaces appeal ic>ci, u.uuu?... valleys are alike, and the world looks as if spread out and flattened by a rolling pin. Roads and rivers resolve them* selves into narrow ribbons; forests, fields and meadows are clumps of green, red and black, with green as the dominant color. At two miles earth is lost to view, as in a fog. Presently the balloon begins to sail, driven by an air current. There is now no apparent motion. The aeronaut experiences a ieeling of oppression, the air, deprived of- its vital principle, exhausts at each inspiration; ringing rounds are heard in ears,and one can, so to speak, hear the stillness. The breath come3 in quick, successive gasps ^hat do not satisfy the lungs. It is like going to one's death. Lookiog upward, the horizon is ?-? 1?11 Kol. bounded by tne oig umcn. uou?wt ??.loon?dark against the milky opaqueness of the atmosphere. The airship is swaying and swinging, while the clouds, floating in a contrary direction, produce a vague giddiness. There is, however, no time for tremors. Seeonds seem hours,, the mind and memory traveling with electric flight. Conjectures, recollections and retrospections flash across the bewildered brain as one reels through space. Suddenly Jhe top of the balloon comes in contact with a cloud, there is a slight jar, and tfye next instant all is enveloped in fog, fron I which the aeronaut emerges soaked with I spray. And now for the spectacle! | Subline, dazzling, jiouqkuus ui uiuca* cence, fleecy white clouds tinged with j creamy pink, like the plumage of the I cockatoo. Swirling combinations of j color, blending and shifting as in a ! gigantic bubble. Golden greens, that j melt into purple and broDzeaad crimson, with the sun dissolving and overflowing upon their tops. Wonderful tints, suca us artist never dreamed of. To comprehend color it is necessary to have seen the magic canvasses of the clouds. The balloon sails on and drops slowly away from this panorama once more into the colorless atmosphere. wi,v. ,i,0 earth aiiDearsto rise find the balloon to remain lixed; aud dow the operator is occupied with one idea? upeculation as to where aad how he will reach earth, for distance is incalculably and perspective a nivlh. The balloon is the sport of chance, and is liable to deposit its passenger anywhere from the top of a church steeple to the bottom of ! a ditch. The aeronaut takes his life in j his own hands when he ascends with the j airship. Sbould it take fire, burst in midair or cool of too suddenly in striking a I , i / V:\- . .. j cold current, the result is collapse aocf' disaster, for there is no safety valve tef the fire balloon. Tbe aeronaut is invariably an enthusi-l ast until be meets with an accident, after* which discretion becomes the better part of his valor, and he is content to1 rally substitutes for an ascension. After; a few years he is apt to retire altogether,: and leave to others tbp hazardous occupation. Up to a period of six years iga> there numbered but twenty aeronauts in!"' this country, and these were in great demand at county fairs, settlers' and soldiers1 reunions and upon legal! ' T>nli/^BT7a rural rplnhrations b*~ ing considered incomplete without the daring balloonist, who, for the tamer being, was of more importance than th? President and entire Senate, and it may be added that no occupation is more conducive to conceit and self sufficiency than that of the aeronaut. There is less profit in the business now than formerly; th? novelty of the ordinary balloon aacensfoaf no longet exists tor Americans. Realising this, nearly every aerooant now make* the sensational parachute descent. in midair. 1 Oq reaching the desired altitude this It : effected by cutting the connecting rope, There is a rapid fall, the resistance of tfct ' air forcing open the parachute, which it .%?! nothing more than a ribless umbrella,> y twenty-eight feet ia diameter. Ths operator, on cutting loose, darts downward, as if fired from a catapult, until) Op within a few hundred feet of the earth, j when he is sustained by the parachute.. 5' Should this fail to operate, death is ia- : &t4 editable. Abroad the balloon is still as. ' attraction, and especially in Mexico, Australia and the West Indies. Profeasor McKim, who has touted the civil- |? ized world, is one of the few experienced , >Ji aeronauts who find it difficult to abaa don the profession, about wmca men exists a fascination, even in tbe danger. Taken all in all, it is as great a game of .?5 chance as ever played by a man, witt ^ this difference?that the aeronaut has no opponent, and should he fail no one ie /' gainer through his defeat.?New York ^ Advertiser. A Great Wheel to Bun Big Cables. Many people have looked into the ;L;VJ? deep excavation made by the Third Avenue Cable Railroad Company for its new .'i| power-house, at Bayard street and the Bowery, and wondered why it is neceaeary to make such a big hole. Aftea a :*;Jj glance at the accompanying illustratioa they will know the reason. The picture shows one of the great $jg drive-wheels which will be used there to turn the cable. Four of these are being j made for tbe work at Cleveland, Ohio. A GREAT HOPE TRACTION WHEEL. These immense wheels are thirty-two feet in diameter, six feet oae inch wide, oa 'if the face, aad provided with twenty-two groves, each suitable for a inch rope. The finished weight of each wheel b seventy-five tons and they are among the largest ever made. ; The wheel, however, is only one part j of the powerful and complicated chinery which supplies the power to drive the cables. This machinery must necaasarily have great power in order to accomplish the work upon the Third aveaua road cow done by the horses. The contingency of its breaking down and stop- . ping traffic all along the line must, of course be provided for. This will be with a duplicate plant. The transportation of the big drive wheels from the shops where they are I made, and the setting of them in place in New York will be an expensive and somewhat difficult job.?New York World. A Colossal Piano. I BecKer, the manufacturer of pia nos fo* the Imperial Court of Russia, has received j from the Oourc Chamberlain, lamoua : millioanaire, Nestchjeff-Miltzeu, an or| der to make at a cost of 38,000 lite, a. 1 piano-forte which will truly be colossal. ! It wiU be supported on six legs, bound I to one another by garlands of sculptured * " A _ J / ? Jnn!/?na k?T wood, ricPiy gnaea, irom uc?jjuo ?.uo ^ ! architect Beaois; and its power of tone | will be triple that of an ordinary piano. i ?St. Louis Republic. The seventeen railroads of Minnesota VH made one and seven tenths per cent, on their capital stock last year. Seven HR earned dividends, seven made deficits ;;nd tivo more than earned the obligator* I charges. . ^ 1 r j&H - _