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r luOlLTALMAGEr ,?FHE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN. DAY SERMON [Subject; God Among the Birds." I ^Tkxt: "Behold the fowls of the airF? Matthew vi., 26. '' There is silence now in all our January forest?, except as the winds whistle through the bare branches. Our northern woods , are deserted concert halls. The organ lofts ifn the temple of nature are hymuless. Trees Which were full of carol and chirp and ch^nt .are now waiting for the coming back of rich plumes and warbling voices, solos, duets, quartetes. cantatas and Te Deutns. [But the Bible is full of birds at all seasons, and propheta and patriots and apostles, and ji;nrist nimseir, employ tnem ior morni auu [religious purposes, liy text is an extract 'from the sermon on the mount, and perhaps at was at a moment when a flock of birds 'flew past that Christ waved His hand toward jthem and said, "Behold the fowls of the airl" And so in this course of sermons on God everywhere I preach to you this third serjmon concerning the Ornithology of the [Bible; or, God Among the Birds. (' Most of the other sciences you may study dr not study as you please. Use your own judgment, exercise your own taste. But about this science of ornithology we have ^10 option. The divine command is positive pben it says in my text, "Behold the fowls Df the air!" That is, study their habits. Examine their colors. Notice their speed. See the hand of God in their, construction. It is easy for me to obey the command of Mie iexr, lor j. was urougui up smuug uuo raee of wings and from boyhood beard their matins at sunrise and their vespers at sunset. , Their nests have been to me a fascination, and my satisfaction is that I never robbed pne of them any more than,I would steal a child from a cradle, for a bird is a child of the sky, and its nest is the cradle. They are almost human,for they have their lores and bate?, affinities and antipathies, understand joy and grief, hare conjugal and maternal instinct, wage wars and entertain jeaiousies, hare a language of their own and powers of association. Thank God for birds and skies full of them! It is useless to expect to understand the Bible unless we study natural history. ' Five hundred and ninety-three times does the Bible allude to the facts of natural history, and I do not wender that it makes so many allusions ornithological. The skies and the caverns of Palestine are friendly to (be winged creatures, and so many fly and roost and nest and batch in that region that inspired writers do not have far to go to get ornithological illustration of divine truth, phere are over forty species of birds recognized in the Scriptures. Ob, what a variety of wings in Palestinej the dove, the robin, the ea^ie, the cormorant or ^plunging bird, hurling itself from Iky to wave and with long beak clutching tts prey; the thrush, which especially dislikes a crowd; the partridges; the hawk; Bold and ruthless, hovering head to windWard while watching for prey; the swan, at home among; the marshes and with feet so Coils trusted itoan walk on the leaves of water plants: the raven, the lapwing, malodorous and in the Bible denounced as inedible, though it. has extraordinary headdress; the stork; the ossifrage, that always had a habit of dropping on a stone the turtle It had lifted and so Killing it for food, and on one occasion mistook the bald head of Ifischylus, the Greek poet, for a white stone, and dropped a turtle upon it, killing the famous Greek; the cuckoo, with crested head and crimson, throat and wings snow tipped, but too lazy to build its own nest, ana so having the habit of depositing its eggs in nests belonging to other birds; the bluejay, the grouse, the plover, the magpie, the kingfisher, the pelican, which is the cari- . cature of all the leathered creation; the owl, the goldfinch, the bittern, the harrier, the bulbul, the osprey; the vulture, that king of scavengers, with neck covered with repulsive down instead of attractive feathers;thejquarrelsome starling; the swallow,flying a mile a yninute and sometimes ten hours in succosv jrion; the heron,the quail,the peacock,the ostrich, the lark, the crow, the kite, the bat, the blackbird and many others, with all colors, all sounds, all styles oC flight, all habit?, all architecture of nests, leaving - a nil. nothing wanting in suggeeuveness. xauy wore at the creation placed all aroand on the rocks and in the trees and on the ground to serenade Adam's arrival. They took their places on Friday, as tbe first man was made on Saturday. Whatever else he had or did not have, be should have music. The first sound that struck the human ear was a bird's voice. . Yea, Christian geology?for too know there is a Christian geology as well as an infidel -ceologr?-Christian g?ologv,oomas in an(fh?lp6 the Bible show what fre owe to the bird creation. Before the human race came into this world the world was occupied by reptiles and by alt sorts of destructive monsters?millions of creatures, loathsome and hideous. God sent huge birds to clear the earth of these creatures before Adam and Eve were created. The remains of these birds have been towed imbedded in the rocks. The skeleton of Lne eagle has been found twenty feet in height and fifty feet from tip of wing to tip of wing. Many armies of beaks and claws were necessary to clear the earth of creatures that would have luinuuul tha hnmon ram with nnfl plin. 1 like to find this harmony of revelation and science, and to have demonstrated that the God who made the world made the Bible. Mose?, the greatest lawyer of all time and great man for facts, had enough sentiment and poetry and musical taste to welcome the iilumiDHted wings and the voices divinely drilled into the first chapter of # Genisee. How should Noah, the old ship* carpenter, 600 years of a^e, find out when the world was lit ag<?Kc for human residence after the universal freshed A bird will tell, and nothing else can. No man can comedown from the mountain to invite Nosh and his family out to terra flrma, for the mountains were submerged. As a bird first heralded the human race into the world, now a bird will help the human race back to the world iLat had shipped a sea that whelmed everything. Noah stands on Sunday morning at the window of the ark, in his hand- a cooing dove, so gentle, so innocent, so affectionate, nrf haaaU' "Tfnn inv littln rinvft flv awav over these waters, explore and come bactc And tell us whether it is safe to land." After long flight it returned hungry and weary and wet, and by its looks and manners said to Noah and his family; "Ihe world is not fit for yon to disembark." Noah waited a week, and next Sunday morning ho let thi dove fly again for a second exploration, and Sunday evening it came bacK with a leaf that oad the sign of just having been plucked from a living fruit tree, and ihe bird reported the world would do tolerably well for a bird to live in, but not 7et sufficiently recovered for human residence. Noah waited another week, and next Sunday morning be sent out the dove on the third exploration, but it returned not, for it 'found the world no attractive now it did not want to be caged again, and then the emigrants from the antediluvian world landed. It was a bird that told them when' to'take possession or toe resuscitated planet. So the human race were saved by a bird's wing, for, attempting to land too soon, they WUU1U UttTQ pvi JOUVUI Aye, here comes a whole flock of doves? rock doves, ring dove*, stock doves? and they make iiaiah think ot great revivals and great iwakenings when souls fly for shelter like a flock of pigeons swooping to tha openiqg of a pigeon cood, and be cries , out* "Who are these that fly es doves to their, windows}" Ddvid, with Saul after him, and flying from cavern to cavern, com* pares himself to a desert partridge, a bird which especially h aunts rocky place;, and boys and hunters to this day take after it with stick;. lor the partridge runs rather than flies. David, chased and clubbed and harried of pursuer*. say*. '! am hunted as a partridge on the mountains." Speaking of his forlorn condition, he say?, "I ,im like a pelican in the wilderness." Describing his loneliness, he says, "I am a swallow alone on the housetop." Hezekiah, in the emaciation of his sickness, compares himself to a crane, thin ? -? ? --? T- ?- 1 a ? ?..~u ||. ana wftswo, uwuau su utuvu wi uwv.v uo could not sleep nighte, and he describes his insomnia by saying, "I am a companion to owls." Isaiah compares the desolations of "banished Israel to an owl and bittern and cormorant among a city's ruins. jeremian, describing the cruelty of parents toward children, compares them to the ostrich, who leaves its eggs in the sand uacared tor, crying, 'The daughter of mjr people is become like the ostriches of the wilder-" ness." Among: the provisions piled on Solomon's bountiful table he speaks of "faujd rowi.- th? Israelites In tbe desert got tired | of manna and they had quails?quaih for breakfast, quails for dinner, quails for supper, and they died of quails. Tbe Bible refers to the migratory oabits of the birds and say?, "The stork anoweth her appointed time and the turtle and the crane and tbe swallow the time of their going, but my people know not the judgments of the Lord." Would the prophet illustrate the fate of fraud, he points to a failure at incubation and says, "As a partridge sittetb on ejfgs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in tbe midst of his days and at his end shall be a fool." The partridge, the most careless of all birds in choice of its olacc of nest, build* | m}{ ii< on toe ground ana oiwn near s irequented road or in a slight depression of ground, without reference to safety, and soon a hoof or a scythe or a cart wheel ends all. So says the propnet, a man whd gathers under him dishonest dollars will hatch out of them no peace, no satisfaction, no happiness, no security. What vivid similitude! The quickest way to amass a fortune is by iniquity, but the trouble is about keeping it Every hour of every day some such partridge is driven off the nest. Panica are onlv a flutter of partridges. It is too tedious work to become rich in the old fashioned way, and if a man can by one falsehood make as much aa by ten years of hard labor, why not tell it? And if one counterfeit check will bring the dollars as easily as gwuume o?ua, UJ uv? make it? One year's fraud will be equal to a half a lifetime's sweat. Why not live solely by one's wits? A fortune thus built will be Arm and everlasting. Will it?'' Hal build your house on a volcano's crater; go to sleep on the bosom of an avalanche, rbe volcano will blase, and the avalanche will thunder. There are estates which have been coming together from age to age. Many years ago that estate started in a husband's industry and a wife's economy. It grew from gen5ration to generation by good habits and High minded enterprise. Old fashioned industry was the mine from which that gold was dug, and God will keep the deeds of such an estate in His buckler. Foreclose your mortgage, spring your snap judgments, plot with acutest intrigue against a tamily propirty like that and you cannot do it a permanent damage, Better than warrantee ieedand better than fire insurance is the defense which God's own hand will give it. But here is a man to-day as poor as Job ifter he was robbed by satan of everything ?ut his boils, yet suddenly to-morrow he if i rich man. There is no accounting for his tuddea affluence. He has not yet failed iitATi nnousrh to become wealthy. No one pretends to account for bis princely ward* robe, or the chased silver, or tbe fall curbed rteeds that rear and nei<b like Bucephalus in the grasp of his coachman. Did be come to a sadden inheritance? No. Did be make ft fortune on purchase and sale? No. Every' nody asks where did that partridge hatch. Tbe devil suddenly threw nim up, and the devil will suddenly let him coma down. That hidden scheme God saw from tbe first conception of the plot. That- partridge, swift disaster wili sboot it down, and the higher it flies the harder it falls. 7.'he prophet saw, as you and I have often seen, the awful mistake of partridges. But from thb top of a Bible fir tree I hear the shrill cry of tbe strork. Job, Ez9kiel, Jeremiah, speak of it. David cries out, "As for tbe stork, the fir tree is her house." This large white Bible bird is supposed, without alighting sometimes to wing it< way from the region of the Rhine to Africa. As winter comes all tbe storks fly*to warmer cliuies and the last one of their number that arrives at the spot to which they migrate is killed by them. What havoc it would make in our species if those men were killed who are always behind! In oriental cities tbe stork Is domesticated ana wanes aooui oa baa street and will follow its keeper. In the city of Ephesus I saw a long row of pillars, on tha top of each pillar a stork's nest. But the word "stork" ordinarily means mercy and affection, from the fact that this bird was distinguished for its (peat lore for its parents. It never forsakes them, and even after they become feeble protects and provides for them. In migrating the old storks lean their necxs on the young storks, and when the old ones give oat the young ones carry them on their backs. God forbid that a dumb stork should have more heart than we. Blessed is that table at which an old father and mother sit; blessed that altar at which an old father and mother kneel 1 What it is to have a mother they know best who have lost her. God only knows the agony she suffered for u?, the times she wept over our cradle and the anxious sigty her bosom heaved as we lay upon it, the tick nights when she watchel ns long after every one was tired out but God and herself. Her lifeblood beats in our hearts, and her image lives in our face. That man is graceless as a cannibal who ill treats bis parents, and he who begrudges them daily bread and clothes them but shabbily, may God have patience with him, I cannot. I heard a man once say, "I now have my old mother oa my hands." Ye storks on your way with food to your aged parents, shame him I But yonder in this Bible sky flies a bird that is speckled. The prophet describing the chnrcb cries out, "Juoe heritage is oato me as a speckled oird; the birds round ' ^ woo than an BDoai Bre agauuii mu. uv? " ..v., ? it :3 now Holiness pickel at Consecration nicked at. Benevolence picked at. Usefulness picked at. A speckled bird is a peculiar bird; and that arouses the an tipathy of all the beatcs of the forest. The church of God is a peculiar institution, and that is enough to evoite attack of of the world, for it is a speckled bird to be picked at. The inconsistencies of Christians are a banquet on which multitudes get ({it. They ascribe everything you do to wroje motives. Pat a dollar in the poor box ana they will say that you dropped it there only that yoa might hear it ring. Invite tnem to Christ and they will call you a fanatic. Let there be contention among Christians, and they will say: "Hurrah 1 The church is in decadence " Christ intended that His church should always remain a speckled bird. Let birds of another feather pick at her, but they cannot rob b?r of a single plume. litKe tne albatross, she can sleep on tb6 bosom of a tempest. She has goue through the fires of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace and not got burned; through the waters of the Red sea and not been drowned; through the shipwreck on the breakers of Melitia and not been foundered. Let all earth and hell try to hunt doivn this speeded bird, but far above human scorn and infernal assault it shall I sing over every mountain top and fly over every nation, and her triumphant soni shall be: "The church o'Gtod! The pillar and ground of the truth. The gates of hell shall not prevail against her." But we cannot stop here. From a tall cliff hanging over the sea I hear the eagle calling unto the tempest and lifting its wings to smite the whirlwind. Moses, Jeremiah, Hosea aad Habakk.uk at times in their writings take their pen from the eagle's wing. It is a bird with fierceness in its eye. its leet armed with claws of iron anj its head with a dreadtul beak. Two or three of ?them can fill the heavens witn clangor. But generally this monster of .the air is alone ' and unaccompanied, for the reason th ?t its habits are so predacious it requires five or tso miles of aerial or earthly dominion ali for itself. ? The black brown of it* back, and the white of its lower feather?, and the Are of its eye, and the long flap of its wine make glimpse of it as it swings down into the r?Iley to pick no a rabbit, or a lamb, or a child and then swings back to its throne on the rock something never to be forgotten. Scat* tered about its eyrie of altitudinou? solitude are the bonea of its conquests. Bat while the beak and the claws of the eagle are the terror of all the travelers of the air, the mother eagle is most kind and gentle to her youne. God compares His treatment of His people to the eaele's care of the eaglet*. Deuteronomy xxxii., 11, '-As an eagle stirreth ud her nest, fluttertfth over her young, spreading abroad her wings, taketh them, heareth them on her wings, so the Lord done did lead." The old eagle first shoves the youn^ one out of the nest in order to make it fly, and then takes it on her back and flies with it ind shakes it off in th? air, and if it seems 111.. 11; mi Inlrli. A. ,.~A... If. . ?tm\raa nao laiuug v(uiuntj uicn uuu?i ?v ??? ? it on her win? again. So God does with us. Disaster, failure in business, disappointment, bereavement, is only God's way of shaking ns out of our comfortable nest in >rder that we may learn how to fly. You ?rho are complaining that you have no faith >r courage of Christian zeal have had it too sasy. "Sou never will learn to fly in that jomfortable nest. Like an eagle,Christ has carried us on His Met. At times we have been shaken off, ? ind when *e were about to fall He camn under us again and brought us out of the zloomy valley to the tunny mountain. Never an eagle brooied with such love and i Bare over her young as God's wings have. been over us. Across what oceansoCtrouble; we have gone In safety upon the Almighty \ wingBl From what mountains of sin we; have been carried and at times hare been borne up far above the gunshot of the world and the arrow of the devil! When our time on earth is closed on these great wings of God we shall speed with infinite quicltneas Irom earth's mountains to heaven's hills, and a3 from the eagle's circuit under the sun men on the ground seem imall and insignificant as lizards on a rook, to all earthly things shall dwindle into a speck, and the raging river of death so far beneath will seam smooth and glassy as a Swiss lake. It was thought in ancient times chat an eagle could, not only molt its feathers in old age, but that after arriving to great age it would renew its strength and become en* tlrely young again. To this Isaiah alludes when he says: "Ihey that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. Thav shall mount up with wings of eagles." Eren so the Christian in old age will renew bis spirit* aal strength. He shall be young in ardor uid enthusiasm for Christ, and as the body feils the soul will grow in elasticity till at ieath it will spring up like a gladdened child into the bosom of God. Yea, in this ornithological study I see that Job says, "His days fly as an eagle that tiasteth to his pray." The speed of a hungry sagle when it saw its prey a score of miles iistant' was unimaginable. It want like a thunderbolt for speed and power. So fly jut days. Sixty minutee, each worth a heaven, since we assembled in this plaoe nave shot like lightning into eternity. The ?ld earth ' is rent and cracked under the iwift rush of days and months and years indagt*. "Swiftas an eagle that hasteth ? his pray." Behold the fowls of the air 1 Have you oonsidered that they hare, as you ind Ihavenot, the power to change tneir ~%it one mfnute they may be telenopio'and the next microscopic, now seeing omething a mile away and by telescopic iresight* and then dropping to its food on ihe ground, able to see It close by and with nicroscopic eyesight? o aananloofl nAOfiftffA f\t SrnnnfcnfA sbat is, until you know the fact, which says, "The sparrow hath found a house and the i wallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, 0 Lord of Boats, my King and my (loci 1" What has the iwallow to do with the altars of the temple it Jerusalem? Ah, you know that swAllows ire all the world over very tame, and in rammer time they used to fly into the windows and doors of the temple at Jerusalem and build a nest oa the altar where the priests were offering sacrifices. These swallows brought leaves and sticks ind fashioned nests on the altars of the temple and hatched the young Sparrows in those nests, and David bad seen the young birds picking their way out of the shell wnile the old swallows watched, and no one in tho temple was cruel enough to disturb either the old swallows or the young swallows, and David burst out In rhapsody, saying, "The swallow hath found a nest for herself, where Bhe may lay her youn?, even Thine altars, 0 Lord of Hosts, my King and my God!" What carpenters, what masons, what weavers, what spinners the birds are! Out of what small resources they make so exquisite a home, curved, pillared, wreathed. Out of mosses, out of sticks, out of lichens, out of horsehair, out of spiders' web, out of threads swept from the door by the house - - At? Wire, OQC OI CUB WOW Ol IU? autny uuill kin pasture field. Upholstered by leaves actually sewed together by Its own sharp bill. Cushioned with feathers from its 'own breast. Mortared together with the gum of trees and the saliva of its own tiny bill. Such symmetry, such adaptation, such convenience, such geometry of structure. Surely these nests were built by some plan. They did not happen just so. Who drafted the plan for the bird's nest? God I And do you not think that if He plans such a house for a chaffinch, for an oriole, for a bobolink; for a sparrow, He will see to it that you always nave a home? ''Ye are of more value than many sparrows." Whatever else surrounds you, you can have what the Bible calls "the feathers of the Almighty." Just think of a nest like that, the warmth of it, the softness of it, the safety of it?"the feathers of the Almighty." No flamingo outflsshing the tropical sunset ever had such brilliancy of pinion; no robin redbreast ever had plumage dashed with such crimson and purple and orange and gold?"the feathers of the Almighty." Do you not feel the touoh of them now on forehead and cheek and spirit, and was there ever such tenderness of brooding?"the feathers of the Almighty?" So also in this ornithology of the Bible God keeps imDressing us with the anatomy of a bird's wing. Over fifty times does the old Book allude to the wing?"Wings of a dove," "Wings of the morning," "Wings of the wind,*' "San of righteousness with healing in hu wings," "wings of tha Almighty, "AJi fowl of every wing." Wnat does it all mean? It suggests uplifting. It tells you | of flight upward. It means to remind you that you yourself have wings. David cried out, M0b, that I had wings Jitce a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest !n Thank God that you have better wings than any dove of longest or swiftest flight. Caged now in bars of flesh are those wings, but the day oomes when they will be liberated. Get ready for ascension. Take the words of the old hymn, and to the tune unco Which that hymn is married sing: .R'<se, my soul and stretch thy wing; Thjr oetter portion trace. Up out of these lowlands into the heavens of bigher experience and wider prospect. But how shall we rise? Only as God's holy spirit gives us strength. But that is coming now. ifot as a condor from a Chimborazo peak, swooping upon the affrighted valley, nut at a dove like that which put its soft brown wings over the wet locks of Christ at the baptism in the Jordon. Dove of gentle* oeas! Dove of peace I Coma, holy spirit, heavenly dors. With all thr quickening powers; ' Como skied abroad a Saviour's lore, And that shall kindle onrs. WORDS OP WISDOM. The egoist is the first to criticise self* isbness. The only rain gift is that which benefits cot the giver. It is not always the man who looks Like a fool who is one. It is easier to let the hair grow long than to write a book. Conduct is the great profession. What \ man does tells us what he is. An honest man who dofends a bad character attacks hi3 own dignity. He who despises mankind will never get the best of either others or himaolf. A man generally loses his interest in a . subject after his own arguments are exhausted. 'A tnai may sow and another reap, but the sower of wild oats usually reaps the harvest himself. A man should make sacrifices to keep clear of doing a wrong; sacrifices won't tii'ln if nkan ifc'n flnn?. Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence which may brinj; upon you any noble feeling. A Dainty Lltt!j Buttercup. A dainty and faujinating little creature monopolized much of the attention of the occu^/uiics of the reviewing stand near the Worth monument on Decoration Day. It was a human buttercup?a little girl not more than five years old attired from top to toe in the golden hue3 of the buttercup. Her little frock of silken texture glistened in the sunlight like a real dew laden buttercup. Her tiny shoes were golden in color, and on the sprite's curly head was a Jaunty little hat of yellow covered all over with buttercups. A sweet and roguish face peeped from beneath the hat, and the restless activity and continuous prattle of the ?hild gave some of the occupants of the stand more pleasure than did the process *ion.?New York Times. j RELIGIOUS READING. DAY BY DAY. . If I were told that I must die tomorrow, That the next sun Which sinks should bear me past all fearaud sorrow For any one, All the fight fought, and all the short journey through, What should I do? I do not think that I should shrink or falter, But just go on Doing my work, nor change nor seek to alter Aught that is done: But rise, and move, aud love, u? smile, and pray For one more day. And lying down at night for a last sleeping, Say in the Ear Which hearkens ever: "Lord, within Thy keeping How should I fear? And when tomorrow brings Thee nearer still, Do Thou Thy will." I might not sleep for awe; but peaceful ten* der, My soul would lie All the night long; and when the morning apieoaor Flashed o'er tbe skv I think that I could smile, could calmly say, "It is His day!" Let me keep on, abiding and unfeaiing Thy will always; Through a long century's ripening fruition. Or a short day's; Thou canst not come too soon, and I can wait If Thou come late. ?[8uaan Coolidge. THE TRUE MASTERY. There are two sorts of mastery over men ?one is exercised by lordship; the other ia attained by ministry: The one js held by the accidents of power, wealth and position; tbe other is of personal power?a mastery not demanded, yet freely acknowledged. Two of the discipies requested that Christ would give them high place In Hi9 kingdom. Jesus replied by enunciating the law of ele vation in ilia realm, ".tie was wm oe cmei, let him be servant of all.'' This is the true mastery, best illustrated by Christ himself. "For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Not by the majesty of his divinity, not by the display of miraculous power, not by the authority of kingship did Jesus assume mattery among men, but by serving men in a spirit of love, by sympathizing with tbem, by identifying himself with them in all their experiences, whether of joy or of sorrow. What mastery Lincoln exercised over men! Why? Not because of his position nor on account of his intellectual superiority, but because be thrust himself like a strong arm beneath the needy and made all whocime to him feel the tender might of his heart. He became chief because he became servant of all, and this law of all supremacy [ stated by Christ finds illustration right about us every uay. who nave snapeu auu i influenced our lives? Are tbev not those who have invested themselves for us? Who have given to our interests their'constant en* deavor? Their mastery we recognize when instinctively we tnrn to them in our overburdening cares and perplexities. Not to the most talented, to the wisest, but to those who have bound us to tbem by their selfdenying ministries we go in the crisal hours of life.?[Christian Advocate. prayer. It seems to me that prayer is the art of finding heaven wherever we arc; of coming into touch, even amidst the commonest surrounding*, with things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard. Friends, our life is> a pretty hard one and full of sharp contradictions. We cannot live steadily in contact with visible things and beat the same time acquiring the resources that shall make us able to confront the dangers and difficulties that a world of visible things steadily brings with it. Trees root in the ground and leaf in the air. Christians mutt root in the air and leaf at the ground. It does not quite reach the mark to say that Christian life Is compoged of little deeds patiently done, little words faithfully said. Christian life ia not "composed." "Composed'' means put together. Christian life is not "put together." Christian life is celestial supply, secured by dwelling in heavenly places, communing with heavenly powers; and daily Christian living is the process or expending in the valley what we have first gained in the heights. Tfaat was the art of Christ's life, and must be the art of every life that will essay to imitate His in purity, beauty anil power. Prayer ia not, first of all, asking for things; asking for life, for health, for prosperity ; nor is it, even asking for a little of ' this, that, or the other heavenly grace; like the housewife that stepsupto the counterwith her orders and goes away with a half-dozen little packages of culinary commodities. The branch does not come up to the vine and say, "0 blessed vine! give me, I pray thee, a little sap and a little iibrc and a little bark and a little cbilorophyl." The branch is united to the vine, "lives in the vine, and the vine-life becomes in the branch both sap. libre, bark, buds, leaves and chlorophyl.? fThe Evangelist. THE TWO ELEMENTS IN PRAYER. Every true praver has its background ana its foreground. The foreground of prayer is tbe intense, immediate de?ire for a certain blessing which teems to be absolutely necessary for tbe soul to have; tbe background of prayer is tbe quiet, earnest desire tbat tbe will of God. whatever it may be, should be done. What a picture is tbe perfect prayer of Jesus in Qethsemane! In front bnrns tbe strong desire to escape death and to live; but behind there stands, calm and strong, the craving of the whole life for the doing of the will of God. In front, the man's eagerness for life; behind, ''He that formeth the mountains and createth tbe winds and declareth unto man his thought, that maketb ' the morning darknes*. and trendeth upon tbe high places of tbe earth." In front, the teeming plain; behind, tbe solemn bills. I can see tbe picture of tbe prayer with absolute clearness. Leave out the foreground?let there be no expression of cbe wish of him who prays?, and there is left a pure submUsion which is almost fatalism. Leave out the background ?let there be no acceptance of ihe will ol God?and the prayer is only an expression of self-will, a petulant claiming of tbe uncorrected choice of him who prays. Only when the two, foreground and background ?are there together?the special desire resting on the universal submission, the universal submission opening into the special desire?only then is the picture perfect and the prayer complete 1?[Phillips Brooks. SOLITUDE. Mr. Webster used to say of a difficult question,'Let me sleep on it.' It was not merely for morning vigor, but to get the mutter nt a distance where he could measure its proportions and see its relations. So it is well at times to get away from our worldcompanions, actions, work?in order to measure it and n$.*ertain our relations to it. The moral use of the niiiht is in the isolation it brings shutting out the world from the senses, that it may be realized in thought, i It is very simple advicc.but worth heeding. Get some moments fach day to yourself; take now und then a *o!ltary walk; get into the sMence of thick woods, or some other isolation as deep, and suffer the mysterious sen^e of selfhood to steal upon you, as it surely will. Pythagoras insisted upon au hour of solitude every day, to meet his own mind and learn what oracle it had to impart.?[On the Threshold. A carping spirit rarely goes with a working spirit. It is easier to find fault, with what some one else does than it is to do something one's self; hence a man who enjoys doing the easier thing is disinclined to do the harder one. As a rule, men are divided into the two classes of those who growl and those who work, and each class is alike devoted to his own mission. But when it come9 to the relative worth in the community of the two classes, everybody can see the difference. \ i . SABBATH SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOR JANUARY 29. Lesson Text: "The Spirit of the Lord," Zech. iv., 1^10?Golden Text: Zecb. iv., 6? Commentary. 1. "And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me, as a man that ii wakened out of his sleeo." The mortal bodj can stand but little of joy or sorrow without refreshing sleep. Even on the mount of transfiguration and in the garden of Gsthsemane, the most joyful and the most sorrowful events of Scripture, we see holy men asleep. As to an angel's touch see I Kings xix., 5, 7; Acts xii., 7; Dan. x., 10, and remembop that t.hAf mlnififfli* unfn vnn if wan are an heir of salvation (Eeb. 1., 14). A spiritual sleep or inability to grasp or even become interested very much in the things of God is greatly to be deDlored, but is very common even among Christians. Cares and riches and pleasures of this life choke the word (Luke viii., 14). Following men instead of the ma.N, or depending upon ordinances instead of upon Him, tend to spiritual sleep (I Cor. iii., 1; xi., 30). But see Rom., ziii. 11; Eph. v., 14, and let us ask God by His Spirit to awaken us at any oost. 2. "And said unto me, Whatteeet thou? And I said, I have looked, and, behold, a candlestick all of gold." The proiphet would think of the golden candlestick of the tabernacla aud those of tfie temple. They gave light in the holy place and were" daily trimmed and replenished with oiJ. Israel had been chosen and brought out of Egypt to be a light for God among the nations. Their sin and captivity had obscured the light, which was God, in their midst. The prophet is now being taught that God will yet make Israel a lignt notwithstanding her present desolate condition. Not only shall she be cleansed and clothed as in the pretfintio wiaisxn Knf okoll Ka aai/l rv ' won? v tviw v iciuuf uuv iv auMit w oaiu nv uw . "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." "The Lord shall be unto thee an overlasting light, and thy G.od thy glory" (Isa. lx, 1, 19, 20). 3. "And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof." By reading verse II] with verses 2 and 3 it would seem that the prophet saw a lampstand bearing seven lamps; a great central bowl having either one or seven pipes leading to each lamp; then on tbe other side an olive tree, with a golden pipe from each tree to - the central bowl?in other words, a self-supplying lampstand apart from any help of man. 4. "s5o I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my Lord?" This question is repeated in verses U and 12 ana answered in verse 14, and as those verses are not included in the lesson this is the place to consider them. As without the oil there could bs no light and without tbe trees no oil, we see the importance of tbis question and answer. What then is meant by the two anointed ones? The only class of people anointed in Scripture are priests and kings (a prophet once). Jesasis the great Priest-King. He was typeQed in these offices by Aaron and Moses, but at the time of the lesson by Joshua of the prevous chapter and Zerubbaebl of this chapter. If you would be a light in this world for Him, you must know Him not only as your priest, having put away your sias and living to make intercession for you, but also your personal king or lord or proprietor, you being ready to do whatever He may appoint. 5. "Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my Lord." See also verse 13, Confession of ignorance, combined with willingness to be taught, is a good attitude of soul, and where this is found God will send a teacher?-an angel if need be?to show us that which is noted in the Scripture of Truth (Dan. x., 21). See the story of Cornelius and Peter and the angel in Acts x. 6. "This is the word of the Lorduntj Zerubbabel, saying Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirif, saith tne Lord oi Hosts." Not the wisdom nor the might of man, but only the Spirit of Cod can accomplish any work for God. We are not to glory in wisdom or riches or might, but only in the Lord (Jer. ix., 23, 24). Jesus said, "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John xv., 5) And even the men wbo had been nearest to Him had to wait for the decent of the Spirit, that they might be enaured with power for service (Luke xxiv., 49; Acts i.t 8). 7. "Who art thou, O great mountain? fiAfnra 7omKhtiho] thnn ah A. It? ft plain." A mbuntain may represent any great difficulty and is sometimes used bo represent a kingdom (Jer. li., 34, 35). The kingdom of aatan shall yet be thrown down. All the kingdoms of this world shall yet become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. xi., 13). The true Zerubbabel (disperser of confusion) shall yet be manifest in Jesus of Nazareth as head of the church, Messiah of Msreal, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and from beginning to end the work shall ba seen to be all of grace. 8. "Moreover, the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying," while all else may pass away the Word of our Qod shall stand forever, and he that doeth the will of God abideth forever (Isa. xlM 8; I John it, 17). "Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in Heaven (Ps. cxix., 89). 9. "The hands of Zsrubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it." This was literally true of that building. See Ex. vi., 14. It shall be true oc Jesus and all that the Father has given Him to do. He finished the work of atonement (John xviL, 4). He will finish the building of His body, the church; He will put away the ioiquity of Israel and bring in everlasting rigateousness for h?r. and tl6 win nu me wnoie eari-u wn>u uu glory. He will subdue all things unti Himself and giva back to the Father a perfect earth without sin or stain (Eph. i., 32, 23; Dan ix., 24; isa. x:., 9; I Cor. xv.. 23>. For your own personal comfort eat, It Tim- f? 12; Phil. i.. 6. 10. "For who hath despised ?he day of small things?" It is not the seen but the unseen that moves the believer, w&o, like Mosee, endures as seeing Him wbgis invisible (Heb. xi., 27; II Cor. iv., 17, 13k He, by the grace of Go j. is able to say with Asia, "Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power" ill Chron. xiv., LI), and with Jonathan, "There 'is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few" (I Sam. xiv., 6). The Lord chooses the weak things of the world, and things which are not, to bring to naught things wnich are, for He will have no llesh to glory in His presence (1 Cor. i., -7, 28). Then see tne comfort in the last clause of this verse of our lessou and put with it II Caron. xvi., 9, ani take it hone to yourself, and be scrong in the Lord and in the power of His might itSph. vi? 10). He strong and worif, for the Lord is with you (H/.g. ii.. 4).?Lsssod Helper. The vigilance of the national goverment in deciding to send three nt t-iiA TTnit.pfl States pu^axuiaus ui >uU Marine Hospital service to Europe, for the purpose of devising precautionary measures against cholera merits the cordial commendation of all Americans. It would be a mistake to suppose that the danger is past. The experience of former plagues shows that next spring and jummer are the seasons when the Akelihood of a cholera epidemic is greatest. If it gets here it will, undoubtedly, come through immigration. The government physicians will travel incognito, and will exercise careful supervision over all ports of departure for immigrants. They will examine the sanitary conditions surrounding them at the time of their embarkation, and will supervise the disinfection of persons, vessels, baggage, and cargoes destined for this* country. United States Consuls will be instructed to cooperate with them, and their combined efforts cannot fail to reduce .greatly the probability of cholera reaching us, even if Congress takes uo more stringent measures to exI elude it. FASHION'S LATEST EDICTS. PBETTY MILLINERY. . 4 Several New Styles In Cloaks. Cameos Are Returning. The Little Woman Threat. fILLINERY for the winter is / variously < novel and beautiful. 1 This initial hat, with a velvet crown, is ( suitable for a little girl. The brim is white felt, and the crown may be black, blue, or orange velvet. Running around it ia | a white silk cord, which forms ornaments on one side, i holding three white quills.the tops of which are shaded to the color of the velvet The cloak shown in the picture is trim- i med with long lines of passementerie that j i| CLOAK TRIM If ED WITH PA3SEME5TBRT*. come half-way down the cloak, and end in loose tassels. Down the box-pleat a line goes all the way. There is an impression of grace invariably made by a garment th'at follows only profile outlines and that is trimmed in straight lines. A woman couldn't be awkward if she tried in this cloak. Don't think that the little woman with no figure is going to look badly in 9 "" ?.-rrT-.-. A STYLISH ULSTZB. j short waisted dress. She may not have much figure, bat she is going to look about > 1 13 years old if her face permits it at all, and ( that is an advantage. One little woman I have in mind wore an absurd creation of { i MANTLE WITH FUR COLLAR AKD TVR EDGE. cheesecloth in light blue. It was short* waisted and the sash had a big rosette in the middle of the back almost between the shoulders. Sbe had tbe sort of figure jne refers to as flat. But what of that? This is the sort of figure an undeveloped girl has, and behold the little woman looked about 13 or 14. Since she was not rbat at all, but a very smart little woman who had really never had her fair chance in the late fashions, she sailed iu and wiped out the other little women completely. She tripped ^ about, held up her little gown and did baby talk. She took up the paper knife and said ^ to the old fellow, who was already her j slave, ''You let me alone or I'll take this dagger and dag you." and it made the. ' biggest hit of the whole evening. The ulster has held its own for many * 1 T r? :* 11 #A*a,roc Of onnrNfl ^ yeurs, anu 1 iujilv n mu iv/iovi. >/ each year sees mollifications, but any heavy outer garment, comiim to the heels and titted to the figure is an ulster. Of late it has ^ had a cape. This year it has several, and is ^ all the more stylish. Take the rear view of a girl with a triple-caped ulster. The correct ^ triple cape, of course, has the longest well a' to the waist, the next to the shoulders, and II the third a mere collar. Each cape is edged 01 with fur, and there is a high standing collar C edged with fur, too. And the sleeves?you 5( can't see them, but you know there is fut g about the trim little wrists'that are so nicelv g( * gloved with dog-skin. The square toetf shoes peep to and fro from under the long edge of the ulster, and ,the chin is almost buried in the high collar. After all, a girt never looks better than she does in a rest stylish ulater. Now, it just suits this girl's style, her rosy, round face, her crisp bong under her felt hat and that shade of mixed blue and "brown that is just the thing for hazel eyes. THE FASHION HINT. Cameos Are Coming Back and Afford Opportunities For Individual Taste. The wnmnn shown in the nicture. With % :orkscrew twist'in her poBe (she is looking back to see what the other woman has on), has a short mantlo with u for collar and * fur edge. It is a pretty garment, whose advantage is that it does not absorb the whole costume and gives an opportunity for tha gown to produce its effect Cameos will come back if the little short waisted street dresses do, and the quaint little pokes that used to- go with them. Many of us have a cameo or so tucked away. Bring them out, in their old setting jcut as theyaro. The big oval pin that- grand* mamma used to wear, with the profile of tier long departed husband cut on it, will do ( very nicely, though it woaid be more picturesque if it were the features of the deli* cate little lady instead of thoee of her speuae carved thereon. By the way, do you know thatthere'are cameo cotters in every large city? Mqst of them are very poor, and will, for little more than price of the stone, cut for you a likeness of yourself or of any- ' sue from a picture profile, of course, ft is such a pretty present to make just now when cameos or sure to be quite the thing presently. A cloak of the season is one that bfngi . Btraight and fall from the shoulders and giving a square outline. It pertainly isn't grace* fulor pretty, but it ia very stylish. This. -v part of the cloak is made of the veiy latest rage in cloth, th^ground being Of one color Air <?D CXOAK. c " . with raised dots all over it of a contrasting color. I saw one of gray ground withroyaL ; purple spots. To the cloak part is added m % very full cape that is about shoulder length, but so full that it stood straight out from the collar to its edge at the shoulders. The cape was plain gray trimmed wfth silver passementerie, and it had the erer-fcrgsent little box-pleat in the back. No outline could be queerer than that made by the back view if this cloak, but it was stylish. I also saw Lta same sort - of cloak made in white with ' yellow spots, and a white cape trimmed with {old passementerie It was lined with ydjow satin. | . , CURIOUS FACTS. S| 5 I ' :t ' ' W,' Gemany leads in spectacle wearers.. . - ? In China every village has its theatre. Many suits of armor worn in the Fourteenth Century weighed 175 pounds jach. The Roman kitchens were marble j . paved and furnished with pictures and statues. . Among the French dainties of the Fifteenth Century were fried leeches and bashed porpoise. Some 35,000 lambs are being fad and fattened in the Caohe la Poudre Valley, Colorado, this winter. It is said that in ho other Nation bsddes the United States a^e handcuffs aade use of to secure criminal*. A. Boston man is taid to hare mortgaged hit parents'graves in Mount Hope Jemeterj to meet a note of $109. Philip, the Duke of Burgundy, spent N nuch time in contriving trap-doori m lis house and grounds to souse unwaty itrangers in water beneath. Next to money Rembrandt, the nbtei irtist, loved nothing so well as hi* nonkey. He shed tears when the ape lied and painted a portrait of his pet rom his memory. A little Japanese girl is allowed to ceep her teeth white as pearls until after . iei^marriage; then she must stain them >lack. It is a great deal of trouble to lo this, and the process must be often epeaieu. The number of drug stores in the Joited States is said to be 34,000, of vhich 10,649 are in the Eastern States. This makes about one drus: store to ivery three doctors, and one to 1700 inlabitants. It is said that in Thomas Coaotj, # lansas, there is pot a single stream of , iving water or a taoe of natural growth. Nevertheless the farmers manage to aise Wheat that averages thirty bushels jo the acre. One of the blacksmith shops in Willamsport, Penn., has just celebrated Its :entenniat. It is estimated that eight ^ hoes, on an average, have been nailed ipon homes' feet every work day during ( he century, making a total ot about 150,000 shoes. ' If twelve persons were to agree to ine together every day, but 'never sit , V xactly in the same order around the ible, it wcild take 18,000,000 years at be rate of one dianer a day, and they rould have to eat more than 470,000.00 dinners bwfore they could get tirough all the possible arrangements in rhich they could _placo theisselvvja. "If you contemplate going to th? World's Fair," suggests the Memphis .ppeal-Avalanche, "take a tent, a uantity of pemmican, corned beef nd Lieblg's extract, and a gondola. a this way you will be independent f tbe hotel-keepers and hackmen of hicago." But you will have to pay ) cents, mark you, to get into tfc? rounds. You can't escape altoether. /