The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, January 25, 1893, Image 7
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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.
/