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p''' IeOr. talmageT ACHE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN. DAY SERMON. Subject: "The Wall of Heaven." y r Text: "The foundations of the wall of t the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones."?Revelation ixi., 19. P Shall I be frank and tell you what are ray designs on you to-day? They are to make you homesick for heaven: tp console you concerning your departed Christian friends by giving you some idea of the brilliancy of tUe scenes in which they novr commingle: to S've all who lore the ljord a more elevated ea as to where they are going to pass the most of the yeare of their existence, and to ? 6et all the indifferent and neglected to quick | and immediate preparation, that they may have it likewise. , ' Yea, it is to induce many of our youag people to study a volume of God that few ^ ever open, but without some acquaintance V ."with which it is impossible to uaderstaod H the Bible?I mean the precious stones, their W crystalization, their powers of refraction, r .their cleavage, their fracture, their luster, their phospboresence, their transparency, their infinity of color and shape, and what they had to do with the welfare and doom of families and the destiny of nations?aye, oositive revelation they make of God Himself. . itiv text stands us in the presence of the most stupendous spienuur ut iiUDuuiiusr, | and that is the wall of heaven, and says of its foundations that they are garnished with all manner of precious stone3. All the ancient cities had walls for safety, and fceavea has a wall for everlasting safety. "You may say that a wall made up of all manner of precious stones is figurative, but you cannot understand the force and significance of the figure unless you know something about the real structure and color and - value of the precious stones mentioned. Now, I propose this morning, so far as the Lord may help me, to attempt to climb not the wall of heaven, but the foundations of the wall, and I ask you to join me in the attempt to scale some of the heights.. We 4 shaJ I only get part of the way up, but better that than to stay down on the stupid level where the most of us have all our lives been standing. We begin olear down at the bottom and where the wall begins. The first layer of the foundation, reaching all around the city and for 1500 miles, is a layer of jasper. Indeed there is more of jasper in the wall of . heaven than of any other brilliant, because it not onlv composes I a part of tha foundation, but makes up th9 chief part of'the superstructure. The jasper is a congregation of many colors. It is brown, it is yellow, it is green, it is vermilion, it is red, it is purple, it is black, and is so striped with colors that much of it is called ribbon jasper. It is found in Siberia and Egypt, but it is rare in most lands and of great value, for it IB SO nara UJO uruuiai * yt uunom uuiuvu break it off from the places where it has been deposited. The workmen bore holes into tip rock of jasper, then drive into these 0 holes sticks of dry birch wood, and then saturate the sticks and keep them saturated until they swell enough to split the rock, and the fragments are brought out and polished and transported and cut into oameos and put behind tbe glass doors of museums. - The portraits of Roman emperors were cut into it. The finest intaglio ever seen is in the Vatican museum, the head of Minerva in jasper. By divine arrangement jasper adorned the breastplate of the high priest in the ancient temple. But its most significant position is where it glows and burns and darkens and brightens and preaches from the lowest stratum of the wall of heaven. Olad am I that the very first row of stones In the wall of heaven is jasper of many colors, and if you like purple it is purple, and it you like brown it is brown, and if you like green it is green, ana u you nice ocaer yoi- . low it is ocher yellow, and if you like Vermillion it is vermillion, and if ?ou like black it is black. It suggests to me that heaven is a place of all colors?colors of opinion, colors of creed, colors of skin, colors of taste. j But we mast pass up in this inspection of i the foundations of the great wall of heaven, and after leaving the jasper the next precious stone reached is sapphire, ana it 1 sweeps around the city 1500 miles. All lapidaries agree in saying that the sapphire of the Bible is what we now call lapis lazuli. Job speaks with emotion of 'The place of sapphires," and God thought so much of this precious stone that He put it in the braast> plate of the bizh priest commanding, "The second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire and a diamond." 1 he sapphire is a blue, but varies from faintest hue to deepest ultramarine. It is found a pebble in the rivers of Ceylon. It is elsewhere in compact masses. Persia and .Thibet and Burmab and New South Wales and North Carolina yield exquisite specimens. Its blue eye is seen In the valley of the Rhine. Alter a burial of thousands of years it bas been brought to sight in Egyptian monuments and Assyrian cylinders. At Moscow and St. Petersburg and Coustantinope I have seen great mass as of this sapphire, commonly called lapis lazuli. The closer you study its veins the more enchanting. and I do not wonder that the sapphire is called into the foundation of .the wall of heaven. It makes a strong stone for the foundation, for it is toe hardest of all minerals except the diamond. Sapphire based on jasper, a blue sky over ? " a* T?.u? El uei jr auudoi. wv. uuuu pvmvo w/ iw m ? elation and says, "The second, sapphire." and this suggests to me that though our earth and all its furniture of mountains and seas and atmospheres are to collapse and vanish we will throughout all eternity have in some way kept the most beautiful of earthly appearances, whether you take this sapphire of the second layer as literal or figurative. The deep blue of our skies and the deep blue of our seas most not, will not, be forgotten. If a thousand years after the world has gone to ashes you or i want to *" recall how the earthly slues looked in a sumr jiier noon or the midooean in a calm, we j will have only to look at the second row of the foandatlon of the wall of heaven. Ob, I am so glad that St. John told us about it! "The second, sapphire r While we are living in sight of that wall spirits who have come from other worlds and who never saw our earth will viaitus, and we , will visit them, and some time we wiU be in conversation about this earth when it was yet afloat and as wing, and wa shall want to tell them about how it looked at certain times, and then it will be a great object lesson for all eternity, and we will say to our visitor from some other world, as we point to vard the wall of heaven, "it looked like that stratum of foundation next to the lowest." John, twenty-first chapter and minafAAnfk vorcn uThfl QdnnhirA " A step higher aad you come to chalcedony, another layer in the foundation of the wall and the rucuin? 1509 milea arouud the heavenly city. Chalcedony I Translucent. A divine mixture of agates and opals and cornelians. Striped with white and gray. Dasbed of pallor blushing into red and darkening into purple. Iceland and the Hebrides boll forth beautiful specimens of chalcedony. But now we must make a swift ascent to the top of the foundation wall, for we cannot minutely examine all the layers, and so, putting one foot on the chalcedony of which we have been speaking, wj spring to the emerald, and we are one-third of the way to thetop of the foundation, for the fourth row is emerald. That, I would judge, is , God's favorite among gems, bociuse it holds what seems evident is His favorite color on K earth, the green, since that is the color m?st widely diffused across all the earth s continents?the grass, the foliage, the everyday dress of nature. The emerald*. Kings use it as a seal to stamp pronunciainentos. The rainbow around the throne of God is by St. John compared to it. Conquerors have considered it the greatest prize to capture. What ruthlessaess when the soldiers of Pizarro pouuJad it with their hammers! Emeralds have had much to do with the destiny of Mexico. Five of them were presented by Cortez to his bride, one of them cut into the shape of a rose, another into the shape of a trnmpet, another into the shaoe of a bell, with tongue ol peerl, and this presentation aroused the jealnntir nf t.ho throne and causad the cotise queat fall of Cortez. But the depths of the 83a wore decorated with those emeralds, for in a shipwreck they went down off the coast of Barbary. Napoleon wore an emerald at Austerlitr. In the Eremin museum at Moscow there are crowns and scepters and outspread miracles of omerald. Ireland is called the Emerald Isle not because of its verdure, but because it was presented to Henry II of England with an emerald ring. Nero had a magnifying glass of emerald through whioh tie looktd at the gladiatorial contests at ,.,-s . - Roma: Bat here are 1500 miles of emerald sweeping around the heavenly oity in one layer. But upward still and you put your foot on a stratum of fardonyx, white and red, a seeming commingling o>f snow and fire, the snow cooling the Are, the fire melting the snow. Another climb and you reach the sardius, named after the city of Sardius. Another climb and you reach the chrysolite. A specimen of this, belonging to Epiphanus, in the Fourth Century, was said to be so brilliant that whatever was put over to conceal it was shone through, and the emperor of China has a specimen tnat is described as having such penetrating radiance that it makes the night as bright as the day. A higher climb and you reach the beryl. Two thousand years ago the Greeks used this precious stone for engraving purposes . It was accounted among the royal J traasures of Tvre. The hilt of Murafs | sword was adorned with it. It glows in the imperial crown of Great Britain. Lnther thought the beryls of the heavenly wall was turquoise. Kalisch thought it was chrysolite. Josephus thought it a'golden colored jewel. The wheals oc ?zekiefs vision flamed with beryl and were a revolving Are. The beryl appears in six sided prisma, and is set in seals and intaglios, in necklaces and coronets. It was the joy of ancient jewelry, it ornamented the affluent with eardrops. Charlemagne presented it to his favorite. Beautiful beryl I Exquisitely shaped beryl 1 Divinely colored beryl I It seems like congealed color. It looks like frozen fire. But stop not here. Climb higher and you come to topaz, a be wilder meat of beauty and named after an island of .the Red Sea. Climb higher and you come l? chrysoprasus, of greenish golden hue and hard as flint vJumb higher and you reach the jacinth, named after the flower hyacinth anl of reddish blue. Take one more step and you reach the top, not of the wall, bat the top of the foundation ot the wall, aad St. John cries out, "The twolfth fin amethyst 1" This precious stone wuen found in Australia or India or Euroj^ stands in columns and pyramids. Kor^color it is a violet blooming in stone. For its play of light, for its deep mysteries of color, for its unseen Egyptians, in Etruscan, in Roman art it has been honored. The Greeks thought this stone a preventive of drunkenness. The Hebrews thought it a source of pleasant dreams. For all lovers of gems it is a subject of admiration and suggest! veness. Yes, the word amethyst means a prevention of drunkenness. Long before the New Testament made reference to the amethyst in the wall of heaven the Persians thought that cups made out of amethyst would hinder any kind ot liquor contained therein from becoming intoxicating. But of all theamethnHnA r?nnq from which the ancients drank not one had any such result of provention. For thousands of years the world has been looking in vain for such a preventive amethystine cap. Staggering Noah could not find It. Convivial Ahasuerus driving Vashti from Che gates could not And it Nahal breaking the heart of beautiful Abigail could not find it. Belshazzar, the kingly reveler, on the night that the Chaldeans took Babylon conld not find it. Not one of the millions of inebriates whose skulls pave the continents and pave the depths of the sea could find it. There is no snch cup. i Strong drink from hollowed amethyst imbrutes the same as 9trong drink from pewter mug. It is not the style of cap we drink out of, bat tb^t which the cup contains, which decides the helpfal or damning result of the beverage. Ail around the world last night and today. out of caps costlier than amethyst, men and women have been drinking their own doom and the doom of their children for this life and the next. Ab, it is the amethystine caps that do the wildejt and worst slaughter! The smash of the filthy goblets of the rummeries would lonjt ago nave taken place by law, but the amethystine chaliccs prevent?the chalices out of which legislatures, congresses drink before and after they make the laws. Amethystine chalices have been the friends ;of intoxication instead of its ] foes. Over the fiery lips oC the amethystine chalices is thrust the tongue of that which biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an , adder. Drunkenness is a combination of apoplery and denaehtia. The 400,000,000 victims of opium come out to meet the 150,000,000 vietims of aloohol, and the two agents take the contract for tumbling the human race into . perdition, but whether they will succeed in fulfilling the contract depends on the action of the amethystine cups, the amethystine demijohns, the amethystine ale pitohers, ths amethystine flagons; the amethystine wine cellars. Ob, Persians I Oh. Assyrians! Ob, Greeks! Oh, Egyptians! you ware wrong in thinking that a cup of amethyst would prevent inebriation. But standing on the top of this amethystine layer of tna foundation of the wall of heaven I bethink myseif of the mistake that many of the ancient Hebrews made when tnoy thought that the amethyst was a producer of pleasant dreams. Just wear a piece of amethyst over your heart or put it under your pillow, and you would have your dreams filled with everything beautiful and entrancing. No. no. The Btyle of pillow will not decide the character of the dream. The only recipe for pleasant dreams is to do right and think right when you are wide awake. Conditions of physical disease may give a good man nightmare, but a man physically well, if he behave himself aright, will not be troubled with bad dreams. Nebuchadnezzar, with eagle's down nnder his head and Tyrian purple over it, struggled !l-L - U-4 ma'la him ahfMatr on t VfUUCI UCkKJL ui caui vunw iu?M v*? for the soothsayers and astrologers to coma and interpret it. Pharaoh, amidtha marble palaces of Memphis, was coafoandei by a dream in which loan cows ate up the fat cows and the small ears of corn devoured the seven large ears, and awful famine was prefigured. Pilate's -wife, amid clouds of richest upholstery, had startling dream, because of which she Mat a menage in hot haute to a courtroom to kaep her husband j from enacting a judicial outrage. But Jacob, at Bethel, wish a pillow of mountain rock, had a blissful dream Of the ladder angel blossoming. Bunyan, with his head on a hard plank of Bedford's jail, saw the gates of the CataK tial city. St. Joljn, o* thw barrenest Ittina of the iEgeanSev in his dreafa heard trumpets and saw cavalry men on white horses and & new heaven aud a new earth. No amount of rough pillow can disturb the night vision of a saint, and no amount of amethystine cnarm can delectate the dream of a mifcreant. But, some one will say, why have you brought us to this amethyst, the top row of the foundation bf the heavenly wall, if you * * *- 1 aL* ore not &Die to accept tae taeory wl iuo w cient Greek?, who said that the amethyst was a charm against intoxication, or if you are not willing to accept the theory of the ancient Hebrews that the amethyst was a Producer of pleasant dreams? My answer is, have brought you to the too row, the twelfth layer of the foundation oC the heavenly wall of 1500 miles of circling amethyst, to put you in a position where you can get a new idea of heaven; to let you see that * after yuu have climbed up twelve strata of glory you are only at the base of the eternal grandeur; to let you, with enchantment of soul, look far down and look lar up and to force upon you the conclusion that it all our climbing haft only shown us the foundations of this wall, what must the wall itself be; and if this is the outside of heaven, what must the inside be; and if all this is figurative, what must the reality be; Oh, this piled ud magnificence of the heavenly wall t Ob, this eternity of decoration! Oh, this . opalescent, florescent, prismatic miracle of architecture! What enthronement of all colors I A mingling of the blue of skies, and the surf of seas, and the green of meadows, and the upholstery of autumnal forests, and the fire of August sunsets. All the splendors of earth and heaven dashed into those twelve rows of foundation wall. All that, mark you, only typical of the spiritual glories that roll over heaven like the Atlantic ancl Pacific Oceans swing in one billow. r>n v.-11 nr?fc ?p? that it was imDOSSible that you understand a hundredth part of the suggestiveness of tbat twenty-tir3t chapter of Ravelation without going into souie of the particulars of the wall o? heaven and dipping up some of its dripping colors, and running your eye along som9 of it3 wondrous crystallizations, and examining som? of the frozen light in it3 turquoise, and feeling with your own finder the hardness of its sapphire, and snielding your eyes against the shimmerinc brillianca in its beryl, and studying the 1500 mile3 of emerald without a flaw? Yet all this only the outside of heaven, and the poorest part of the outside; not tbe wall iteelf, but only the foot of the wdU, for my text says, "The foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of preoious stones." Ob, get down your harp if you can play one! Get down a palm branch if yon cai reach one I Why, it makes us all feel lik< crying out with James Montgomery: When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls And pearly gates behold T Oh, my soul 1 If my text shows us onlj tbe outside^ what must the inside be? W hilc riding last summer through the emperor's park near St. Petersburg, I was captivated with graves, transplanted from all eonee, and the flower beds?miles this way and miles that way?incarnadined with beauty, and the fountains bounding in such revel with the sunlight as nowhere else is seen, 1 said: "This is beautiful I never saw anyr thing like thfi before." But when I entered' the palace and saw the pictured walls, and the lona; line of statuary, and aquariums afloat with all brighl scales, and aviaries a*chant|with bird voices, and the inner doors of the palaces were swung back by the chamberlain, and I saw the emperor and empress and princes and princesses, and they greeted me with a cordiality of old acquaintanceship, I forget al the groves and coral bewitchment I had seen outside before entrance. And now ] ask, if the outside of heaven attracts our souls to-day, how much more mil De cne uplifting when we get inside and see the Kins in His beauty and all the princes and princesses of the palaces of amethyst? Are you not glad that we did not stop in our osoent this morning until we got to the top round of the foundation wall of heaven, the twelfth row, the amethyst I Perhaps the ancient Hebrews were not, after all, ao far out of the,way when they thought that the touch of the amethyst gave pleasant dreams, for the touch.of it this nour gives me a very pleasant dream. Standing on this amethyst I dream a dream. 1 close my eyes and I sea it olL We are there. This is heaven 1 Not the outside, but the inside of heaven. With what warmth of welcome our long ago departed ioved ones have kissed us. My! How they have ohanged in looks I They were so sick when they went away, and now they are so welL Look! Tonder is the place of our Lord tho l?iug. Not kept a moment outside we are ushered into the throneroom. Stretching out His scarred hand He says, "I haveloved thee with an everlasting love," and we respond, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?" But, look! Tonder is the playground of the children. Children do you want a throne. A throne would not fit a child. There thev are on the playgrounds of heaven?the children. Out of the sick cradle of darth they oameinto this romping mirth of the eternal playgrounds. I clap my hands to cheer them in the glee. Tonder are the palaoee ol the martyrs, and before their doorway the flowers, crimson as the bloody martyrdoms through which they waded up into glory. Yonder is Apo3tolic row, ana the highest turrets is over the home of Paul. Here if Evangelist place. Tonder are the concert bails in which the musicians of earth and heaven are taking part?Handel with organ, and David with narp, and Gabriel with trumpet, and four and twenty elders witfc voices. And an angel of God says: "Where shall I take you? On what street of heaven would you like to live? What celestial habitation would you like to occupy?" And I answer t "Now that I have got inside the wall made up of all manner of precious stones I do not care where you put me. Jusl show me where my departed loved ones are. I have seen th9 Lord, and next I want to Bee them. -1 "But here are those with whom I toiled in the kingdom of God on earth. They are from.my old parishes at Belleville and Syracuse and Philadelphia and Brooklyn, and irom many places on both sides the sea where I have been permitted to work with them and tor them. Give them the best places you can find. I will help steady them as they mount the thrones. I will help you burnish their coronet?. "Take these, my old friends, to as good rooms as you can get for them in the house of many mansions, and with windows looking out upon the palace of the great King, As for myself, anywhere in heaven is good enough for me. flalteluiah to the Lamt that wa88lain." But 1 awake. In the ecstasj of the momont my foot slipped from the layer of amethyst, that_so called ' producer ot dreams, and in the effort to caccn myseu the vision vanished. And, lo, it was out a ireaml POPULAR SCIENCE. Cork i9 about the most buoyant sab stance. Tbe microscopists say that a mosquito has twenty-two teeth. Yawning is caused by a deficiency to the air supply to the lungs. The carbons of electric arc lamps are now being made of powdered graphite, instead of coke. Scales are now made that will weigh the flame ol a candle or the smallest strand of hair plucked from the eyebrow;. In England farmers always soak their seed in bluestone of vitriol to prevent smut snd rust. A pound of vitriol to four bushels of wheat is the proportion used. Variations*in the size of raindrops are attributed to' atmospheric disturbances and to the height from which thej fall, those from a high altitude being much the smaller. The new screw propeller of English origin has two flat blades in the usual form, but the remaining two, which are opposite each other, are looped, so that they form practically a revolving figure 8. The platinum bfods in the IJral Mountains in Russia are the only ones in the world in which that metal is found in grains. In several places it is to be found imbedded in the hard serpentine rock, but only in the Ural in grains. A recent invention is a new type of refrigerator car that can be run for twenty days without re-icing. It is charged with ice*and certain chemicals, the combination maintaining a freezing temper ature during this long period. It i& said that a really indelible ink and a kind of vinegar cau be produced from the juices contained in the banana peel. The fiber of the-peel,, it is said, can also be utilized in making cloth of great strength and remarkable beauty. Ottawa (Canada) electriciau claims to have discovered a process for utilizing electrioily for light, power or heat, so as to abstract the heat from cast iron blocks until they are reduced to the temperature of ice. He claims that this can be done at a price to compete favorably with the latter. London scientists have recently demonstrated that the purest air in the cities is found about twenty-five feet above the street gutface. Heretofore it has been thought that the highest floors in tenement houses h-d the best air. The investigations above referred to show that the healthiest apartments are those on the third floor: Dr. Lowery, or St. Louts after hit.terlv attacking the mctnor ies of a number of dead people, de clared his willingness to go to til graveyard, take the ffcslilcss jaws c those he had been traducing an shake them till the teeth rattle:l Just how this act would tend to rais groveling humanity to the benign an saintly plane of Mr. Lowery, those no partaking of his peculiar goodncs ni&y never know. But Mr. Lower was figurative. The only ja.w he wi: Bhake much will be his own, an o: fense only less ghoulish than the pre posed grave robbery. Handkerchiefs have been adde< to the equipments of the Russiai soldiers. Heretofore the warriors o the Czar have depended upon coa sleeves aod fence rails. ;[ TEMPERANCE. I DEATH OF THE DRONKABD. There, standing in the snow and sleet, r All night a wanderer in the street, , And rags and filth frum head to feet. And almost frozin dead? A victim of vile rum is he, A wretch as wretched a9 can be, I To hopeles? misery wed 1 A Pariah of society, Whose curae is on his head. \ He stands upon the corner there, Like some doomed phantom of despair, Seen through the morning's sleety air. And waits the door to ope? The rumshop door, that porch of hell, ' Where he and many millions fell Down Ruin's ready slope, 1 And went with headlong speed to swell | The throng without a hope! A shivering, shambling, shapeless mass, I Wirt hrtth hands clutching at the glass. ! He lets the fiery poijDn paa3 To quench the hell within! But hark! be hears demoniac calls; Foul fiends assail him from the walls, I And devils at him grin! He staggers to the street?he falls I May heaven forgive his sin! i Coma, drag him off and out of si^htl 'Tis only a drunkard, and what right i Has his foul, bloated corpse to blight The fairness of the morn? i A few pine boards and'Potter's Field Are all to him the world can yieldTo wreck and ruin born! But hold! enough! He has appealed i To God from human scorn! ?P. 8. Cessidy, in New York Mercury. a child's death from alcohol. , ^ William D. Monahau, a four-year-old son i of Richard Monahan, a saloon-keepof ( Yonkers, N. Y., recently died of alcoholic 1 poisoning. The little fellow went behind his father's bar while no one was around, and, 1 climbing on a chair, took down a bottle of whisky and drank almost a pint of it. He was found lyin? insensible on the floor by his mother. Doctors were calleaf, but they t ? ??J in vatrivinff f.hA l*hilfL VJUUIU UUb auwvowu 1U KWFk.<uQ VMV _ TEMPERANCE STUDIKS. The tendency of liquor to exaggerate the drinker's mental peculiarities is well known. If a man has gambling Instincts he wants to tackle some kind of a came as soon as ha gjts a "jag on." If he is full of the milk of good fellowship ha bunts up his friends and wants them to drink with him?and if he can't find his friends he'll take anybody who comes along. If he is a quarrelsome dis! position he will get into no end of rows?And i ! lay it to the liqnor. I've known men of 1 deep religious training who always wanted ( to sing hymns while intoxicated, and to dis- . | cuss religion, though of course they no longer , 1 held any relation to the Church. ( , "Drink affects a man's physical pecaliari- | ties in the same way," said a gentleman in | 1 the Astor House rotunda, where the snbject j ; was being discussed. "I know a man who , ' walks pigeon-toad with one foot,for instance. , I cbn tell whether he has been drinking as < [ far as I can see him. That particular toe . ' turns in more than usual. It keeps on turn- < ing in as he gets fuller until it finally downs , him. It gives him a sort of a peculiar side ' motion. When he is drinking he walks on | the side of tne street toward wnioh that foot | ' leans and it'seems to steer hun up to every j barroom against his will. When he is not j drinking he walks on the other side and it , ' keeps him along the curb. It is a fact that j ; is observable that in liquor the lame man ( j goes more lame, the deal man is more deaf, | the blind man is more blind, the hump { 1 backed man is more humped and the straight ( man?why, I used to kayr a very straight , 1 man who would actually fall over backward ( 1 when he got a 'loan' onNew York Herald. t J AN INCIDENT WITHOUT COMMENT. ' A merchant of this city met aa old ac? quaintance recently on an elevated railway train. In the course of conversation the ! man told him that since they had last met, a t few years previously, he had passed through a wonderful experience. He then told a story which we reproduce in the briefest possible form. He had been a member of the Produce Exchange, and had been in good circumstances, He fell into the habit of drink, not because he lovad-the taste of liquor, but a mania of thrist seemed to possess nim, so that he often j i drank from twenty to thirty times a day. j He soon lost his business, and drifted steadily < downward. His wife and children wera j l forced to leave him, and he became utterly < discouraged, and was most of his time in a , half drunken state. While in this condition f i he chanced one da; to meet a man he knew, ( who was a hard drinker like himself. After , some conversation this man proposed that i they should go to a certain mission to hear ( i the singing. They went A woman attached ) to the missionpame and spoke kindly to them j and invited them to remain; but they de- , clined. The merchant's friend, however, felt j drawn to return the next night He went thereafter steadily every night for a week to ( tee mission, feeling, he' said, as though he e could not stay away. ? very night the faith- . ful woman missionary would come and t speak kindly to him and urge him to seek , salvation; but he always declined. One t night he felt as though he ought to make an ] effort to become a man arain. While this , fealinz was in his heart, though he was even J then in a drunken state, she came to blm as usual and invited him to go forward. He got up at once and went with her. Befort) he knew whit he was doing, he was kneeling at the altar, and she was praying for him, and then he b*gan to pray for himself. He was fully converted, and went to work, in connection with the mission, to bring in others and save them. From that moment, he says, the desire for drink left him entirely. Started once more in the right way, he be?;an to prosper. He notified his wife and children, and they came back to lire with hie, and now he is at the head of a happy and comfortable home- He believes, it is needless to say, most implicitly in the efficacy of prayer. He believes he was lei, half drunk though he was, by the Holy 'Spirit to the meeting through tne instrumentality of his drunken friend, and that the same divine influence prompted him to return night altar night and finally to pray ( f<y himself.?New York IndepandenL < ( TEMPERANCE TOR RAILROAD MEN. , The officials of*at least two railroad com- < panics in this country have recently taken < occasion to enforce strict regulations against 1 the employment of drinking meD. On the i Long Island Railroad proof that an em- I ploye goes inside of a saloon whde on duty will cause his dismissal. The habits of i men who apply lor wortc are euso w u? mquired into and preference given to total abstainers. Discbarges of employes for breaking the rule azainst the use of intoxicating liquor have already followed this stringent order from headquarters, and heads of departments are to be held responsible for future enforcement of the regulation. The officers of a railroad running out of Cincinnati have been led to take similar. , steps to,enforce sobriety through an acci. dent caused by a drunken engineer. The conductor and fireman lost their places for not discovering the condition of the engineer | and having him* removed, and the crusade : against tippling employes of the company \ has already led to au unusual number of dis- j charges. , , An accident should not be needed, how. j ever, to arouse a railroad's officers to the < necessity of greater security for their ] patrons. Good business management would , seem to require this*. An unsteady hand at the lever, tne dimming of the eyes that | keep a l?okout from the cab window or a , moment of misplaced ju Igment may sacr:- j * tice lives, destroy property, shake the conlidence ot travelers m the line an i ultimately J reduce dividends. The Brotherhood o" Loco* j motive Eugineers, whico, through the con- | e servatism and caaracter of its leaders, has ( < i.. rt,: rjio miisn influential and re II , spected of labor unions, recognizes the nec.-s sity of sober and carefui julgment in its I I. members and seaks to promote temperance aud intelligence among them. Consequently, there are lew tiner bodies of workrngmea CI thau the American locomotive engineers. A ij tew years ago a commotion was caused among these men by a movement in Massa- J 'S ehusetts and some other States to subject f y engineers to the test of color blindness. ii Temporary opposition melted away, how- ' ever, before tlie apparent necsssity, iu thesa i P* tnmes of color signals, of the engineer being j j. thoroughly capable of distinguishing tnose signais. ' If there ara people who complain of a rail- ( road company's rigidity in demanding sobri- , i oty among the men it places in responsible ' q positions, they will be interested 130 know i that in New York and some other States , there are laws making it a misdemeanor for ' t the company not to do this.?-New Yor* 1 , pre?8- i i RELIGIOUS READING. "IX DUE TI1TE." I marked a child?a pretty child? A gentle, blue-eyed thing; She sowed the scented mignonette One sunny day in Spring; And while the tiny grains she sowed. The stream of thought thus sweetly flowed: "On this dear bed the dew shall fall, And yon bright siln shall shine; 'Twill spring, and grow, and blossom, then, And ft will all be mine!" And the fair thing laughed in childish glee, To think what a harvest here should be. I saw a man an acorn plant Upon the hillside bare; No spreading branch, no shading rock, Lent friendly shelter there; And thus, as o'er the spot he bowed, T henrr! him?fnr hp thmurhl- almirl "Frail thing! Ere glossy leaf shall grace Thy wide and sturdy bough, I may be laid amid the dead, As low as thou art now; Yet wilt thou rise in rugged strength, And crown this barren height at length." Each had a hope; the childish heart Looked to tbe Summer's joy; The manly thought?strong "and matureLooked to futurity Each trusts to nature's gtnial powerHe wants a forest; she a flower. i Who sows the seed of heavenly truth, i And doubts Almighty power? Will years less surely bring the oak '< Than months the Summer flower? t Then sow; although no fruit you see, God "in due time" will raise the tree. -[Rev. John Hall, D.D. j HOW A REVIVAL BEGAN. A remarkable instance of a revival that ] ;'broke out," occurred more than fifty years j igo in a small town in New Hampshire, and i began at a very small meeting. Tbis is the , interesting way in which we fonnd it de- ] scribed: "Two plain farmers one summer i Jay were at work in the same field. Ab they j worked tftey talked?not aDout tne crops or the weather, buc on the subject nearest and dearest to their hearts?tne progress of Christ's kingdom. In several of tne neighboring towns there had been extensive rerivals, while their own town seemed to them, to have been passed by. The love of Christians had grown cold," while sin and wickedness abounded unreproved. "Tbey lamented, as only true Christiana can, the low state of religion about them, and in looking for the reason of ouch coldness were led to faithfully consider their jwn personal responsibility. They resolved to plead more earnestly than ever before for the out-pouring of His Holy Spirit, upon ;heir church and town, and as they parted, igreed to meet for prayer .the same evening it the schoolbouBe, midway between their Iwellings. At the set hour each took a lan;ern and went out to the appointed place. [>f the fervency of their prayers, or holy gladness of their songs of praise at that meeting we may never know. It must, iowever have seemed good to them to t>e there, for as they separated' another meetng was appointed for the next week. During the hour of the second meeting a neighbor chanced to g<y by, and seeing a light in the f>choolhou*e went in to ascertain :he reason. Thus the praver-meeting of two secame a prayer-meeting of three. At the third meeting the scboolhouse was filled *o jverflowing. The Holy Spirit was manifestly present, and sinners were heard >arnestly asking, 'What shall I do to be laved?' The good work was continued and ipread rapidly from district to district, with i Pentecostal-in-gathering of souls that made t the most remarkable revival ever known ;q the town. From among the converts four became preachers of the Gospel and xrent forth to do faithful service in Christ's rtneyard. The far-reaofcing results of the prayers of faith of those two Christain men, net together in Christ's name cau never be !ully known until revealed in light of Jternity."? [Christian Intelligencer. i AVAILIMr A> V AYAllii^ir ritAlciu One of our trials as Christians arises Tom the fact that, our prayeYs arelot so frequently or so readily answered is we bad hoped, and that our efforts are not more successful. We are lonscious that we have prayed earnestly and jften for various objects, and we have felt lure the objects were good and such as we :ou!d properly pray and labor for; and yet 10 adequate results have seemed to follow. We have felt disappointed and often deeply liseournged, and wondered wliv it should )e so. No doubt this is a sore trfsl, and oar laith wavers and staggers under it. We sake one or two suggestions which may lelp to explain the mystery. The first is: Prayer is more frequently inswered than we imagine. But it is aniwered in a manner'and-at a time least expected. In our own minds we had formed tome particular plan or mode by which God ffould accomplish the desired end?forgetting bat a divine lov? and wisdom knew better iow to do it than we did. Afterwards we lee and know that our prayers have been inswered. not as we had expected, but in a far better way than we had planned and an;icipeted. Our next suggestion is: In our prayers tod efforts we may depend too mncb on our . >wn strength or the strength of others. The treat Apostle says: "I can do all things hrough Christ which strengthened me." j rhe Apostle had had a wonderful experence, and this experience led him to look nore and more to dm bora ior wisaom Bna strength to help bim ami less to himself and rthers. We may pray and pray earnestly 'or all good objects, and we may labor for :hem, out we must always remember that a ifvine help mast pro with oar prayers and sfforts.?[rarish Visitor. * REJM. GRATtTCDE. . Do we remember tbat sacrifice calls for mcrifice. and that our evil natures must be irucified with Jesus Christ? How rflany >nly seek in the cross a sight that will appeal to their imagination without taking bold sf their hearts. Among the impressions proiuced on us by tbc .Bufferings of our Lord, :here is a secret tenderness, I know not what, tbat attracts and softens us. We are touched, but the emotion is not repentance. Our tears flow, hut they are not caused by lelf-abasement. The most worldly-minded >f men and women are susceptible of these amotion#. You will see that, although they ire softened for a moment, at heart they remain as frivolous as ever. The eyes moistened with passing tears will sparkle aone tbo less at the sight of some coveted possession ; the lip-j tbnt proclaim redeeming love will be uttering the most frivolous words; the hearts be as full of vanity as ;ver.? fBersicr. < Christ's patience under the trial of being j misunderstood and misjudged is a wonder- . ful lesson to us. In every pain and trial Lbere is a blessing folded. We may mi-s it, 1 but it is there, and the loss is ours if we do i not gpt it. Every night of sorrow carries in . its dark bosom its own lamps of comfort. ' I'he darkness of grief and trial is full of j benedictions. The truly happiest, sweetest, tenderest homes are not those where there has been no sorrow, but those which have been overshadowed with jrief. and where Christ's comfort was ac- ! :eptcd. In one of the battles of the Crimea, ' x cannon hall struck inside a fort, gashing ( the earth airl sadly iiiHrritig thp beauty of the place. But from the ugly ebasni there J burst forth a sprluir of water, which flowed on thereafter, a living fountain. So the . itrokes of sorrow un-li our heart*. but leave 1 fountains of rich blessing.?[J. I*. Miller. 1 D.I>. ; An Iowa man has been selling dl- ^ plomas of high degree for the reason- 1 ible sum of 830, placing them within ( jasy reach of the illiterate and lowly. y 5o great has his business become that ' ;he corn crop of the State was being 1 iusked by Masters of Art, and swill ( !-J * * **ir+a Kir "Ronlnrc nf .arrieu uu uuc .?? ??? w. Science. Having accomplished this i iiuch for education, the Iowan was c arrested, and his whole 3tock ia i trade, inclusive of his own thrifty g Derson. is in the hands of a receiver, j SABBATH SCHOOL I INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOB FEBRUARY 12. ( I Lesson Tsxt: "Nehemiah'c Prayer," ' Neb. i., 1-11?GoldenText: Pulm ' zxx., 10?Commentary. I I 1. "The words of Nebemiah, the son of Hachaliab." Nebemiah (comforted of Jehovah) was one of the Jewish captives selected by Artaxerxes, the Persian monarch, to fill j the office of rcupbearer. He arrived at Jerusalem about thirteen years after Ezra was governor of Judea, remaining about twelve ! years, and then returning to Artaxerxes, i from whom he received a new commission. He went again to Jerusalem aud ruled there xor anocner iweniv-iwo years, D. U. 440-4ZS. ' He was one of the greatest men of the Hebrew Nation, renowned for his zeal, ] patriotism, courage, humanity and earnest devotedness to God and to His service ("Searching the Scriptures" by Dr. Ander- 1 son). One of the most interesting things in ' the book is the edict to rebuild the city | (chapter iL, 5,8), from which begins Daniel's seventy weeks. 2. "I asked them concerning the Jews that I had escaped, which were left of the captiv* | itv, and concerning Jerusalem." The church of to-day seems not to appreciate. the fact that Jerusalem was and is and shall yet be a city very dear to Jehovah, and more Hear than we can understand to every loyal Jew. 1 'The Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for His habitation." "The Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem." "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord" (Pa. exxxii.. 18; Zecb. i., 17; Jer. iii, 17), 3. "And they said unto Me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach." By comparing verse 1 and chapter ij.t 1, with Ez. vii., 6, 7. we And that this desolation was the condition of things at the Holy City thirteen years after the great reformation wrought through Ezra, and we reel inclined to ask why it was so. With the temple finished, the worship restored ind such purifying as Ezra had accomplished. why was there not mora zeal for 3od? If one question can help to answer mother we would ask. Why, with all the jpen doors of this generation to carry the jfospel to every creature and the vast imount, of money in the hands of Christiana, ire there so many hundreds of millions still without the Gospel* t- Ana it came so pass, waea x ne&ra Shase words, that I sat down and wept, and nourned certain days, and fasted anl' prayed before the God of heaven." Here is i man away off in Babylon so interested in she welfare of Jerusalem and in the honor >f the God of Israel that for several ' lays he gives himself up to ] nonrning and fasting and praying. Compare Daniel fasting and praying for ihree full weeks that be mignt know the nind of God (Dan. x, 2, 3): See Paul three rears at Epbeeus, warning the people night ind day with tears (Acts n., 31), and reiiember that God is a rewardar of them that iiligently seek Him (Heb. xL, 6). 5. "And said, I beseech Thee, O Lord God >f heaven, the great and terrible God, that reepeth covenant and mercy for them that ove Him and observe His commandments." From here to the end of the lesson we have lis prayer, and it is aprayer that was heard n heaven and answered. Observe that in chapter ii., 4, he one day prayed without ittering a word with his lips, for at the same xioment he prayed to God and spake to the ling. Compare this verse with chapter ix., 52, and Ex. xxxiv., 6, 7, and see in Jer. cxxii., 17, the comfort to be obtained from the God of heaven. C. "I pray before Thee now day and sight for tbe children of- Israel, Thy ssr- v rants, and confess the sins of the children sf Israel." Identifying himself with, the nation, he confesses their sins. He excuses | nothing, palliates nothing, but includes < Himsef, saying, "Both I and my Father's house have sinned." "He that oovareth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confwseth and forsaketn them shall obtain maroy" (Prov. xxviii., 13). If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John i., 9). I 7. "We have dealt very corruptly against j Thee, and have not kept the command- . ments." The curses had come just as God had said in Dent, xxviii., 15, 45, and they i had brought it all upon themselves (isa. i lix., 2). Nehemiah does well to make fall , cociei*ion; bat, oh, think of Him who took all these sins upon Himself, who allowed all ' sin to be-heaped npoa Him, tn?lHng it His i own that He might give onto us His righteousness! This He does now for evarj individual believer (II Cor. v., 2L, Acts xilL. 1 38, 89), and this He will yet do for Israel i (Isa. Jr., 21). | 8. "Remember, I beseech Thee, the word , that Thou oominandeet Thy servant Moses." ' He reminds God of the curaa which He by 1 Moses had said should come, and which had i come. He did not question the authorship of Mosee, nor did he doubt that Moses spoke the words of God. He believed God, condemned himself and his people and justified ' God. j 0. "But if ye turn unto Me, and keep My ( commandments, and do them." -He is quoting now in his prayer from Deat. xxx., 1-5, where Jehovaa promised, on oondition of true repentance and obedience, to restore them to their land and bless thsm and give them a heart to love Him supremely; out the condition was, "If thou turn unto the J Lord thy Go:t with all thine heart and with all thy soul" (Deut. xrx, 10). As He choee ' Jerusalem to put His name there and mag* nify Himself from thence, so He chooses as to Bear His name and magnify Him in these mortal bodies (A.cts ix.. 15, 16; Phil, i., 20). 10. "Now theee are Thy servants and Thy people - whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power and by Thy strong hand." So . pleaded Mosee, reminding God that not* withstanding all their sin still they were His people and His inheritanca which He Wiiffht nnt. nf Errot fDeut. ix.. 26, 29). So pleaded Daniel also as he identified himself with- the 8infal nation and asked marc/ in these words, "Q Lord, forgive for Thine own sake, O my God, for Thy city and Thy people ore called by Thy name" (Daa. ix.. 15, 19). See what He will yet do fpr them for His name's sake in Ezefc. xxxvi., 23-33. 11. "Prosper, I pray Thee, Thy servant, this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Having poured out his soul on behalf of his people, he now asks a special favor on his own behalf, and yet for their i sakes as their benefactor. Every such inter- , cessor, whether he be Abraham or Moses or Daniel or Nehemiab, suggest* to us the great intercessor, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died ' for us, lives for us and will in due time come i again to us. He, for His name's sake, forgives our sins ([John ii., 13; Isa. xliii., 33). and tells us that whatsoever we shall ask in His name, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, He will do it (John xiv., 13, 14). ?Lesson Helper. ? Ketorts or a recent prize-fight describe the fighters as brawny gladiators, and state that when they got real gory the smell of warm blood drove the spectators wild with enthusiasm. It would appear from these facts that all a burly ruffian tias to do to become a brawny gladiator?a much more dignified being ?la ontiir t.ho rinor Rnd have his I * J VA/ UUWVt VMV SMg W*.? ? veins tapped. As to the warm blood it which civilization sniffed in de- ! .ighted frenzy, more of it and of better quality can be scented in any daughter-house. Something was recently published n Punch that had every outward apsearance of being a joke. While people ivere marveling over a circumstance >0 violently defiant of precedent, I Punch explained that the jest had Deen due to a deplorable typographi* * * :al error, ana tnau its repcuimuu vould be guarded against with the itmost care. So the stain on the * 1 '? a A' ? ? ? An/1 nnnrlap. reputation 01 me sumuci atm >us jourpal may be considered effaced. All the papers fn a German town lave been fined for mentioning a j leath from cholera. Reporting the nalady seems to be a much more lerioua offense than merely exportne it. - . .. mmmmm* k Two Legged Cat. ,. Miss Eleanor Lewis ha? written # charming little book called "Famooa Pets of Famous People," which wasre-i cently published in Boston. Sir Waltw Scott, it says, was fond of poultry, cattle, sbeep, pigs and cats. Byron was' fondest of dogs and wrote poetry about them. Charlotte Cushman, the great ( actress, was another lover of .dogs, as; was Charles Lamb, the poet, and Carlyla, * the philosopher. One of the earliest pet cats on record' ' is that of Prince Hana, an Egyptian notability who lived several thousand fears ago, and between stone feet of his statue was placed the image of his cat, "Bouhaki." The statue may still be< seen at the Louvre. More famous than Bouhaki is "Muezza," the cat of Mahomet. Petrarch, too, was a lorer of cats, and when his little white i(micino^ died its body was carefully embalmed, lasso addressed a sonnet to his cat. Gregory the Great, Richelieu and Wol- sey are among the ecclesiastical dignitaries who have shown their preferencej for cats. Lord Chest9rfield gave all bis.' lata?and they were many?a life peoDB. hill'S. T7T<> LBOOED . CAT, ., , , 1 lion. Another cat disserving of mention ui only two legs, and is owned by Dr. Bill, of Princeton College. ; i ' i"V,: , . s .o . 11 . . Petrified Wood. ' >' >On a farm nets. Elktoa, Col.amb.iaM County, Ohio, an extraordinary find oi> petrified wood has been unearthed. It: is a solid piece, weighing 814 pounds, on the smooth surface of yrhich appear the outlines of several different specie* of animals, as if traced by human hands. Geologists are said to have examined the;, nature of 'the petrifactioa, and to, few1?' agreed that its iooaatioa dates back 3500 years by the moat conservative calculation. It was unearthed by ditchers in a mucky swamp owned by Michael Culler. Several agenta of the Ohio commission are also said to have, examined the strange object, and areproposing to utilize it to add to the interest of Ohio's exhibit at the World's Pair.?Atlanta Constitution. I'.Kj a Ike Flarshlp ot Cslambas. The model of the flagship Santa Maria, lent to the World'a Fair by San Domingo, aardly could be called a yacht, according to modem ideas on shipbuilding. Neither Would any one not familiar with indent shipbuilding set it down as a ihip. A liberal guesser, not familiar with his subject, |might suspect that ft 9ras an artistic packing case of ah ornamented piano case, but a ship?never. ;' >f ' How Columbus ever got across the,. >cean in such an affair is keeping the old,, ults guesiiog around Erie Basin, where the model carsvel was brought in on the steamer George W. Clyde. One of theaa Looked her all" over yesterday with ? scornful expression on his face. 1'Anything like that ever come aero* the salty!" he said. "Not on yer life. 9he migty have hauled a load er coal from Canarsie, but nothin' like her ever come across th' 'Lantic, I'm a tellin' yer." i i t THE SANTA. KAMA AS S3B LOOKS NOW. " Then he tacked olf the wharf with aa. injured expression, sizzling be twee a his teeth the famous song of the watermen:Lealdn1 like a lobster pot, Stearin' like a dray. ill of which probably referred to the model caravel. Outside of the watermen ire a lot of otber people who have looked . at the small ship with pro it and pleasure, >, and crowds have visited the dock to get a good look at San Domingo'9 gift to the Fair. The caravel, which was consigned to P. Ober, has been put oa a dat car and taken to Chicago.?New York World.. Driving on One Wheel. In order toroduce to the minimum'the weieht to be drawn by trottinfc horses, ONE-WHEEL VEHICLE with the possibility of still further lower- , ing the mile record, two western inventors have designed the novel vehicle shown in the accompanying illustration. In describing it the Philadelphia Record says it possesses but a single wheel, the endless shaft being bent in front to form a raised top portion connected with the saddle girth of the Horse. The rear portion of the shaft carries the connections with the wheel, and in addition 3 *' fK<? supports tiie curveu spnug? wiunuS seat of the driver. In Chicago one lare win carry a i w senger a block or au average of about eight miles in any directiou from th? heart oil' tue City.