The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, August 08, 1894, Image 7
REV. BE. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject: "Worth Living."
Text : "Wherefore doth a living man complain?"?Lamentations
iii., 3?.
If we leave to the evolutionists to tmess
Where we came from, and to the theologians
to prophesy where we are coin? to, we still
have left for consideration the important
4-u? TKiiwi mnv h? enmn
AtfrCl LUtU Wt; art] UCir, a. ui.iv
doubt nbout where tbe river rises, and
some doubt about where the river empties,
but there can be no doubt about the fact
that we are sailing on it. So I am not surErised
that everybody asks the question, "Is
fe worth livinsrV*
Solomon in his unhappy moments says it
Is not. "Vanity," "vexation of spirit." "no
gooj/'are his estimate. The fact is that
Solomon was at one time a po'.ygamist, and
that soured his disposition. One wife makes
amnnhappy; more than one makes him
wretched. But Solomon was converted from
polygamy to monogamy, and the last words
he ever wrote, as far as we can read them,
were the words "mountains of spices." But
Jeremiah says in my text life is worth living.
In a "?\ok supposed to be doleful and
JugubiKw and sepulchral and entitled
"Lamentations'' h? plainly intimates that
the blessing of merely living is so great and
grand a blessine that though a man have
piled on him all misfortunes and disasters
he has no right to complain. The author of
my text cries out in startling intonation to
all lands and to all 'centuries, "Wherefore
doth a living man complain?" A diversity
of opinion in our time as well as in olden
time. Here is a young man of light hair
and blue eyes an i sound dieostlon and
generous salary and happily affianced and
in the wav lo become the partner in a commercial
firm of which be is an important
olerk. ARk him whether life is worth living.
He will laugh in your face and say, "Yes,
yes, yes!" Hero is a man who ha3 come to
the forties. He is at the tiptop of the hill of
life. Everv step has been a stumble and a
bruise. The people he trusted have turned
out deserter?, and the money he has honestly
made he has been cheated out of. His
nerves are out of tune. He has poor
appetite, and all the fool he do-.* eat does
not assimilate. Forty miles climbing up the
Mil r\t Ufa Vinvn hp?n to him like olimbinP I
ithe Matterhorn, and there are forty miles
yet to go down, and descent is always more
dangerous than ascent. Ask him whether
life is worth living, and ho will drawl out in
shivering and lugubrious and appalling
negative, "No, no, no!"
Howaroweto decide this matter righteously
and intelligently? You will find the
same man vacillating, oscillating in his oplnIon
from dejection to exuberance, and if he
be very mercurial in his temperament it will
depend very much upon whioh wav the
wind blows. If the wind blow from the
northwest, and yoa ask him, he will say,
"Yes," and If it blow from the northeast,
and you ask him, he will say "No." How
are we, then, to get the question righteously
answered? Suppose we call all nations together
in a great convention on eastern or
western hemisphere and let .ill those who
are in the affirmative say "Aye," and all
those who are in the negative say "No."
While there would be hundreds of thousands
who would answer in the affirmative,
there would be more millions who would
answer in the negative, and because of the
greater number who have sorrow and misfortune
and trouble the "noes ' would have
It. The answer I shall give will be different
from either, and yet it will commend itself
to all who hear me this day as the right Answer.
If you ask me, "Is life worth living?"
I answer, it all depends upon the kini of life
you live.
In the first place, I remark that a life of
mere money getting is always a failure, because
you will never get as much as you
want. The poorest people in this country
are the richest, and the' next to them those
whn DM half riph Th?r? is not A scis.
ore grinder on the streets of New York or
Brooklyn who is so anxious to make money
as these men who have piled up fortunes
year after year in storehouses, in government
securities, in tenement houses, in
whole city blocka.
You ought to see them jump when they
hear the firebell ring. You ought to see
them in their excitement when some bank
explodes. You ought to see their agitation
when there is proposed a reformation io
the tariff. Their n?rves tremblo like harp
strings, but no music in the vibration. They
reafl the reports from Wall street iu the
morning with a concernment that threaten?
paralysis or apoplexy, or, more probably,
they have a telegraph or a telephone in their j
hcuse, so they catch every breath of change !
In the money market. The disease of accu- !
mutation has eaten into tham?eaten into j
their heart, Into their lung*, into their i
spleen, into their liver, into their bones. I
Chemists have sometimes analyzed the human
boiy, and they say it is so mueti maurnesla,
so much lime, so much chlorate of potassium.
If some Christian chemist would
an&lvze one of these financial behemoths, he
I would And he is made up ot copper and gold
and silver and zinc and lead and coal and
Iron.. That is not a life worth living. There
are too many earthquakes in it, too many
agonies in it, too many perditions iu it. They
build their castles, and they open their pict- !
ure galleries, and they summon prima donnas,
and they offer every inducement for
happiness lo come and live there, but happiness
will not come.
They send footmanned and postillionod
29 equipage to brin^ her; she will not ride tc
their door. They send princely escort; she
wiil not take their arm. They make their
UJ gateways triumphal arches; she will not
9 ride under them. They set a golden throne
B| before a golden plate; she turns away from
HH the banquet. They call to her from upKB
bolstered balcony; she will not listen. Mark
H9 you, this istbe failure ofthose who have had
C3H large accumulation.
HWI And then you must take into consideration
HH that the vast majority of those who make the
H dominant idea of life money getting fall far
flflU short of affluence. It is estimated that only
HI about two out of a hundred business men
Ijj^l have anything worthy the name of success.
HH A man who upends his life with one domiI
nant idea or financial accumulation spends a
Q0fl life uot worth liviusr.
BScff So the idea of worldly approval. If that
BH be dominant in a man's life, he is miserable.
j^H The two most uu'ortunate men in this counH
try for the six months of next presidential
B9 campaign will be the two men nominated
for the presidency. The reservoirs of abuse
BH and dlatrihe and malediction will gradually
EDM All up. gallon above gallon, hogshead above
Btl hogshead, and about autumnthwetwo reservoirs
will be brimming full, and a hose will
IUtJ aiiucumi trturu yun, nuu it win uutj
away on these nominees, and they will have
to stand it and take the abuse, and the falsehood,
and the caricature, ami the anathema,
and the caterwaul ins?, and the filth, and they
will be rolled in it and rolled over and over
in i: until they are choked and submerged
and strangulated, and at every sign of returning
vonaciousneas they will be barked
at by all the bounds of political parties from
ocean to ocean,
And yet there are a hundred men to-day
struggling for that privilege, and there are
thousands ot men who are helping them in
the struggle. Now, that is not a life worth
living. Ycu can get slandered and abused
cheaper than that! Take it on a smaller
scale. Do not be so ambitious to have a
whole reservoir rolled over on you. But
whit you see in the matter ot high political
preferment you see in every community
in the struggle for what is called
social position.
Tens of thousands ot people trying to get
into that realm, and they are under terrific
tension. What is social position? It is a
difficult thing to define, but we all know
what it is. Go<v! rzczziz cud intelligence are
I not necessary, but wealth or the show of
wealth is absolutely indispensable. There
are men to-day as notorious for their liber*
'Inlsm as thenlcrht Is famou<? Tor ttn <iat*Bemwho
mov? in what Is called hieh social
position. There are hundreds of out and out
rakes In American socletv who?? names are
mentioned aroone the distinguished aruesta
at the great levees. They have annexed all
the known human vices and are longing for
other worlds of diabolism to conquer. Good
morals are not necessary In many of the exalted
circles of society.
Neither is intelligence necessary. You find
!n that realm men who wonld not know an
adverb from an adjective if they met it a
hundred times a day and who could not
wrltea letter of acceptance or regrets without
theaid of a secretary. They buy their libraries
br the square yard, only anxious to have the
Mnding Bnsslan. Their Ignorance is posiifoff
sublime, making English grammar alto*
disreputably aad yet the finest oariors
>
open before them. Good morals and tntellijence
arc not necessary. but wealth or a
show of wealth Is positively Indispensable.
It does not make any difference how you
got your wealth If you only get it. The best
way" for you to Ret Into social position is for
you to buy a lar*e amount on credit,then
put your property in your wife's name, have
n few preferred creditors and then make an
QociVn merit. Then disappear from the com
munity until the breeze" is over and then
(Njrno naos ana start m me same xrasmess.
Do you not see how beautifully that will put
out all the people who are in competition
with j'ou ana trying to make an honest living?
How quiokly it will get you into high
social position! What is the use of forty or
fifty years of hard work when you can by
two or three bright strokes make a great
fortune? Ah. my friends, when you really
loo*? your mon?r how auick they will let vou
drop, and the higher you get the harder you
will drop.
There are thousands to-day In that realm
who are anxious to keep in it. There are
thousands in that realm who are nervous tor
fear they will tall out of it, and there are
chanares going on every year and every
month and every hour whioh involve heartbreaks
that are never reported. High social
life is constantly in a flutter about the delicate
question as to whom they shall let in
and whom they shall push out, and the battle
is going on?pier mirror against pier mirror,
chandelier against chandelier, wine cellar
against wine cellar, wardrobe against
wardrobe, equipage against squipage. Uncertainty
and insecurity dominant in that
realm, wretchedness enthroned, torture at a
premium and a life not worth Jiving.
A life of sin, a life of pride, a life of Indulgences
life of worldiness.a life devoted to the
world, the flesh and the devil is a failure, a
dead failure, an infinite failure. I care not
how many presents yon sent to that cradle,
or how many garlands you send to that
grave, you need to put rlgut under the name
on the tombstone this inscription, "Better
for that man if he had never been born."
But I shall show you a life that is worth
livinc. A voung man says: "I am here. I
am not responsible for my ancestry. Others
decided that I am not "responsible for my
temperament; God gave me that. Bat hera
I am, in the afternoon of the nineteenth century.
at twenty years of age. I am here, and
I must take an account of stock. Here I
have a body which is a divinely constructed
enarine. I must put it to the very best uses
and I must allow nothing to damage this
rarest of machinery. Two feet, and they
mean locomotion. Two eyes, and they mean
capacity to pick out my own way. Two
ears, and they are telephones of communication
with all the outside world, and they
mean capacity to catoh sweetest music and
the voices of friendship?the very best music.
A tongue, with almost infinity of articulation.
Yes. hands with which to welcome or
resist or lift or smite or wave or bless?hands
to help myself and help others.
' Here i3 a world which, after 600) yeira
of battling with tempest and accident, is still
grander than any architect, human or angelic,
could have drafted. I have two lamps
to light me?a golden lamp and a silver
lamp?a golden lamp set on the sapphire
mantel of the day, a silver lamp set t>n the
jet mantel of the night. Yea, I have that at
twenty years of age which defies all inventory
of valuables?a soul with capacity to
choose or reject, to rejoice or to suffer, to
love or to hate. Plato says it is immortal.
Seneca says it is immortal. Confucius says
it is immortal. An old book among the fam
Uy relics, a book with lentnern cover almost
worn out and passes almost obliterated by oft
perusal, joins the other books in saying I
am immortal. I have eighty years for a
lifetime, sixty years yet to live. I may not
live an hour, but then I must lay out my
plans Intelligently and for a long life. Sixty
years added to the twenty I have already
lived?that will bring me to eighty. I must
remember that these eighty years are only a
brief preface to the five huudred thousand
millions of quintillions of year3 which will
be my chief residence and existence. No w I
understand my opportunities and my responsibilities.
"If there Is any being in the universe all
wise and all beneficent who can help a man
in such a juncture, I want him. Tiie old
book found among tne family relics tells me
there is a God. and that for the sake of His
Son. one Jesus, He will give help to a man.
To Him I appeal. God help me! Here I
have yet sixty years to do for myself and to
do for others. I must develop this body by
all Industries, by all gymnastics, by all sun?
shine, by all fresh air, by all good habitsE
And this soul I must have swept and garnished
and illumined and glorified by all that
I can do for it and all that I can get God to
do for it. It shall be a Luxemburg of fine
pictures. It shall be an orchestra of grand
harmonies. It shall be a palace for God and
righteousness to reign in. I wonder how
many kind words I can utter in the next
sixty years. I will try. I wonder ho w many
poo i deeds I can do in the next sixty years?
I will try. God help me!"
That young man enters life. He is
buffeted: he is tried; he is perplexed. A
grave opens on this 6ide, and a grave opens
on that side. He falls, but he rises agaip.
He gets into a hard battle, but he gets the
victory. The main course of his life is la
the right direction. He blesses everybody
he comes in contact with. God forgives his
mistakes and makes everlasting record of
his holy endeavors, and at the close of it
God says to him, "Well done, good and
faithful* servant; enter into the joys of thy
Lord." My brother, my 3lster, I do not care
whether that man dies at thirty, forty, llfty,
I sixty, seventy or eighty years of a<?e. You
sin chisel right under his name on the
iombstone these words: "His life was
worth living."
Amid the hills of New Hampshire in olden
times there sits a mother. There are. six
children in the household?four boys and
iwo girls. Small farm. V^ry rough ; hard
work to coax a living oat of it. Mighty tug
to make the two ends of the year meet. The
boys go to school in winter and work the
farm in summer. Mother is the chief presiding
spirit. With her hands she knits all
the stockings for the little feet, and she is
the mantua maker for the boys, and she Is
the milliner for the girls. There Is only one
musical instrument in the house?the spinnlnor
wheal. The food is very Dlain. but it
! is always well provided. The winters are
j very cohi, but are kept out by the blankets
j she quilted. On Sunday, when she appears
j in the village church, her ohildren around
J her, the minister looks down and is remindI
ed ot the Bible description of a Rood houseI
wife : i:Her children arise up and call het
! blessed. Her husband also, and he praiseth
j her."
Same years go by, and the two eldest boys
want a collegiate education, and the household
economics are severer, and the calculations
are closer, and until those two boys get
their education there is a hard battle for
bread. One of these boys enters the university,
stands in a pulpit widely influential
and preaches righteousness, judgment and
temperance, and thou3un is during his ministry
are blessed. The other lad who got the
collegiate education goes into the law, and
thence into legislative halls, amd after a
while he commands listening senates as he
makes a plea for the downtrodden and the
outcast. One of the younger boys becomes
a merchant, starting ax the foot of the ladder,
but climbing on up until his success and
his philanthropies are recognized all over tha
land. The other son stays at home beoausa
he prefers farming life, and then he thinks
he will be able to take care of father and
mother when they get old.
Or the two daughters, when the war broke
out one went through the hospital of Pitts*
burg Landing and Fortress Monroe, oh Bering
up the dying and homeslok, and taking
the last message to kindred far away, so that
ever}- time Christ thought of her He said, as
of old, "The same Is My sister and mother."
The other daughter has a bright home of her
own, and in the afternoon of the forenoon
when she has been devoted to her household
she goes forth to hunt up the siok and to
encourage the aiscouragea, leaving ?muw
and benediction all along the way.
But one day there start five telegrams from
the village for these Ave absent ones, saying,
"Come: mother is dangerously ill." But before
they can be ready to start they receive
another telegram, saying, "Come; mother Is
dead." The old neighbors arather in the old
farmhouse to do the last offices of respect.
But as that farming son, and the clergyman,
and the senator, and the merohant, and the
tiro daughters stand by the casket of the
dead mother, taking the last look or lifting
their little children to see once more the
face of dear old grandma, I wnnt to ask
that group around the casket one question,
"Do you really think her life was worth living?"
A life for God. a life for others, a
life of unselfishness, a useful life, a Christian
life, is always worth living.
I would not find it hard to persuade you
that the poor lad. Peter Cooper, making glue
for a living and then amassing a great fortune
until he could bnlld a philanthrophy
which has had Its eoho in 10,000 philanthropies
all over the country'I would cot find
It hard to persuade you that his life was
worth living. Neither would I find It hard
to persuade you that the life of Susannah
Wesley was worth living. She sent out one
son to organize Methodism and the other son
to ring his anthems all through the ages. I
would not find it hard to persuade you that
the life of Frances Leere was worth living,
as she established in England a school for
the scientific nursing of the sick, and then
when the war broke out between France and
Germany went to the front, and with her
own hands scraped the mud off the
bodies of the soldiers dying in the
trenches with her weak arm, standing one
night in the hospital, pushing back a German
soldier to his couch as, all frenzied with
I his wounds, he rushed toward the door and
i said: "Let me go! Let me go to my 'llebe
I mnttfir.' " Maior-Generals standincr back to
let pass this an;;el of mercy.
Neither would I have hard work: to persuade
you that Grace Darling lived a life
worth living?the heroine of the lifeboat.
You are not wondering that the Duchess of
Northumberland came to see her, and that
people of all lands asked for her lighthouse,
and that the proprietor of the Adelphi Theatre,
In London, offered her $100 a night
just to sit in thd lifeboat while some shipwrecked
scene was being enacted.
But I know the thought in the minds of
hundreds who read this. You say, "While
I know all these lived lives worth living. I
don't think my life amounts to much." Ah,
my friends, whether you live a life conspiclous
or Inconspicuous, It is worth living
II you live aright. And I want my next sentence
to go down into the depths of all
your souls. You are to be rewarded, not
according to the greatness of your work,
but according to the holy industries
with which you employed the talents yotf
reauy possessed. xne majority or tne
crowns of heaven will not be given to people
with ten talents, for most of them were
tempted only to serve themselves. The vast
majority of the crowns of heaven will be
given to people who had one talent, but gave
it all to God. And remember that our life
here is introductory to another. It Is the
vestibule to a palace, but who despises the
door of the Madeleine because there are
grander glories within? Your life if rightly
jived is the first bar of an eternal oratorio,
and who despises the first note of Haydn's
symphonies? And the lite you live now i3
all the more worth living because it opens
into a life that shall never end, and the last
letter of the word "titne" is the first letter
of the word "eterniti-!'
CURIOUS FACTS.
Korea has a cave from which a wintry
wind perpetually blows.
The wall that surrounds Peking,
China, is fifty feet high and forty feet
thick.
More vicissitudes have beset the
Hungarian crown than any other in
Europe.
The mean annual temperature of the
Arctic regions is below thirty degrees
Fahrenheit.
A young man of Paterson, N. J., recently
sneezed so hard that he jerked
his shoulder out of joint.
The note of the bell-bird sounds like
the tolling of a bell, and can be heard
a distance of three miles.
Axmen of the Pacifio Northwest can
saw or chop a tree so as to make it fall
in any desired direction.
The wine production of France last
year was larger than that of any one
of the last fourteen years.
Civilized people didn't begin to sit
at the dining table until the time of
Charlemagne. Previous to that they
reclined at their meals.
London contains about twenty-five
t>pp ftflnt. of all the Banners and fur
r ? ? ? *
nishes the same per cent, of all the
criminals in England and Wales.
In the Roman catacombs have been
found several sets of false teeth, manufactured
from ivory to repair the ravages
of time in the mouths of Roman
beauties.
Among the articles of adornment
which the Crusaders brought back
from the quest of the Holy Grail were
ribbons, which had not previously been
worn in Western Europe.
"Poor Milk" is the curious sign
which is to be seen on the window of
a Tenth avenue (New York City) dairy
product shop. The poor is above the
milk and is the name of the shopkeeper.
The check cannot be proved to have
existed in the commercial transactions
of Europe outside of Italy until late
in the seventeenth or early in the
eighteenth century. In England they
were not used until about 1760.
An old and reliable well in Lebanon,
Penn., which has furnished clear cold
water to half a dozen generations, has
suddenly changed its character. The
-Al ~ ** Vianron artnnf. hnf, watftr.
tuur UOjr iv uo^wi* vw ? F
small stones and a strange variety of
bat brims.
fc The second point of the Sorrentine
peninsula is known as the Cape of
Minerva, or more familiarly as the
Campanella, from a tradition that a
bell once hung in the beacon-tower,
just above the modern lighthouse.
The Barbary pirates stole the bell one
day, but a storm came up, and they
were obliged to drop it overboard to
lighten their felucca. It is still heard
to ring at the bottom of the sea.
Died lor His Superstitions Faith.
"That reminds me of an instance of
blind superstitious faith on the part
of a New Mexican Indian which I witnessed
away back in the '70s. It was
just after one of the annual snake
dances, in the Course of which rattlers
are handled with absolute impunity,
probably because the priests had
previously removed the fangs. A reward
for zealous dancing is impunity
from death from snake bites for exactly
twelve mouths, and the man I
refer to showed his faith in the
promise by getting bit. He was showI
ing a party composed of myself and
1 three other men a short cut across
country, and as we were traveling
along an almost hidden trail we came
across an enormous rattlesnake. We
were for killing it right away, but the
kiiMo imnlnmr) 11 o nnf. tf?. flavinff
A DU ? UlUU liU|/iVtWU v?w mw ^ q
that the death of the snake would
break the charm over him. While
arguing with us he deliberately trod
on the snake with his moccasined feet
to show us that he could not be in*
jured by it. In an instant the snake
had planted its venom into the fleshy
part of his leg. We gave the animal
a wide berth and resumed the journey.
The Indian sang happily for a while,
then became strangely quiet. He
lived rather longer than an average
white man would have done under the
circumstances, but aa we had no
remedies with us nature took its
course, and he died before the sun
went down."?Globe-Democrat.
Imprisoned Tor an Unusual Act.
ChArles O. Cedarqulst, private. Company
A, Second United States Infantry, Omahn,
Neb., was court-martialed and sentenced to
Imprisonment at hard labor for six months,
with forfeiture of $10 per month of his pay
for the same period.
Cedarqulst refused to go to target practice
on Sundav on the grounds that his religious
scruples would not allow him to violate the
Sabbath day by discharging firearms.
SABBATH SCHOOL
INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOR
AUGUST 12.
Lesson Text: " Temptation ot Jesus,'*
Math. iv., 1-11 ? Golden
Text: Hebrews iv., 15?
Commentary.
1. "Then was Jesus led up of the .Spirit
fnto tho wilderness to tie tempted ot tne
dovil." He wns born by the Spirit and baptized
by the Spirit (Math J., 20 ; iif., 1C), and
now He is led by the Spirit into trial, for
every servant must be tried. Consider the
trials of Abraham, Joseph, Moses. David
and other servants of the Lord. Think also
of the testings of Israel, God's son, in the
wilderness those forty years. We are taught
to count it a blessed privilege to be tried
and never to think it strange (Jas. i., 2, 12 :
I Pet. iv., 12). Jesus, although absolutely
perfect in Himself, was made perfect
through sufferings as the author of our salvation
(Heb. II.. 10), and, while wo are perfected
forever in Him, yet we must suffer
with Him if we would reign with Htm (Heb.
x., 14; II Tim. ii.. 12). See I Cor x., 13.
2. "And when He had fnsted forty days
and forty nights He was afterward an hungered."
Moses fasted forty days and nights
on two different occasions (Deut. ix., 9, 18>:
Elijah also fasted forty days and nights on
his way to and at the same Mount Horeb (I
Kings xix.. 8), the mountain of God, where
He appeared to Moses in the burning bush
(Ex. ill., 1, 2) and called him to deliver Israel.
We And these three forty-day fasters
on the mount of transfiguration, but when
the cloud passed the disciples saw no one
save Jesus only (Math, xvii., 8). We must
see in it. at least, the entire subjugation ot
the natural and the sole supremacy of the
spiritual.
8. "And when the tempter came to Him he
said, If Thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread." Mark
cans meiempier saran, ana LiUKe cans mm
the devil. Both names are found in our lesson.
satan signifying an adversary, and devil
an accuser. This first temptation is after the
manner of that in Eden and insinuates that
God is not love, else He -would not withhold
anything from His children, much less the
bread necessary for the body. >
4. "But He answered and said, It is
written, Man shall not live by bread alon?,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God." Esau for food sold his
birthright, and even Isaac thought too much
of his food, while Adam and Eve, with every
need supplied, sinned in the matter of eating,
but Jesus, in great hunger and sore
pressed, submits to God and resists the devil.
'The life is more than meat, and the body
Is more than raiment" (Lnke xll., 23). The
main thing is to magnify the Lord rather
than to pamper or even gratify self (Bom.
xiv., 17).
5. "Then the devil taketh Him up Into the
Holy City and setteth Him on a pinnacle of
the temple." Some one has said that faith
cruoiflestbe question "How?" So we ask
not how this was done, but simply believe it
and see the two in Jerusalem on some high
part of the temple. The devil Is fond of high
places; the Spirit of God is lowly and
teaches humility. My highest place is lying
low at my Bedeemer's feet.
0. "And saith unto Him, If Thou be the
Son of God, cast Thyself down, for It la
written, He shall give His angels charge
concerning Thee, and in their hand3 they
shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou
aasn any loot against a stone. it is as It
he said, A Son of God should appear among
the people In some befitting manner?come,
as It were, down from heaven right In their
midst. The first temptation was the lust of
the flesb. This looks like the lust of the
eyes. In Eden the tree seemed good for
food and then pleasant to the eyes. Listen
to the devil quoting Scripture, but compare
P8. xoL, 11, and see how he misquotes it by
omitting an important part.
7. "Jesus said unto him, It i3 written
again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy
God." Scripture does not contradict Scripture,
but explains it and instructs us how to
avoid its abuse. To tempt God Is the opposite
of waiting in the obadience and confidence
of trust. It Is in the line of presumption.
There is no presumption in
going where God sends you on His service,
but there would be presumption in going to
the same place or doing the same thing unsent
of God just to make yourself a name
and have the praise of men.
8. "Again, the devil taketh Him up into
an exceeding high mountain and sheweth
Him ail the kingdoms of the world and the
fflory of them." Luke adds that He did it
n a moment of time, and again we ask not
how, but simply believe. He is called the
prince and the god of this world (John xiv..
30; II Cor. iv., 4) and has more under his
control than some care to believe, but only
by permission and for a time. The kingdoms
of this world shall become the kingdom
of our Lord and His Christ, and He
shall reign forever (Rev. xi., 15). If we will
have power now, it will probably be from
tue aevu ; 11 wo can wait ana suner uwuuo
With Christ, we shall reign with Him forever.
9. "Andsaith unto Him, All these things
will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down aud
worship me." It Is of satan to seek honor
from men more than from God?angels do
not thus (Rev. xxii.. 8, 9). The antichrist
will accept satan's offer in the last days as
described in Rev. xiii. Jesus seems to reter
to this when He says, ;iI am come in My
Father's name, and yo receive Me not; if another
shall come in his own name, him ye
I will receive (John v., 43). The mark of the
beast may be the quickest and easiest way
to honor, but it involves an eternity of torment
with the devil and his angels (Rev.
xiv.. 9-11; Math xxv., 41). May we be like
the friends of Daniel who pretorred the fiery
furnace to the worship of the imago (Dan.
iii.,17,18).
10. "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thoo
hence, satan, for it is written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only
Bhalt thou serve.'' Thu3 is the third temptation
overcome by the sword of the Spirit,
and each quotation is from Deuteronomy.
Eve fell by believing satan ; Jesus overcome
by believing God. If we would love not the
world with its lust of the flesh, lust of the
eyes and pride of life, it must be by being
filled with the word and the Spirit.
11. "Then the devil leaveth Him. and, behold,
angels came and ministered unto Htm.*'
Luke says that tne devil left him for a season.
We nre to submit ourselves to God. resist
the devil and he will flea from us (Jas.
iv., 7). To this end we need the whole
armor as described in Eph. vi., 13-18. It is
nrolt fr, hoop in minrt f-hnt we ATO for the
present on the enemy's territory and wrestle
with wicked spirits, but we need not be overcome.
The angels are still administering
spirits (Heb. i., 14) and care for the children
of God. Let the storier. of the angels and
Elijah and Abraham, and Lot and Peter, be
pondered prayerfully, bslieved simply and
heartily, and we cannot but be profited.?
Lesson Helper.
Midwinter Fair Aftermath.
The Midwinter Fair, San Francisco, Cai.%
is now baiug dismantled, and in a few weolcs
only tbe Fine Arts Building will remain.
Although the weather was bad throughout
most of the life of the Fair, an I althou/n
the gruat strike prevented the large attendant
which was expacteJ in the closing
days, yet the managers are able to report
that the finauces are satisfactory. After paying
all obligations, the Executive Committee
will have enough money left to put the
uruuu'.ia iu una l-uuiiuiuu ?un uu; >.
few works of statuary with which to ornament
them. The total attendance was ;i
trifle over 2.600,000. which was far in excess
of the most sauguino expectations. The
plan is to retain the grand court, with the
fine artificial stone sidewalk and driveway
surrounding it. and to mako this part of n
great mall, with a bail (stand at the on:l under
tne shelter of Strawberry Hill. The Art
Builriinir, which is of ston", will he retained,
anil will form a picture gallery an i museum.
It is probable that the bronze ' cider press,"
which attracted so muca attention a, Chicago,
will be purchased and placed on the
grounds.
The Mlnneupolls's Speed.
The cruiser Minneapolis did better than
the first reports indicated on her trial trip.
Commodore Selfridge telegraphed then to
the Navv Department that she made 23.05
knots, subject to tidal corrections. Tho
corrections were made, and the Commodore
reported that, after making all allowances,
the average speed was 23.073 knots. By the
contract the builders wereto receive a bonus
for excess speed on the basis of $50,000 for
each quarter-knot over twenty-one knots, so
that, according to Commodore Belfri.lge's
figures, the premium earned will amount to
$414,000, the liirjzeet ever earned by u vessel.
RELIGIOUS READING.
HOPINO FOR A HEVTVAL.
The very hope, when it is lively, is reviving.
It stimulates to those exertions which,
by the divine blessing, bring their own reward.
"He that ploughetli should plough in
hopeand then he that thresheth in hope
shall be partaker of his hopeand they
shall "rejoice together." The christian who
ishubitually longing for a revival of religion,
is, in fact, in a high state of revival himself:
and, so far, is actually possessed of what he
desires. Let him never give up the hope of
seeing better days for Zion
AVhen the sailors are heaving at the windlass,
there is a piece of wood, secured at one
end by a hinge.which as fasi as the windless
round, drops at the other end into notches
made in the windless te receive it This
piece of wood, which prevents the windless
from flying back again, and losing what h.n
been gained, is called the "heave-paul."
Now the hope we are speaking of is just such
a heave-paul. and prevents any declensions
while the christian is warping his bark
against the stream of worldliness and
' heaves away" to work her up to
the heavenly pier. The apostle who was so
often inspired to annimate this blessed hope,
may well give his name to the implement we
have mentioned.
Why should not the Christian hope on?
However dark the Dresent hour, he knows
that there must be a morning, though it may
seem long of coming; and he looks for it
more eagerly as the night seems deeper, and
gloomier, and more fraught with peril. He
charges himsolf to be faithful here; "My soul
wait thou upon God; for my expectatation is
from him."?The tide of religion has long
been at low ebb in our land. We see only
wide and dismal marshes, and black, miry
flats, where once we saw the waters of salvation
flowing in their fulness, smiling in serenest
beauty, till the real skie3 looked not
so lovely and soft as the heaven reflected on
their bosom. But now the mighty flood ha3
receded, and all is dreary and desolate to the
view.
Noxious damps come steaming up, tainting
the air with bilgy odors and unwholesome
exhalations. And shall we suffer ourselves
to be benumbed wtih the freezing thought
that it must be ever thus? No; let us move
with the more vigor to drive off the fatal
chill. Let us be sure that to the lowest tide
of depression and disastrous reverse, there
must be a torn. We may be weary with
waiting for it; but it must come. It will set
in once more, till the waters of life return to
the forsaken channels, and roll their resistless
undulations along all the deserted shores.
If we see it not with mortal eyes, we shall
look down from the heights of heaven, to behold
It, and rejoice with the angels in the
presence of God.
When a strong hope that a revival is near
becomes general in a church, it is usually one
of the fairest harbingers that "a day of salvation"
is at hand Hope is a peculiarly contagious
feeling. When ardently felt by one
of the brethren, another soon grows warm by
the contact; and the vivifying fever spreads
from member to member, till the body glows
and tingles with vital heat, comes out of its
frigid and dormant state, rises in the strength
of the Lord, and takes vigorous hold of his
glorious workHow
many revivals have thus commenced?
Why should they not commence again in
like manner? If anyone would feel this in
revivifying hope, let him fulfil the conditions
of it. Self-abasement, prostration of the 30ul,
penitential confessions,and seizing the promises
o! the grace of Christ in faith.?from
thence is the life and warmth of such hope as
'maketh not ashamed." and so far as this is
experienced, iust so far is religion already
revived, and the way prepared for its spreading
on every side.?Boston Recorder.
INVESTMENTS.
"I am well satisfied," thought a worldly
man, "with the state of my investments. I
hold a large amount in government stock at
a premium. My insurance funds yield me
ten per cent ;my city lots are rising in value:
how lucky that I laid out so largely in railroad
shares, which are bringing me h Dlentiful
income, without my moving a flnzer! I
have several thousand on hand, which I
scarcely know what to do with. They must
not be idle: I will expend them in building.
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many
years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
merry."
"I am well pleased," thought a Christian,
"with my investments. Many j^ars ago, I
placed a considerable sum at interest in the
Foreign Mission fund, and have been enabled
to add to it every year. Who can tell the
good it may have done? Without my movI
n oforv If la f>rtntrihnHnc to snreild the
1XJ8 u. OI.CJ, > ? ? O -- -r
truth on the opposite side of the globe. A
very favorite investment with me is in Domestic
Missions. The compound interest on
that stock is incalculable. I have shares of
real estate in several new churches built at
the West, where hundreds will hear the gospel
preached when I am sleeping in the dust
A small sum, that I came very near wasting,
is aiding at this moment to evangelize
France. How happy I am that I took shares
in the Bible, Tract and Education Companies,
which are paying rich dividends of good,
and Dromise yet larger enes! I have a few
dollars in hand, which I do not need. Thoy
shall not lie idle a day. I will divide them
between the seamen and the Portuguese exiles.
And may He who furnishes the
money, bestow His blessing with it."
SOGBCE OF HAPPINESS.
You might wear a crown; but a guilty conscience
would line it with thorns; you might
roll in wealth, but an accusing conscience
would haunt you like a demon; you may
launch into the pleasures of the world, but
conscience will register every deed and foretell
a day of reckoning. Milton has put the
I deepest philosophy into trie mourn 01 tne
arch-flend, when he exclaims:
"The mind in its own place, and of itself,
Can make a hell of heaven, a heaven of hell.'
We all seem rather to inhabit ourselves,
'.han dwell anywhere else. The world within
is our home and constant abode. Our
thoughts are our mansions, our food, our
wealth and inheritance. Everything is viewed
through the medium of thought. Here, the
present world, the world to come, ourselves,
our foes, and the Deity are reflected, surveyed
and contemplated, and hence, to have
peace in heaven. When all is tranquil
around, the mind may be like the troubled
sea; and on the contrary, the last thunders
may roar, the earth quake, and the heavens
dissolve and melt with fervent heat, and yet
the soul far from feeling the least alarm may
exult and sin*?. Nor need we wait for our
happiness till death has unlocked the portals
of bliss. Why not be happy now ? To walk
by faith, and serve our generation aceordiug
to the will of God. wilJ enable us to reaiizeno
small amount of blessing.?Parsons.
CONSCIENCE.
Conscience is God within us, It is a man's
brst friend, or his dreadful enemy. Where
sin has made it an enemy, it haunts a man
everywhere He has no power to resist it,
and he lies perpetually at its mercy. It is a
flame kindled in his soul, which inwardly
torments and consumes him. It is a viper
which winds about his heart, and stings him
In the tenderest places. It'is a hungry vulture,
a never dying worm, which secretly
preys upon his vitals and tills him with agony
and dismay. But where conscience is enlightened
and obeyed, it is a friend indeed?a
friend at home?an inward, intimate, truly
bosom friend.
It never deserts us even in the greatest extremity,
and this iriendshipof conscience will
compensate for the enmity of worlds. He
who has a friend in his own heart possesses
the most solid ground of consolation and
peace. In the midst of storms, encompassed
with dangers, oppressed with sorrows, loaded
with undeserved reproach, involved on all
sides with impenetrabl- gloom, he still enjoys
inward, unutterable peace and serenity
of spirit, which the world knoweth not of,and
conscious of integrity, his heart is at rest,
trusting in God.
Had an Ossified Heart.
An nutopsy upon the body of Georcre O.
Carkins, who was found dead in a Held in
Newinpton. N. H., and who was thought to
.have b?en murdered, revealed that death
was caused by an ossltted heart. Physicians
say that the organ showed one of the most
remarkable cases of the kind ever seen. The
valves were so thoroughly incrusted that it
did not seem possible for them to have
closed. The heart will bo preserved for the
New Hampshire Medical Societv.
The Strike and Uncle Sam.
The cost to the United State* of puttinsy
down tha railroad strike in the West is estimated
by Government officials as fully $1,000.000.
AGRICULTURAL.
TOPICS OF INTEREST RELATIVE
TO FARM AND GARDEN.
HEATING OF HAT IX THE BABN.
Hay frequently heats in the mow or
stack from the careless habit of taking
np the bottoms of the hay cock6 with
the rest of the hay. This part of the
hay takes moisture from the ground
sufficiently to start the heating, which
quickly spreads through the maBB.
To avoid this the bottoms should be
left on the ground and spread so that
the hay may dry, which it will do in
an hour, and may then be taken up
with the after loads. It is a good
plan to scatter one pound of salt on
each load as it is put in the mow or
the stack. This greatly tends to prevent
the heating by moderating the
fermentation of the new hay.?New
York Times. i
BUSH VERSUS POLE LtMAS.
' The dwarf or bush Lima beans can
now be purchased at such a reasonable
price ihat cultivators should be able
the present season to determine their
relative value for market purposes.
We have heard several gardeners in
charge of private places express it as
their opinion that the pole Lima
would soon be a "bean of the past,"
but we are not yet convinced that they
will disappear from the grounds of
those who raise beans for market, for
long-established practices and habits
are not readily obliterated or
abolished. But every one who has
a garden should try the bush Limas
and endeavor to determine their relative
value with the pole varieties.?
American Agriculturist.
USE OF GRAIN CHAFF.
Without doubt the cultivated grains
?wo their preservation from entire
destructien to the chaff in which they
are enclosed. Now man takes care of
the seed grain it would seem that the
chaff is, less necessary. But it serves
a purpose in keeping the grain from
drying too rapidly, and thus germinating
before its time or from becoming
too wet and rotting. When damp
grain is put in the mow or stack the
more chaffy it is the less likely it is to
injury. Two or three vears aco.
while a neighbor was threshing some
oats that had been stacked too green,
we saw a curious sight. The oats were
bound by the harvesting machine.
Where each band passed around the
bundle, the straw was rotted throughout.
It would be supposed that the
oats would be injured, either by
sprouting or by rotting. But the
chafl had kept the grain sound, and it
was not even stained by the mass of
moisture surrounding it. These same
oats when threshed and divested of
their chaff had to be shovelled once
each day for a week or more to prevent
them from heating.?Boston
Cultivator.
KAK. IN HORSE'S FOOT.
Any kind of punctured wound requires
special treatment, because
healing of any wound must begin at
the bottom of it, and if otherwise the
diseased matter in the wound will become
inclosed in it, and must break
out in time in some way or another.
Xnus, an incompletely heaJed wound
will in time become an abscess that
may give much trouble, especially in
the foot, which, being enclosed in its
horny covering, affords no escape for
the pus formed, and this burrows
among the tissues, forming a fistula,
or spreading so that the bones of the
foot become diseased and the horse is
ruined. The first thing to be done is
to remove the nail, if it or a nart of it
remains in the foot, then to enlarge
the opening and reach the bottom, injecting
some active liniment or other
stimulant, and keeping the opening
free for the escape uf pus until the
healing advances to the surface, when
a simple protection to the sore will be
sufficient until the healing is completed.
Care is to be exercised to
keep the wound clean by frequent injections
of warm water with a few
drops of carbolic acid in it, and if the
foot is inflamed, poultices are to be
used. The entrance of sand or grit
into tho wound is to be strictly
avoided.?National Stockman.
PACKING BCTTER IN SMALL DAISIES.
Creamery butter has an advantage
of uniformity over that produced in
small private dairies. The dairy
churning is large, the cream has been
ripened all together uniformly; the
churning is all ;-iade at one time, and
hence the entire butter product for
that day is of uniiorm flavor, texture
and color. A tub can be tilled at one
time, and the merchant who buys or
sells it will lind the butter exactly the
same in quality from top to bottom
of the tub.
In the small private dairy every
churning,, of course, is of even quality
of product, but one day's product is
sometimes not large enough to fill a
tub; and hence the different days'
churuings required to complete the
filling are likely to show some difference
in color and general quality,
and therefore the butter will not
grade evenly in the tub, and this lack
of uniformity results in a lower price.
In reality, the butter from the small
dairy may be as good, fresh, and possibly
a better article than the other,
but this lack of uniformity detracts
from its marketable value where butter
is graded by experts.
Butter from these small dairies
should be sold in prints of one pound
each. If a cream separator is used in
the small private dairy, and the cream
ripened dav by day at the same temperature,
the butter is likely to be of
a more uniform quality, and wiUgradt:
uniformly, the same as the crearrery
article; but as a rule, comparatively
few small dairies use the separator.
The farm butter may be sold to advantage
in small packages of from one
to five pounds.?American Agriculturist.
THE BEAUTIFCL IN* FARM LIFE.
There is some danger that farmers
tvill become 60 intent on making their
lands pay a money return that they
will lose sight of much that is beautiful
in country life, writes Edgar L.
Vincent. It is not all of life to be
be able to say at the end of each year
that there is a good margin on the
right side of the farm account. This
is ali right, of course; we are on the
4 I
farm as a business. We ought to do
our best to make it pay. But it will i
not do to make money the sole object
of our labor. This ia especially true
if we have children. To bend every
energy from daylight to dark, from
week's end to week's end and from one
year's beginning to the other, to the
getting of money, is demoralizing to
the farmer, to his wife and doubly so
to his children. Life's beginning is a
most important era. If to the young
it be clouded by the gloom of a home
where the only object in living is to
get money, the shadow rarely ever
lifts. The whole life will be tinged
with the memory of those earlier days
on the farm.
I believe that is one great reason
why so many leave the farm. Their
lives in the old home were a ceaseless
grind, unrelieved by anything which.
touched the tenderer side of nature.
What, then, should we do to remedy
this? Make home as beautiful as
possible. Suppose the house is old
and you are not able to build another.
Beautify it as much as you can. Set
out trees around it, clear away weeds,
tumble down fences and all unsightly
objects. Let grass grow fresh and
green all about it. Plant flowers ia
pleasant places. And so all .over the
farm. It will cost only a little time
to make it beautiful. Inside make the
house home-like. A few books and papers
; music if you can afford it; at
P7?ntide let there be an ingathering,
cl all the children. Bead aloud to
'hem and have them read also. Be one
ol Lhem and have a share in all that
interests them. Study nature with
them.
How many know the names and
habits of the birds which flit about ia
summer? Who of us can tell the
names of the flowers which spring up
everywhere on the farm? This may
seem to some farmers all "nonsense."
From suoh a decision I must earnestly
appeal. The little lives intrusted to us
are the most precious of all God's
gifts to us. It lies in our power to
dwarl them or help them unfold and
reach heights of success we ourselves
may never attain. We have no right
to entail upon our children the heri
tage which many parents do whea
they teach them to hate farm life.
There is no place on earth whioh is
nearer to nature's heart than tho
farm. We onght to love it and teaoh
our children to love it, too. Farm
life pays if it leads him who follows it
one step higher than he was at first.
No matter whether we die xioh ia
money or not if at the last our friend*
can says of ns that we loved nature and
nature's God, and pointed the way up
to them.
FABM AND GARDEN NOTES.
A big farm uncultivated is like a
big statute-book with the laws but
half enforced.
Orchards may at first be planted
closely, but in a few years every other
tree should be removed.
Bowel troubles often result from
colts being allowed to suckle when the
mares are heated from work.
Horses are cheap, but that is no
good reason for keeping yourself poor
in supporting more of them than yoa
need.
T. D. Cnrtis, in Western Plowman,
says: Decide on your line of dairying,
if not already decided?butter, cheese
or milk for market.
If you choose cheese making or milk
for market, see that the butter is in
small globules, so that it will not
readily separate from the milk.
Stick to the line of dairying and the
breed of ccw which you begia with,
keeping the blood pure. Mixing
breeds promiscuously works badly.
Be sure to select a male that is from
a better family in your line of dairying
than your herd. This is a guarantee
of improvement in the offspring.
Marcs in foal should be worked with
great judgment. Steady, light work
is an advantage to them, but heavy
work should be done by other horses.
If you choose butter making, see
that vour cows erive milk rich in but
ter fat, and that tbe fat is in large
globules, so that it will readily separate
from tbe milk.
Tbe cow tbat must graze industriously
balf of tbe summer to recover
physically wbat she has lost by indifferent
keeping through the winter iff
not apt to garn a dollar in real profit
for her owner.
A little vaseline to which a few
drops of carbolic acid has been added
rubbed under the jaws of e, horse will
do much towards keeping away those
big buzzing flies that keep him tossing
his head continually.
Outside of liniments for sprains, the
less medicine there is around a stable
the better. At heart, intelligent doctors
have very little faith in the curative
value of any drugs. They rely
on proper food and surroundings, and
careful treatment.
Be careful that the ration fed to
your cows has a proper balance of elements,
approximating one part of
nitrogenous food to one part of carbonaceous.
The nitrogenous foods
aae also known as "albuminoids," and
the carbonaceous as "carbohydrates."
If you have not a sufficient number
| of sows, or cows, or mares to pay for
keeping a thoroughbred male yourself
get some of your neighbors to join
you in the purchase of one. A joint
ownership of this sort is better than
to be all the time payiug out large
service fees.
When the stock is infested with lice
it indicates a low condition. Fat,
healthy, well-fed animals are seldom
infested with lice. When lice are found
on the auimals there is a probability
also that tbey may become diseased.
Filth, lice and disease are always
found together.
. John Boyd thinks it essential io
milking to take hold of the teat aa
near to the point as possible, so as to
excite the nerve that runs from this
point to the milk glands, anil he adds
that the more this nerve is excited by
i manipulation the greater the success
of the milker, especially in cows that
are rich milkers.
If you want your son to like the
farm, says the Practical Farmer, get
him interested in the live stock. There
is no surer way of keeping him home
than this. Give him a gcod animal
now and then for his own and help him
to care for it in the way that will make
it of the most value. Such praotioal
lesaons go further than work. {