Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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1 f \ KEY. DR. TADIAGE. TfflE BROOKL.YN DIVINE’S SUN DAY SERMON. Subject: "The Sours Crisis.” Preached in London. Text: "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.”—Isaiah iv., 6. Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline.of our Saviour’s features. Borne of them present, as it were, the side fac^ of Christ; others a bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the full length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in aome things. Ezekiel more weird. David more pathetic, Solomon more epigrammatic, Habakkukmore sublime, but when you want to see Christ coming out from the gates of prophecy in all His grandeur and glory, you involuntarily turn to Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in regard to Christ might be called the “Oratorio of the Messiah,” the writing of Isaiah is the '‘Hallelujah Chorus,” where all the batons wave and all the trumpets come. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of insignifi cance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus and Philo and Siraca ex tolled him in their writings. What Paul was among the apostles, Isaiah was among the prophets. My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out into the future, ' beholding Christ advancing and anxious that all men might know Him, his voice rings down the ages, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.” “Oh,” says some one, “that was for olden times.” No, my hearer. If you have traveled in other lauds you have taken a circular letter of credit from some banking house in London, and in Bt. Petersburg or Venice or Rome or Ant werp or Brussels or Paris you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for one age or for one land is a circular letter for all ages and for all lands, and whenever it is pre sented for help, the help comes. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.” I come to-day with no hairspun theories of religion, with no nice distinctions, with no elaborate disquisition, but with a plain talk on the matters of personal religion. I feel that the sermon I preach this morning will be the savor of life unto life or death unto death. In other words, the Gospel of Christ is a powerful medicine; it either kills or cures. Thera are those who say: “I would like to become a Christian. I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of influence to come.” And still you are waiting. You are wiser in worldly things than you are in religious things. And yet there are men who say they are waiting to get to heaven—waiting, waiting, but not with intelligent waiting, or they would get on board the line of Christian influences that would bear them into the kingdom of Gcd. Now you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with earnest endeav or. if you want to sea a certain man in London, and there is a matter of much money connected with your seeing him, and you cannot at first find him, you do not give up the search. You look in the direct ory, but cannot find the name; you go in circles where you think perhaps he may mingle, and, having found the part of the city where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through street after street and from block to block, and you keep on Marching for weeks aud for months. You say, “It is a matter of £10,000 whether I see him or not.” Oh, that men were as persistent in seeking for Christ I Half you one half that persistence you would long ago have found Him who is the joy of the forgiven spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we may relieve the poor, we may be public benefactors, and yet all our life disobey the text, never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the spirit of God would help this morning while I try to ■how you, in carrying out the idea of my text, first, how to seek the Lord, and in ths next place, when to seek Him. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.” I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest and believing prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot seated on a throne, with His arms resting on brazen lions and a sentinel pacing up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a bower, waiting for His children to come and climb on Hig knee and get His kiss and His benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to the “fountain of living water” and dip up refreshment for our thirsty soul. Grace does not come to the heart as we set a cask of water to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley fast ened to the throne cf God, which we pull, bringing the blessing. I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer, nor how large an amount of voice you use. You might get down on your face before God, if you did not pray right inwardly, and there would be no response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a believing spirit within, your cry would not go farther up than the shout of a plowboy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, loving. You are in your house some summer day, and a shower comes up, aud a bird affrighted darts into the window, and wheels around the room. You seize it. You smooth its ruf fled plumage. You feel its fluttering heart. You say, “Poor thing, poor thing!” Now a pra\ er goes out cf the storm of this world in to the window of God’s mercy, and He catches it and He feels its fluttering noise, and He puts it in His own bosom of affection and safety. Prayer is a warm, ardent, pulsating exer cise. It is the electric battery which, touched thrills to the throne of God. It is the diving bell in which we go down into the depths of God’s mercy and bring up “pearls of great price.” There is an instance where prayer made the waves of Gennesaret solid as granite pavement. Oh, how many won ler- fu! things prayer has accomplished! Have you ever tried it? In the days when the (Scotch Covenanters were persecuted and the enemies were after them one of the head men among the Covenanters prayed: “O Lord, we be as dead men unless Thou shalt help us. O Lord, throw the lap of Thy cloak over these poor things.” Aud instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecuted from their persecutors—the promise literally fulfilled. “While they are yet speaking I will hear.” Ob, impenitent sou), have you ever tried the power of prayer? God' says: “He is loving and faithful and patient.” Do you believe that? You are told that Christ came to save sinners. Do you believe that? You are told that ail you have to do to get the pardon of the Gospel is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come to Him and say: “O Lord. 1 know Thou canst not lie. Thou hast told me to come for pardon, and I could get it. I come. Lord. Keep Thy promise and liberate my captive soul.” Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor, in the kitchen, in # the store, in the bam: for Christ will be willing to come again to the manger to hear prayer. He- will come in your place of business as He confronted Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come before Congress that you thought would ruin the Nation, how you would send in petitions aud remon strances. Aud yet there has been enough ein in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remonstrated or petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the means, you vouldgoani spend the summer in Germany and the win ter in Italy, and you would think it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all around the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any effort, any expenditure, any exertion for your immortal and spiritual health? No, you have not taken one step. Oh, that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer! Some of you have been working for years and years for »he support of your families. Have you given one-half dav to the working out ol vour salvation with fear and trembling? You came here this morning with an earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if you want to find the Lord you must pray and pray and pray. I remark again, you must seek the Lord through Bible stuay. The Bible is the new est book in the world. “Oh,” you say, “it was made hundreds of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds of years ago,” I confute that Idea bv teUing you it is not fire minutes old. when God, by His blessed spirit, retranslates it into the heart. If yon will, in the seek ing of the way of life through Scripture study, implore God’s light to fall upon the P«(fe, you will find that these promises are not one second old and that they drop straight from the throne of God into yoor heart. There are many people to whom the Bible does not amonnt to much. If they merely look at the outside beauty, why it will no more lead thdm to Christ than Washington’s farewell address or the Koran of Mahomet or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the in ward light of God’s Word you must get or die. I went up to the church of the Made leine in Paris and looked at the doors, which were the most wonderfully constructed I ever saw, and I could have staid there for a whole week; but I had only a little time, so, baying glanced at the wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the ra diant altars and the sculptured dome. Alasl that so many stop at the outside door of God’s holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the dome of God’s mercy and salvation that hovers over every penitent and believing soul! Oh, my friends, if you merely want to study the laws of languaTO, do noc go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take “Howe’i Elements o? Criticism.” It would be better than the Bible for that. If yon want to study metaohysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of William Hamil ton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, and at last to gain the blessed ness of heaven, search the Scriptures, “for In them ye have eternal life.” When people are anxious about their souls —and there are some here to-day—there are those who recommend good books. That is all right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under such circum stances. Baxter wrote “A Call to the Un converted,” but the Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote ‘‘The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,” but the Bible is the best rise and pro gress. John Angell James wrote “Advice to the Anxious Inquirer,” but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer. Oh, the Bible is the very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul! A dying soldier said to his mate, “Comrade, give me a drop!” The comrade shook up the canteen and said, “There isn’t a drop of water in the canteen.” “Oh,” said the- dying soldier, “that’s not what I want* feel in my knap sack for my Bible.” And his comrade found the Bible aud read him a few of the gracious promises, and the dying soldier said: “Ah, that’s what I want. There isn’t anything like the Bible for a dying soldier, is there, my comrade?” Ob, blessed book while we live. Blessed book when we die. I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. “What,” say you, “can’t man be saved without going to church?" I reply, there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church; but the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God; and it truth affects us when we are alone, it affects ns more mightily when we are in the assembly—the feelings of otners empha sizing our own feelings. The great law of symnathy comes into clay, and a truth that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man beats mightily against the sool with a thousand heart throbs. When you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion and only for one f urpose-^-to find the way to Christ. Wnen see people critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voices, and critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in prison. He is condemned to death, but the officer of the Government brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison and says: “Hera is your pardon. Come and get it.” “What! Do you expect me to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, and with such an awkward manner as you have? I \#ould rather die than so compromise my rhetorical notions!” Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if this morn ing that pardon from the throne of God hi offered to our souls, should we not seize it, regardless of all criticism, feeling that it is a matter of heaven or hell? But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we are to seek the Lord, “ While He may be found.” When is that? Old age? You may not see old age. To-morrow? You may not see to-morrow. To-night? You may not see to-night. Now! Oh, if 1 could only write on every heart in three capital letters that word N-O-W— now! Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say, with the toss ef the head aud with a trivial manner, “Oh, yee, I’m a sinner.” Sin is an awful disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. Perhaps you have had some illus tration of it in your family. Sometimes the physician has called and he has looked at the patient and said: “That case was simple enough, but the crisis has passed. If you had called me yesterday or this morning I could have cured the patient. It is too late now; the crisis has passed.” Just so it is in the spiritual treatment of the soul; there is a crisis. Before that, life! After that, death! O my dear brother, as you love your soul, do not let the crisis pass unattended to! There are some here who can remember instances in life when if they had bought a certain property they would have become very ricn. A few acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. They refused them. Afterward a large vil lage or city sprang up on these acres of ground and they see what a mistake they made in not buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never came back again. And so it is in regard to a man’s spiritual and eternal fortune. Taere is a chance; if you let that go, perhaps it never comes back. Certaialy that one never comes back. There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on board before that you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not on board you miss your pas sage for heaven. As in law courts a case is sometimes adjourned from term to term, and from year to year, till the bill of costs eats up the entire estate, so there are men who are aijourning the matter of religion from time to time, and from year to year, until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man. would have to pay for it. Whv defer this matter, O my dear hear er? Have you any idea that sin will wear out? that it will evaporate? that it will relax its grasp? that you may find religion as a man accidentally finds a lost pocketbook? Ah, no! No man ever became a Christian by accident or by the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you postpone this matter the steeper the path will become. T ask those men who are before me this morning wheth er in the ten or fifteen years they have passed in the postponement of these matters they have come any nearer Go i or heaven? I would not be afraid to challenge this whole audience, so far as they may not have found the peace of the Gospel, in regard to that matter. Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder and harder, aud that if you come to Christ it will be more of an undertaking now than it ever would have been before. Oh, tiy for refugsl The avenger of blood is on the track 1 The throne of judgment will soon be set, and if you have anything to do toward your eternal salvation you had better do it now, for the redemption .of the soul is precious and it ceaseth forever 1 Ob, if men could only catch jnst one glimpse of Christ, I know they wv>uld love Him. Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or sunset. Can vou be with out emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises behind Calvary and sets behind Joseph’s sepulcher? He is a blessed Saviour! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty and Swiss beauty and Italian beauty and English beauty, but I care not in what land a man first looks at Christ, he pronounces Him “chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely” O my blessed Jesus! Light in darkness! The rock on which I build! The Captain of salvation! My joy! My strength! How strange it is that men cannot love Thee. The diamond districts of Brazil are care fully guarded, and a man does not get in there except by a pass from the Govern ment, but the love of Christ is a diamond district we may all enter and nick up treas ure for eternity. Ob. cry for mercy! “To- dav, if ye will hear this voice, harden not ycur hearts.” There is a way of opposing the mercy of God too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a rearrul looking tor judgment and fiery in dignation which shall devour the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you to attend to this matter—to attend to it now? Time is flying, flying—the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to you: “Now is the time! Now is the time!”' Oh, put it not off!” IV hy should I stand here and plead and you sit there? It is your immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that must soon appear before God for re- viewaL 'Why throw away your chance l or heaven? Why plunge off into darknsss- when ail the gates of gl jry are open? W by ipar- life? become a castaway rrom God when you can sit upon the throne? Why will ye die mis erably when eternal life is offered von, and it will cost you nothing but just willingness to accept it? “Come, for all things are now ready.” Come, Christ is ready, par don is readv! The church is ready. Heaven is ready. * You will never find a more con venient season if you should live fifty years more than this very one. Reject this and you may die in your sins. Why do I say this? Is it to friehten your soul? Oh, no. It is to persuade you. I show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward beyond all excuse if, believing that this great audience must soon be launched Into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost— would 1 not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that trutn or to stand before you with a cold or even a placid manner? My dear brethren, now is the day of your re demption. It is very certain that you and I must soon appear before God in judgment. We cannot escape it. The Bible says: “Every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” On that day all our advantages will come up for our glory or for our discomfiture—every prayer, every sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace; and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be an nounced. Alas! alas! if on that day it is found that we have neglected these mat ters. We may throw them off now. We cannot then. ’We will all be in earnest then. But no pardon then. No offer of salvation men. No rescue then. Driven away mour wickedness—banished, exiled forever! Havn you ever imagined what will be the soliloquy of the soul on that day un doned, as it looks back upon its past “Oh,” says the soul, “I had glorious Sab baths ! There was one Sabbath in autumn when I was invited to Christ. There was a Sabbath morning when Jesus stood and spread out His arms aud invited me to His holy heart. I refused Him. I have destroyed myself. I have no one else to blame. Ruin complete. Darkness unpitying, deep, eter nal! *1 am lost! Notwithstanding all the opportunities I have had of being saved, I am lost! Oh, Thou long suffering Lord God Almighty, I am lost! Ob, day of judgment, I am lost! Oh, father, mother, brother, sister, child in glory, I am lost!” And then as the tide goes out your soul goes out with it—farther from God, farther from happi ness, and I hear your voice fainter and faint er, “Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost!” O ye dying, vet immortal men! “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” But I want you to take the hint of the text that I have no time to dwell on—the hint that there is a time when He cannot be found. There was a man in this city, eighty years of age, who said to a clergyman who came in, “Do you think that a man at eighty years of age can get pardoned?” “Oh, yes,” said the clergyman. The old man said: “I can’t; when I was twenty years of age—I am now eighty years—the spirit of God came to my soul, and I felt tne im portance of attending to these things, but I E ut it off. I rejected God, and since then I ave had no feeling.” “Well,” said the minister, “wouldn’t vou like to have me pray with you?” “Yes,” replied the old man, “but it will do no good. You can pray with me if you like to.” The minister knelt down and prayed, and commended the man’s soul to God. It seemed to have no effect upon him. After awhile the last hour of the man’s life came, and through his delirium a spark of intelli gence seemed to flash, aud with his last breath he said, “I shall never be forgiven!” “Q seek the Lord whils He may be found.’ TEMPERANCE. DRINKING A MATTER OF FASHION. It is hardly too much to say of drinking that it is principally a matter of fashion. Among the upper classes the fashion of drinking has passed, or is passing away. Among the middle classes it is accepted rather as a social necessity than as a de sirable personal indulgence. Men meet and adjourn for a drink, to which one must treat the other, but which both would as soon, or perhaps rather, be without. Drinking to excess is no pleasure to any one. Apiong the poor men drink on and on from a per verted pride. The whole thing is so baseless that it is conceivable it mignt very rapidly come to an end. — Sacramento Themis. THE DRINK PLAGCS. Intemperance has a demon-like power to barm man. It is not limited to one place, nor to one class in society. It has shot through the land its poison-bearing arrows. It holds in cities pompoms courts, riots amid wild revelry in burgh and village, breaks in with savage howls upon the quietness of ru ral homes. It obtains dominion among all classes in the social scale. The poor man’s garret, the marble palace of the rich, open equally their doors. Peasant and prince, merchant and laborer, man and woman, child and adult, are in turn stricken down. Not the ignorant alone feel its deadly touch: over brightest minds it casts its Stygian shades. Wherever it enters this plague de bases and degrades. It scatters broadcast disease and death. Poverty and vice form its retinue. It demolishes homes, blasts the happiness of wife and child, laughs at the purest affections, delights in the ruins of virtue and innocence. It fills jails and asy lums, carts victims to morgues and gibbets. It eats into the very foundation of civil so ciety, and defies strong Governments, whose arm it paralyzes. It annuls the potent min istrations of religion oy locking against them the minds and hearts of men. All forms of evil and misery are its allies and march in its track. An eminent thinker devoted to the work of Tempereace Reform, thus describes the drunkard’s family: “The victim of alcohol does not live alone in the world; he is a son or a father, a brother or a husband; there is around him, encircling him in his misery and receiving from him the fruits of the poison, a family. Can we view the seething sea of woe and suffering, without being moved to pity, and aroused to action? God’s blessing, we know, follows the wiping away of sorrow’s tear, the healing up of broken hearts; ‘Religion, pure and undefileJ, before God is this, to visit the fatherless and widows iu their tribulation.’ Convert but one drunkard, save but one family from the effects of the plague, and grateful prayer will ascend for you to the throne of grace. A young man staggers by you unheeded, and, you may thing, deserving to be unheeded. Aye, but he was ones a mother’s joy and pride; she cared not for wealth or empire ’when she pressed her boy to her bosom. Now he is a drunkard, and her old age is steeped in sor row*. This next one was tue hope of a father’s declining years; tie spent upoa.-him riches ot hand and affections o. heart; to-day the father is friendless and famishing, and tut son’s heart has but one desire—drink.’’—Sa cred Heart Review. TEMPERANCE NEWS AND NOTES. Michigan has 3d0 Woman’s Christian Tem perance Unions ia sixty-oae counties. It seems that there have been G49,Glh gal Ions of rum exported from this country to Africa during the last eieven months. The fourth International Congress on the Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors is announced officially to be held at Toe Hvnge, Holland, on September 8, 9 and 10, 1S91. The World’s Woman’s Christian Temper ance Union petition was entnusiastically in dorsed by the :i5,0iJl delegates o: the Chris tian Endeavor Convention at New York City. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Philadelphia has opeue l booths where a pint glass o'c mil.; :s given to an rone apply ing for it, and buttered rolls are sold for a cent apiece. The white men of South Africa talk uu- blushinglyof the day when the natives wdl all be killed off oy ram and taey can have the lan 1. Men, women, children aai babies can be seen lying along the roadsides drua<;. Of the 661,000 people of the little roesy State of Maine, 146,6*53 have S5),2r?,43T deposited in savings banks. This speaks well for the prohibitory law whicu protects the home from the saloon in the Pine Tree State. The initial efforts of temperance reform ir Germany seem inadequate and crude from the American standpoint, but they Drove the fallacy of the argument that beer-drimt- ing in Germany is free from the evils of intemperance. Five thousand chattel mortgages on 9)» saloons in New York City are held by twenty brewers, distillers and wholesale liquors dealers, who thus control 40,000 votes. No other monopoly can compare with this twenty-men syndicate in respect to possibilities of evil. SABBATH SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON AUGUST 14. FOR Lesson Text: “Ananias and. Sapphi- ra,” Acts v., 1-11—Golden Text: Gal. vi., 7— Commentary, 1. “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.” We have been reading of two nobie, faith ful followers of Jesus who were ready to die lor Him. and glad to suffer for Him if only He might be glorified, but we have now a sad contrast in the story of these two while professing faithfulness to Jesus Christ were not sincere at heart, tut while outwardly serving Him were serving themselves also. Many had sold their possessions and had honestly given all to God; their new hopes and joys had made earthly possessions seem valueless except as they mignt do good with them and thus lay up treasure in heaven (Math, vi., 20, 21; Luke xviii., 22; I Tim. vi., 17, 18). 2. “And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and hiougnt a certain vart and laid it at the apostles’ leet.” There is an cld command to this effect, “Walk before Me, and be thou sincere” (Gen. xvii., 1, margin). “Thou shalt be sincere with the Lord thy God” (Deut. xxviii., 13, margin). And it is also written, “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully” (Jer. xiviii., 19). Our Lord Jesus kept back nothing when He gave Himself for us; He completely emptied Himself and humbled Himself even unto death (Phil, ii., 5-S). 3. “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath sa- tan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and keep back part of the price of the land?” God desires truth even in the inward parts (Ps. li„ 6) and He has said, “He that worketa deceit shall not dwell within My house; he that teileth lies shall not tarry in My sight” (Ps. ci., 7). Contrast “filled with the Spirit" and “filled with satau,” or “filled with indignation or envy” (chapter iv., 31; vi., 3, 17). The only way for a believer is to bs filled with the Spirit and then all else will be crowded out. This command (Eph. v„ IS) is binding upon all, and to neglect it is to be guilty of disobedience. 4. “While it remained was it not thine own? And after it was sold was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God.” God does not need our possessions, for “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof’ (Ps. xxiv., 1), but He is graciously pleased to accept that which we cheerfully and sincerely give unto Him and use it for His glory. All that we have He has given to us, and what we give Him is only His own (1 Chron. xxix., 14, 16). Observe in Peter’s question, “Why hast thou conceived?” that Ananias was responsible for allowing satan to intrude these thoughts upon him. There are two forces always working with us—satan and the Holy Spirit —one a liar, the other the Spirit of Truth, but neither can fiil us except we welcome them. 5. “And Ananias hearing these words fell down aud gave up the ghost; and great fear came on all them that heard these things.” If the hand of God were thus laid on all liars and deceivers in the church to-day there would surely come a great fear on many people. W hen we consider that we are not our own, but that these bodies even have been bought by His blood for His service (I Cor. vi., 19. 20), and then remember how we keep back hands and feet and eyes and ears and voice for our own pleasure, and that all this is simply lying unto God, why is it that we are not afraid? 6. “And the young men arose, wound him up and carried him out and buried him.” Thus they disposed of his body, the house in which he had lived and lied; out what of Ananias, the person who han oc cupied that body? We know that there is such a thing as being barely saved, saved as by fire (I Pet. iv., 18; I Cor. iii., 15). But when we read of the portion appointed to all liars (Rev. xxi., 8), we cannot have much if any ground for expecting to see either Ananias or. Sapphira in the kingdom of God. 7. “And it fvts about the space of three hours alter when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.” Three hours a widow, but ignowajit of the fact. How long they had journev ed together in these mortal bodies we do nc t know, but his has ended and hers is aoo it to, though she is all un conscious of it. Perhaps she had come seeking him, wot\dering why be delayed to return home. re written to teach u,i 8. “And Peter whether ye sold th she said, Yea fc wishes that Peter courage her to tel e ] would have been if desperately wickesj things (Jer. xvii., 1< lightened age bot_ been known to sw^' tell the whole trf truth, aud then dt in His long sufferii them to live on if p| pent. 9. “Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord!” Compare this verse with verses 3 aud 4 and see the unity of the Trinity, but particularly a clear proof that the Spirit is God, for lying to the Holy Spirit is called lying unto God. "Behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.” This ’s startling and awful. The announcement of her husuand’s death is for the first time made known te her, and in the same breath she is told thit she, too, shall instantly die, and she does. Sentence is pronounced aud execution takes place in the same moment. It is the hand of God. Compare chapters xii., 23, and Jer. xxviii., 16. 17. 10. “Then fell she down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost; and the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth buried her by her hus band . ” In the morning they are in health, but are united in a lie to God, that they may appear before men to be very religious; but before night they are found out (Num. xxxii., 23) and are deal and buried. Two liars in one grave, but their sou;s— 11. “And great tear came upon all the church, aud upon as many as h;ar i these things.” Such manifestation of God’s hatred of sin must have been necessary at this, the beginning of the formation of Sis church on earth. Iv e do well to remember fiat al-’ though He seems to keep silence now in reference to the corruptions and abomina tions iu His professing church, He is the same sinner loving but sin hating Go 1, and that soon now ju igmeut will begin at the house bf God (1 Pet. iv., 17: Rev. iii., 16).— Lesson Helper. is a sad story, and is to be sincere with God. |swered unto her. Tell me land for so muca? And [ so much.” How one ght haVe been led to en- 5e truth, but perhaps it rain, The heart is so and deceitful above all that even in this en- I men and women have before God and man to and nothing but tne jerately lie. Yet God : has graciously allowed rchance they might re- THE WAY LIQUOR WORKS. James R. Young, of the Philadelphia Evening Star, says: “In tae quarter o: a century I have been out in the world plod ding my way I have seen many splendid fel lows, some of them very near and dear friends, fall by the wayside, vanish from ex istence, the victims of the cursed habit of arink. I have seen rich men became poor; men of fine intellects become inmates of the insane asylum; refined and accomplished men wearing rags, taken to the police caurts and sent to the workhouse, men of genial and funny temperament turn into brutes of the worst order. I have seen refined and sensitive women, driven by the last extrem ity of poverty brought on by the liquor he hit of their husbands, compelled to go out into the world to ask from their friends ai l for themselves and cai! Iran. I couid write page after page the subject.” of personal experience on METICAL TEMPERANCE IN EUROPE. It is admitted by professional men that in the struggle to cnec«c inebriety, which has so largely occupied the most cultured in tellects on the contineat of Europe, very little has been done in the advocacy of prac tical abstinence. The prevailing idea, it is alleged, even among members of the med ical profession there, has been that the in crease of insanity and of other evils from drinking has arisen from the Ueavier alco hols, and that pure, unsophisticated spirits, wines and beers are really temperance bev erages. That a departure is being taken in this respect by members of the medical pro fession is evident from the fact that such men as Professor Forel, of Zurich; Professor Bange, of Basle, and Dr. Wilhelm Bode, of Dresden, have established and are vigorously supporting total abstinence societies in those cities.—New York Tribune. RELIGIOUS BEADING. YE DID IT UNTO ME. We think what joy it would have been to share In their high privilege who came to bear Sweet spice and costly gem To Christ in Bethlehem. And in that thought we half forgot that Is whereso’er we seek Him earnestly; Sti.l tilling every place With sweet abounding grace. He And in garments of the walk this flesh, as simp’e earth with though then. No more He men; The poor to Him most dear, Are always with us here. And He saith : Inasmuch as ye shall take’ Good to these little ones for My dear sake, In that same measure ye Have brought it unto Me. May all who love at this blest season seek His precious little ones, the poor and weak: In joyful, sweet accord Thus lending to the Lord. Yea. crucified Redeemer, who didst give dhy toils, Thy tears, Thv life that we might live. Thy Spirit grant that we May live one day for Thee! —[Phoebe Cary. THE ALL-SEEINO EYE. One day the astrogomer Mitchell was en gaged in making some observations on the sun, and as it descended toward the horizon, just as it was setting, came into the range of the great telescope the top of a hill about seven miles away. On the top of that hill was a large number of apple trees, and in one of them were two boys dealing apples. One was getting the apples, and the other was watching to make certain that nobody saw them, feeling that they were undis covered. But there sat Professor Mitchell, seven miles away, with the great eye of his telescope directed fully upon them, seeing every movement they "made as plainly as if he had been under the tree with them. So it is often with men. Because they do not see the eye which watches with a sleepless vigilance, they think they are not seen. But the great open eye of God is upon them and not an action can be concealed. There is not a deed, there is not a word, there is not a thought, that is not known to God. HOME HAPPINESS. Probably nineteen-twentieths of the hap piness you will ever have, you will get at home. The independence that comes to a man when his work is over and he feels that he has run out of the storm into the quiet harbor of home, where he can rest in peace with his family, is something real. It does not make much difference whether you own your house or have one little room in tbit house, you can make that one little room a true home to you. You can people it w th such moods, you can turn to it with such sweet fancies that it will be fairly lumin ous with their presence, and it will be to you the very perfection of a home. Against this home none of you should ever transgress. You should al way’s treat each other with courtesy. It is often not so diffi cult to love a person as it is to be courteous to him. Courtesy is of greater value and of more royal grace than some people seem to think. If you will be but courteous to each other y*ou will soon learn to love more wise ly, profoundly, not to say lastingly, than yon ever did before. RESPONSIVENESS TO THE SPIRIT. I remember the case of a gentleman with some appreciation of natural beauty,, who made a visit of a couple of weeks in Berk shire County^ Massachusetts. He had heard much said of the beauty of the region, but expressed himself on his arrival as sadly disappointed. He was a man, however, who was always willing to find more than met him at the first glance, and so he spent the days of his stay out in the open air beneath the unparalleled blue of a Berkshire sky, with his eys continually bared and his heart uufolded to the last communication that dropped upon him from out the air, or that flowed down upon him from off the hills; and there never went out of Berkshire a truer lover of the charms of that beatific re gion. The things that are best have to be wooed b fore they are won. Dear friend, the application is simple. You have not to find God or His truth; let Him and His truth find you. Let the Holy Spirit tap at the string in your heart that is waiting to vibrate. Quietly and patiently hold your spirit beneath the truth, and let it be touched and played upon. Never shake off the impression that earnest preach ing. prayer and song form within you, but let it go on and strengthen and deepen, and have its entire way with you, and work its whole effect; and your heart will assuredly grow large within" you—Three Gates on a Side.— [Watchman. REASONS FOR PRAISE TO GOD. The p>almist said, “Bless the Lord O my soul, and foiget not all his benefits.” All his benefits! how often we forget them, and receive all God’s blessings to us as a matter of course, while we have done nothing wor thy of them, but have been sinning against him. Instead of praising him we have taken honor and praise to ourselves, and by actions, if not in words, have said: “Is not thi* great Babylon that I have builded?” giving no praise to him who has created us in his own image, and given us capacities for doing many things, and ofttimes great things. When we see the many wonderful things which are being done, every thing which adds to our com fort, and convenience, being brought nearer to a state of perfection, all emanating from the mind and poweis of man with which his Creator has endowed him, we can but ex claim. “O Lord, we will praise thee, for We are fearfully, and wonderfully made, mar velous are tny works, and that my soul knowetli right well.” We should praise him with all our powers, letting not only our voices praise him, but use our hands to do his bidding, ’carrying comfort aud aid to those whom it is in our power to serve. Our feet can carry us on errands of mercy, which shall bring praise and honor to his name. We must endeavor to always have a spirit of praise, and we may cultivate it by always trying to feel thankful, and being careful never to com plain no matter how many things may seem to conspire against us, to make us unhappy. Let us arise above them, and strive to see God’s hand in every thing, knowing that it is love to us which brings either clouds or sunshine. The sun shine never looks more glorious than when the ciouds break away, alter a shower. So in God’s dealings with us. his love and good ness never >eem more precious to us, than when it shines into our hearts, after clouds of trouble and sorrow have swept over us. •fob bore ai! bis troubles patiently, blessing God and sinning not, nor charging God foolishly through them all. Our greatest weapon for praising God, is for the gift of his Son, ami the gift is for all. So that all have reason to praise him; and by receiving this gift, each of ourselves, we place ourselves in a position where praise aud honor are demanded of us. Are we uoc more ready to ask for what we want, than we are :o thank him for what he has done? We need in our prayers to fol ow Paul’s injunction, that is, ‘•In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanks giving let our requests be made known unto irod. By so doing, we may learn to “-Re joice in God always.”—[Religious Herald. Much of the glory anil sublimity of truth i- connected with its mystery. To under stand everything we must be as God.— L Ty- ron Edwards. THE SALOON LOAFER. Lock at those missrabiespeciuseas of man kind who hang round the doors of saloon-, just as a moth flutters roun i the light, un- aDie to leave because of its fascination, until it singes its wings and falls helpless on the floor “Vice, prcfi-.gacy and intemperance are writ large on the.r taces. Swollen and blotched laces and bloodshot eyes tell tae terrible taie that they are bound baud and loot, and have delivered over taeir boaies to the demon of intemperance, that instead of soiid, suostantial fooi sustaining tnem the fire of alcohol is burning and consuming taeir vitais, and runs boiling aai seething and hissing through their veins and in their blood.”—Father hkye. 3AKER & CONFECTIONER. AND DEALER Of HOODS, SHOES, lOTIODS MD GROCERIES, AT ROCK BOTTOM PRICES. TOBACCO AMD CIGARS in Great Variety. Toys, Fireworks, etc., in Stock, Laurens Street and Park Awenue, Aiken, S. C. ? *" — - - . ■ ,■— , ■'-y The Osceola Hotel, ! C. T. ALFORD, Proprietor. In til© JEWend of T^fng* Street, CHARLESTON, S. C. Large and Comfortable Rooms. EATES, $2.50 PEE DAY. mt* THREE OZZQIHS POINTS COMPLEXION POWDER: SAFE;CDR1TIVE; BE&DTiraSG. f.2.3. White, ) 1 *■ THREE pozzorci’s All Druggists A!*D Fancy Stores. TINTS WRIGHT’S HOTEL S. L. WRIGHT ft SOUS, Pro)! COLUMBIA' • • - S, C Time supplied with the boat Sosms larg* lued. Oi '-vli firms tu the South. On. ol the i 1 comfortable aot.i- REP. CURES ALL SKIN AND BLOOD DI5EA5E5 Pby.ici.n. .ndoru F. P. P. *> . .pl.ndld oombla alloa, snd prticribs it with grt.t >.tl.faction for th. car., of .li form. mcS »Ug». cf Prim.rT, Smondmry and T.rtl.rr P P P Cures scrofulA gypnUU. SjpnilltloKhdumatiflm. Bcrofalou* Ulctn tad £>ord», Glandular Swellings, Rheumatism, Malaria, old Chronic Ulcers that have resisted all treatment. Catarrh, CURPQ Hood Poison ER R Si Skin Dlaeases^Kcxema^ChronlcFemaleCDmplaintir^Jer? 1 curlal Poison, Tetter, Scald Head, etc., etc. _ ^ ’ P. ts a powerful tonic, and an excellent appetiaer, R P. P. Cures’rheumatisM building up the system rapidly. Ladies whose systems are poisoned smd whose blood U ia i impure condition, due to menstrual irregularities, are CURES ALARIA _ |>ehuTi!IrIy""benefited"by™tn?"^cnder^I^Toai^™armnoo!i^ cleansing properties of P. P. P., Prickly Ash, Poke Root and Potassium. P. P. P. Cures dyspepsia LIPPJCAN BEOS., Proprietors, Druggists, Lippman's Block, 8AVASB AH, GA. For Sale by W. J. PLATT, Aiken, S. C. ^PREACH We Preaet\—Toq Praetlee. In other words, we will teach you FRKE, and start you in business, at which y«»u can rapidly gather in the dollars. We can and will, i^ you please,teach you quickly how to earn from to SIO a day at the start, and more ns you go On. JTbth sexes, all ages. In any part of America, you can com mence at home, giving all youf time, or spare moments only, to the work. What we offer is new and^jt has been proved over and over again,that great pay is sure for every worker. Easy' to l“nm. No special abid* ty required. Reasonable in dustry only nec essary for sura* large succeed We start yoo, furnishing ev erything. This it one of th* great strides forward in useful, inventive progress, that enriches all workers. It is probably the greatest opportunity laboring people have evel known. Now is the time. Delay means loss. Fnli particulars free. Better write at once. Address, OKOKfirE ST I -\ SO .V JL Oo.,liox Maine. MONEY MONEY MADE. Save 25 to .*)0 cent!* on every fioliar you -;>eudl Write for oar mammoth Catalogue, a M>o-page book, con tain im: iiiu-t ration and i;iv;iig low—t man ufacturers 1 ’ uric**, with manufacture.-!'’ ii.-eouuts of every kind of goods aud supplies manufactured and imported into the United ."states. Groceries, Household Good-, Furniture, Clothing, Ladies* aud Gents’ Clothing aud Furnishing Goods, Dress Goods, White Good-, Dry Goods, Mats, Caps, Boots and Shoes, Gloves, Notions, Glassware, Stationery, Watches, Clocks, Jewelry, Silverware, Buggies," Whips, Agricultural Implements, etc. ONLY FIKST CLA-vS GOODS. Catalogue sent on receipt of 25 cents for expressage. We are the only concern which sells at manufacturers’ prices, allowing the buyer the same discount teat the manufacturer gives to the wholesale buyer. We guarantee all goods as represented; if not found so, money refunded. Goods seat by exoress or freight, with privilege of examinatiim before pay ing A. KAKPEN 4 CO., 122 Quincy street, Chicago, 111. WE WILL PAY A salary of $25 to $50 per week to GOOD age-.s to represent ns in every conuty.and sell our general line of Merchandise at manufacturers’ prices. Only thosk who want steady kmploymknt weed apply. Catalogue and particulars sent on receipt of 23 cents for expressage. A. KAUPEN ± CO. 022 Quincy street, Chicago, 111. NURSERIES, TV. CL. Are known by tKertr jYutto, mo they, are testifying for themeelvoo alb through the Southern and bordeu States and giving flattering report^ Every fruit that is known to sue* ceed in the South is being added) from, all parts of the globe. OvmO 300 acres in actual nursery stvcls* Some of the specialties are the Kobe seys, Japan, Baton and Batoumd Plums. The Eucy Duke Pear and all the new fruits, as well as the old» Evergreens, Shade Trees, Boses and everything usually kept in a first* class nursery. Four large Ore eta houses. Chrysanthemums, Carnot Hons and many Greenhouse Plants* Rose growing a specialty. Plants from Greenhouse ready to be put out <n April and May. Descriptive Catalogue No. 1, Fruit Trees, Vines, do., and Greenhouse Catalogue No. 2 will be sent free to applicants. Special rates to large planters. Cor* respondence solicited. Address Pomona HOI Nurseries, POMONA. N. C. NEW ARRANGEMENT. ADGDSTA HOTEL RATES. $1.50, $2.00 atd $2.50 Ptr Oaj Tlia Ben Table Board Can be Had at $4j0i Per Week, in Club* ef 8 or 10. Hf Rooms at Very Low Summer Omnibus and Porter at every train. Ratw B. S. DOOLITTLE, Proprietor. LIPPMAN BROS.. Proprietors, Druggists, Lippman’s Block. SAVANNAH, GA. W J. For sale by PLATT, Aiken, S. ABBOTT'S tilt For sale bv PLATT, Aiken. S. C. RMAN 034. I» V <2 lift# FOR ONE DOLLAR. A flrst-cUM Dictionary gotten out st MOJI price to oncourace toe itit y of to* Gonaoa Laoxuace. It ft-M KngUsh words with lO* B urns n oquivalonu, and Gsrotaa words with angUah Aeflnlftrtes A very cheap book. Sand •l.Od to BOOK PUB. HOUSE, 134 l.eotmrd »»., yCUfj eifljpo oom e< these boots jeturn