REY. DR. TALMAGES SERMON fhe Brooklyn Divirne's Sunday . Bermon. Sahject: “ Baleful Amusemonts.™ TEXT: “Let the young men mow aris and play before ws."—11 Samuel, il, 14. There are two armies encamped by the | of Gibeon. The time hangs heavily on oir hands. One army proposes a game of sword fencing. Nothing could be more healthful and innocent. o other army ao ©epts the challenge. Twelve men against ‘twelve men, the sport opens. But something wvent adversely. Porte one of the swords- anen got an unlucky clip, or in some way had ‘his ire aroused, and that whieh opened in fulness ended in violence, each one tak- dng his contestant by the hair, and then with #hesword thrusting him in the side, so that hat which opened in innocent fun ended in the massacre of all the twenty-four sports puen. Was there ever a better illustration {of what was true then, and is true now, that hat which is innocent may be made de structive? Whatof a worldly nature is more im- portant and strengthening and fonocent than JAamusement, and yet what has counted more victims? Ihave nosympathy with a straights Jacket religion. Thisisa very bright world 50 me, and I propose to do all I can to make ifs bright for others. I never could keep step to a dead march. A book years ago issued says that a Chris. tian man has a right to some amusements. For instance, if he comes home at night “weary from his work, and feeling in need of peveral times there can beno harm in it. 1 ‘believe the church of God has made a tree punendous mistake in trying to suppress the sportfuiness of youth and drive out men their love of amusement implanted anything in us he 1mplanted this desire, of our nature, the church of God has, for the main part, ignored it. As in a riot, the goayor plants a battery at the end street, and has it fired off so that everyt is cut down that happens to stand in range, the good as well as the bad, sot are men in the church who plant their teries of condemnation and fire away indi riminately. Everything is conde But my Bible commends those who use world without abusing it, and in the nat world God has done everything ¢ ) pions amuse us. In poetic figures we som speak of natural objects as being in but it is a mere fancy. Poets say the weeg, but they nev hed a tear: the winds sight but they newer di any trouble; and that t storm it never lost its te 5 The rose, and the universe a garland I am glad to know that ia all there are plenty of places where » elevated, ral entertainme honest mea and good wome me in the statement ths I lagues of these cities is corrug Multitudes have gone down under ing influence never to rise, If w of what is going ! amusement by th board fences and in windows, there is nota much lower gacy to reach. At Nap “h pic ures locked criminate inspe exhumed from Pom public gaze, If the of amusement vertisements of by night grow tion, in fifty ork 1 will beat n peil, bu To bel; ZUS NOW ragis ject certain principies by wh Judge in regar creation. find is right or w I remark in Judge of the ment by its healthfu Femet n up of muitipd on show them an gin to disc re svar do anyth are no great n the deg r billow of re ter. They seem as if nats by contract and made a bungling job of “But, blessed be God, there are people in the world who have bright faces, and who is a song. an anthem, a pean of vi Even their troubles are like the vis crawl up the side of a great tower, or of whic h the sunlight sits, and the of summer hold perpetual carnival 1 are the people you like to have come to yo house; they are the people I like to come to my house. If you but touch the hem of their garments vou are healed Now it is these exhilarant and sympathe. tic and warm hearted people that are most tempted to pernicious amusements. In pro- poten as a ship is swift it wants a strong surging ur billow ng have it wants a stout driver; and these ] exuberant nature will do well to look at the reaction of all their amusements, if amusement sends you home at night nervous so that you cannot sleep, and you rise up in the morning, not because you are sient out but because your duty drags you from you siumbers, you have bern where you ought not to have been. There are amusements that send a man next day to his work blood. shot, yawning, stupid, nauseated; and are wrong kinds of nmmusemnent. They are entertainments that ve a man disgust with the drudgery of life, with tools because they ars not swords, with working aprons because they ars not robes, with cattle because they are not infuriated bulls of the arena. If any amusement sends you home longing for a life of romance and thrilling adventure, love that takes poison and shoots itself, moonlight adventures and hair breadth es capes, you may depend upon it that you are the sacrificed victim of unsanctified pleasure, Our recreations are intended to build up, and if they pull us down us to our moral or as to our physical strength you may come to the conclusion that they are obnoxious, There iz nothing more depraving than at tendance upon amusements that ars full of fonuendo and low suggestion. The youn man enters. At first be sits far back, wit his hat on and his coat collar p, fearful that somebody there may know him. Several nights passon. He takes off his hat eariier and puts his coat collar down, The biush that first came into his chesk when anything indecent was enacted comes no more to his cheek, Farewell, young man! You have probably started on the long road wh ok ends in consummate destruction. Tha stars of hope will go out one by one until you wiil be left in utter darkness, Hem you not the rush of the maelstrom, in whos outer circle your boat now dances, making merry with the whirling waters? Bat yot are being drawn in, and the gentle motios will become terrific agitation. You ery fo help. In vain! You pull at the car to pul back, but the struggle will not avail! You will be tossed and dashed and shipwrecked and swallowed in the whirlpool that bas al ready crushed in ite wrath ten thousand haiks, Young men who have just come from country residemide to city residence will well to be on guard and let no one induc you to places of improper amusement. I is mightily alluring when a young man long a citizen, offers to show & new comer al around, Still farther. Those amnsements are wrong which lead you into expenditure beyond you means, Money spent in recreation is no thrown away. Ii is all folly for up to com rom a place of amusement feeling that w om wasted our money and time. You may by it have made an investment worth mor the transactions that yielded you hun an But how many properties have been riddled by costly amusements, The first time I ayer saw the clty—it was the city of Philadelphia—I was a mere iad. 1 py at a hotel, and I remember in the eventide one of these men plied me with his internal art, He saw I was green. He wanted to show me the sights of the town. He painted the path of sin until it looked like emerald; but I was afraid of him. I shoved back from the basilisk—I made u my mind he was a basilisk. I remember how ha wheeled his chair round in front of me, and with a concentrated and diabolical effort attempted to destroy my soul; but there were good angels in the air that night, It was no good resolution on my part, but it was the all en- compassing grace of a good God that deliv. ered me, Beware! beware! oh, young man, “There is & way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death.” The table has been robbed to pay the club, The champagne has cheated the children's wardrobe. The carousing party has burned ®) the boy's primer, ‘The tablecloth in the corner saloon is fn debt to the wife's faded dress, Fxcursions that ina day make a tour around a whole month's wages; ladies whose lifetime business it is to ‘go shopping” large bets on horses have their counterpart in uneducated children, bankruptcies that shock the money market and appall the chumwh, and that send drunkenness stagger ing across the richly figured carpet of the manson and dashing into the mirror and drowning out the carol of music with the whopping of bloated sons come bome to break their old mother's heart, I1saw a beautiful bome, wheres the hell rang violently late at night, ‘The son had been off in sinful indulgencies. His com- rades were bringing him home. They car- ried him to thedoor, Thev rang the bell at tomy surprise, lying in full every day dress on the top of the clothes. I put out my hand, He grasped it excitedly and said, *'8if down, Mr. Tairvage, right here.” Isat down, He said: *‘Last night [ saw my mother, who has been dead twenty Journ, and she sat just where you sit now. It was no dream, I was wide awake, There was no delusion in the matter. I saw her just as plainly as I see you. Wife, I wish you would take thous strings off of me, There are strings spun all around my body, take them off of me.” lirium, “Oh,” replied his wife, “my dear, there is nothing there, thers is nothing there.” Heo went on, and said: ‘‘Just where you sit Mr, Talmage, my mother sat, She said; ‘Henry I do wish you would do better! I got out of bed, put my arms around her, and said, ‘Mother, I want to do better, I have been trying to do better. Won't you help me to do better? You used to Help me." No mise take about it. No delusion. Isaw her-—the cap, and the apron, and the spectacles, just as she used to look twenty years ago; but I do wish you would take these things away, They annoy me 0. 1 can hardly talk, Won't you take them away? 1 knelt down aod prayed, conscious of the fact that he did not realize what I was saying. Igotup. 1 sald, "'Good-by; I hops your will better soon.” He sald, ‘‘Good-by, good-by.” That night his soul went to the God who gave it. Arrangements were made for the obsequies. Bome said, “Don't bring him in the caurch; he was too dissolute.” “On.” I sald, “ring him, He was a good friend of mine while he was alive, and [ shall stand by him nw that he is dead, Bring him to the church.” As | sat in the = it and saw his body coming up through the aisle I fet as if I could weep tears of blood, 1 told the people I wish you would lI saw it was do 1 o'clock in the morning. Father and mother came down. They were waiting for the i wandering son, aud then the comrades, as | soon as the door was opened, threw the prodigal headiong into the doorway, crying: “There he is, drunk as a fool. Ha ha! When men go into amueemeants they cannot afford they first borrow what ther earn and then they steal 1 y Canno First they go into embarrassmen into lying and then into theft; aman ge's as far on that he does not stop short of the pe satiary There is not a prison in the land where there | are not viet insanctified amusements, Merchants of Bre yu or New Yor there a disarrangement in your aco Is there a leakage in your Did not iast account come out rat is night? bere is a young man in dering off bad an you give him may Tne wi penditures, but not the sinfn inda h be has entered, am! he | which you do not give | i and then and when as v ¥ THs Of © mousy do ig no nusement INN SATS Never mind r 8 chiapiet for 3 he wayward boy, and push t 3 ed Drow tLe long io y these are unch rief bus s become the « life. Life is an earn Whether we were born in a pa ao whether we are affluent or pinch to work. If you do not sweat with will sweat with ia disease, yal | the mountala shall have | in an avalanche of a rock, you a throne dungeon come down seraphs ging, or desp in a In a world where there ® = mich to do for yourssives, and so mush io do for others, God pity that man who has nothing to do. ] Your sports are merely means to an end. | The arm of he only arm strong encugh to bring ap the bucket out«of the deep well of pleas | are. Amusement is only the bower where business and philanthropy rest while on their Amusements anvil of toil and the blossoming of the ham. mers. Alas for the man who spends his life in laboriously doing nothing, his days ia hunting up lounging places and loungers bis nights in seeking out some gas lighted foolery! The man who aiways bas on his sporting jacket, ready to hunt for game in the mountain or fish in the brook, with no time to pray or work or read, is not so well A man who does not work dos not know how to play. If God bad intended us to do nothing but langh He would not have given us shoulders with which to lift, and hands with which to work, and brains with which to think. The amusements of life are mere- ly the orchestra playing while the great tragedy of life plunges through its five acts ~finfancy, childhood, mank old age and death. Then exit the last earthly opportun- ity. Eater the overwhelming realities of an eternal world! I go further, and say that all those amuse. ments are wrong which lead into bad com- pany. It you go toany place where vou ave to amociate with the intemperate, with the unclean, with the abandoned, however Sell they may be dread, ein She nams of dod quit 16. T hep 1 your natura, They will undermine °F, moral character, They will drop you when you are destroyed. They will give not one cent to support your children when you are dead. They will wasp not one tear at fon burial. They wi chuckle over your damnation. 1 bad a friend at the wegt—a rare friend. He was one of the first tdwelcome me to his new home, To fine al appearance he added a gengrosity, frankness and ardor of nature tl athe ma Jove him like s brother, But I saw evil Jeople jatvoring around him, They came up from ¢ saloons, from the gambling hells. They plied him with a thou, sand arts. They seized u h na- ture, and he could not stand the charm. They drove him on the rocks, like a ship full winged, shivering on the breakers. 1 used to admonish him. I would say, “Now | wish you would quit thess bad habits and become a Christian,” “Oh,” he would reply, 44 wouid like to. 1 would like to, but § bave go far 1 don't think there is any wwy Back.» In his moments of tance he would go homs snd take his little girl ol eight years, and embrace her convulsively, Ad cova ner with adgrumeny and id arou er piotures and toys a ery thing that could make her happy and then, = though bounded by an evil spirit, he would go out to Sha shfiaming cup aid the hats of shame, like a fool to correction of thu stocks, I was summoned to his deathbed, hastened. 1 entered theroom, I found him that day: “This man had his virtues, an good many of then. He had his faults, and a good many of them, but if thereis any man sin let him Ln one as beautiful as any at your table this I warrant you. She looked fully, not knowing the full an orphan child. Oh, ber tenance haunts ms today like some sweet face looking upon ustarough a horrid dream. Ou the other side of the puipit were the men vio had destroyed him There they mat hard visaged, some of them pals from ex- ne of them flushed until fires of iniquity Samed Kled the lips i dons the They were the men who had bound Lim band and foot, They had kindled the fi: had poured the wormwooland ga orphan’s cup. Did they weep! No they sigh repentis ! No. Did they “Whoata pity that such a brave man be slain > po: not one bloated har lifted to wipe a tear from a bloated « They sat and locked at the cuffin like tures gaz ng carcass of a lamb wh beart it! if Cars as littie child morning, up wist- sat COUN. it seemed as If the through the cheeks and cra WOre, ox SO up apd took cursss of Go {SAL DeER, down came Lhe Agnin msband standing at the aristian wile, and | saw bor on ber finger, and heard ber asband, “Do you ses that ring ™ Heroeplied, “Yen | me it." “Well” sa she, "do you remember who put is there “Yeu said he, *‘I put it there,” and all past seamed to rash upon him, By the mem. ory of that day when, in the presence of men u promised to be faithful in JOF and sorrow, and insickness and in bealth: by the memory of those pleasant hours when you sat together in your new home talking f a bright future; by the cradles and the Joyful hour when our life was spared and another given: by tbat sick bed. when the little one Iifted up the voice and called for hieip, and you knew be must dis, he put one the you very near together in that dying kiss; | the little gra ve in Greenwood that yo think of without a rmsh of tears; by the family Bille, where, amidst stones of heavenly love, is the brief but expressive y or 1 fey f the past and by the agonies of the futur: by a judgment day, when husbands an all that, I beg you to give to home your best affsctions Ab, my friends, there is an hour coming when our past life will probably pass before us in review, It will be our last hour. If from our death pillow we have to look back and soe a life spent fo sinful amusement there will bo a dart that will strike through our soul sharper than the dagger with which Yingius slew his child. The iniquities and rioting through which we have passed will come upon us, weird and skeleton as Meg Meorrilies. Death, the old Shylock, will de- mand and take the remaining pound of flesh, and the remaining dro biood, and apon our last opportunity for repentance, and our last chance for heaven the curtain will forever drop. The National Plant. There have been laudable efforts lately to elect a national flower by voting; but, however dear, and rightfully dear, to the American heart is universal suffrage, it cannot decide this question, the snswer to which should be by se. clamation. And how could a fair vote be obtained without an organization almost such as is found necessary for choosing a President for the great Ro- publio—~which in this case is clearly im. possible. Of all the plants selected by this re- publican caucus, the one that is already national has been strangely neglected. The stately sunflower, the a arbutus, ‘the gay golden.rod, the beaut. ful mountain laurel, the grand magnolia, the gorgeous cardinal flower, have each and all bad their adherents, and been voted for; but when a few out of what should have been many millions of votes have been recorded, the thing comes to a dead stop. The American Garden way speak of ‘‘our national flower the golden-rod;" bat when nothing has been the choice of o whole people,or a representative of the people, i come oT But the maize, the Indian corn, has & strong though unacknowled tion ns ofr national la od Erptand i a AN OLD LETTER. Darkened and stained (8 the paper —— Btained as by many a tear; Frded and dim 's the writing Traced in a long past yeusr, Yet oh! how Iva and vital, How bright with love's purest ray Is every page of the letter Wo read wich moist eyes to-day! As the sun-ripened fruit of the vintag Lives in the sparking wine, Bo the soul of the vanished write Glows in cach “loquent line, His noble and kindly emotions, His sentiments tender and true Are here, Hike remembered muse That thillled us when lite was new, How sweet are the fond reenllections These faded leaflets enclose! Bweot as the lingering fragrance That elthgy to a withered rose, Yet sweet with a tender sadn ss That tells of summer gone by, Of toys that bloome | but io perish And hopes that dawned but to dle, Dear record of days departed! We read you o'er and o'er You are now like 1 volce of greeting From some fair sunlit shore, Over the surges of S0rrow-—- Uver a sea of gloom This voice says--Love 1s immortal And lives beyond the tomb.” Emeline Sherman Smith, in Home Journal, —————————— FAMILY JARS, They are not useiul, scarcely even { ornamental, vet no home is comnlete | without them, and we encounter everywhere. High and low, rich poor, all have them alike, though { do not display them with equal ge osity to the vulgar Th sophisticated masses usually i them, as it were, on the table mantel-piees h the otl crockery the **Present from the Crysta apd the mug “For Boy or Girl,” ¢te.—and point out their chips and cracks with a certain complacency to every passer-by, { was that ageravating” she you, if yon just alter «fl the honse: snd nx th blood AID] them and all ner- nn- stand Or wer bits gaze a wit f l i Palace,” a V3 100K i CLAnce re ns the cas less ca i ment “retort | rect!’ Li wl ana ira of RO | stdden i family JATS In the home | arch Joseph would been lowered into the p brethren, and, humanly spe | Israelites would never have | duced to mak bricks in Egypt. | But, to tarn from these high matters {to the commonplace experiences of | every«lay life, it is strange to remark | the different treatwent to which we see | these family j «re subjected amongst our { own friends and scquaintances. In a | general way we find that the higher we | ascend 1n the social scale, the greater is | the reserve with which domestic dis- | sension is treated; a respectable cloak | of mystery is thrown around it, end in | the end it is not infrequently locked up | with the family skeleton in the onp- i board. Many an ignoble jar is dis. posed of in this way--to fall with a | erash at some most inopportune mo- { ment, when a well-meaning passer-by | chances inadvertently to open the cup- { board door. Have we not all been | present on such unhappy occasions as | these; vost nuwilling witnesses of the | consternation and dismay with which | the horror-stricken owners gazed on | the wreck that revealed their jealousy- | guarded secret to the public gaze? | What sympathetio soul but must feel deeply for the sufferers thus exposed to the scorn and cold derision of the world; and, alas! what proud aad sens:- tive spirit but must tremble lest its own treasured boards be in like man. ner made the laughingstock of the vulgar crowd! For we all have family jars, though it is only the prouder and the more reserved of us that feel them 80 aoutely-—at least, 1n this connection with others. Family jars, we have said, are neither useful nor ornamental in a» eneral way; at least, we can Seldon ro Ver an ractionl purpose that they serve, A it boo bad ome. But doubtless they are necessary-—s necessary evil, it may be, and as such we must endeavor to make the best of thom. Let us ignore them as long as we oan, and, in any case, let us beware how we take the world into our confi dence with regard 10° them, thereb making our private dwssensions publio property, for then they will pass to a great extent out of our control, and often assume an importance we have never dreamed of according to them. The population of Toklo, the capital of Japan, is rapidly increasing, while that of other cities and towns in te Empire 1s decreasing, There is now an exceptional opening for American oysters in England in consequence of the danger of an oyster famine, Genuine “natives” are a dol lar a dozen. The publiedebt was Increased in Feb- uary nearly three millions. Jacob, never Lave is angry aking, the been re- ing in i — SUNDAY SCHOO} LESSON. BUNDAY, MARCH 29, 1891, FIRST QUARTERLY REVIEW HOME READINGS. TITLES AND GOLDEN TEXTS, Goupex Texr ron ree Quarter: Godliness {a profitable unto alt Things, - 1 Tim, 4:8, I. THE KINGDOM DIVIDED, Pride goeth before destrnetion, and a haughty spirit before a fa l.— Prov. 16 : 18, IL, IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, —Erod, 20 : 4. II. GOD'S CARE OF ELIJAN, They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Psa. 84 : 10. IV, PLIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL, How long balt ye between two opin- be God, follow him. 1 Kings 18 : 21. V. ELIJAH AT HOREB, with thee, and 24 AHAB'S COVETOUSKESS, Fear not, for I am will bless the. — Gen. 26 : v ) * Take heed, and beware of covetous- ness, Luke 12 : 15. ’ VI, ELIJAH TAKEN TO HEAVEN, And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Gen. Db: 24. Vill. BLIIAR'S SUCCE Not by might, my Spirit, Zech, 4: 6, BOR, nor by power, but by eaith the Lord of 4 1X, TH SHUNAMMIT The Fatlier raiset! jaickeneth them in Beth-el, and the And this thing bx the people went to worshi even Dan nt one, unio i. 41 Scholars: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (Exod, 20 : 4, Teachers: Little children, guard yourselves from wdols (1 John 5 : 21 All Ihe Lord, hie 18 God: the 1x 4 1, he is God (1 Kinus 18 : 80), Lesson 3, — Superintendent: And she went and did according to the say- ing of Elijah; and she, and he, and her bouse, did eat many days. The barrel of meal wasted not, ne ther did the cruse of oil fail, scecording to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah {1 Kings 17: 15, 16). Scholars: They that seek the lord shall not want any good thing (Psa. 34: 10). Teachers: Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye bave need of all these things (Matt. 6: 42(. All: Gave us this day our daily bread (Matt, 6: 11). Lesson 4. — Buperintendent: Then the fire of the ocd fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fel! on their faces; and they said, The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God (I Kings 18: 88, 89). Scholars: How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God fol- low him (1 Kings 18; 21). Teachers: Choose you this whom ye wil serve (Josh. 24: 15). All: The Lord our God will we serve (Josh, 24: 24). Lesson b.-Superintendent: And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he bad alain all the prophets with the sword. Then To sont a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life (1 Kings 19: 1.8). Scholars: Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee (Gen. 26: 24). Teachers: 1f God id for us, who is against us? (Rom. 8:31). All; If thy presence go not with me, oarry us not up hence (Exod. 83: day Lesson 6. —Superintondent: ~~ And Abab oame into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which spe qt is ab 15 se a Nahoth the Jezreelite had spoken #¢ him: for he had said, 1 will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers, And be laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat ne bread (1 Kings 21: 4). Beholars: Take heed, and beware of covelousness {Luke 12: 15). Teachers: Be... .eontent with such things us ye have (Heb, 1 5). All: Godliness with contentment fe great gain (1 Tim. 6: 6), Lesson T.—Buperintendent: And if came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, t at, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horse of fire, which parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). Reholars: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God tuok bum (Gen, 5: «4, Teachers: Before hig translation he hath had witne s borne to him, that he had been well-pleasing unto God (Heh. 11: 5). All: And without faith it is impossi- le to be well-pleasing unto him (Heh 1: 6). Buperintendent: He mautle of Elijah that m him, and went back, and tood by the bank of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smite the said, Where is the Lord, E ijah? and when he al iitten the waters, they ded hither and thither: and ut over (2 Kings 14 i3 y the walers, ) 3 2:13, Scholars: 'Y might, nor by the power, bint bry arit, saith Lord of hosts Teachers Lord, git (Eph 5 Il YY 20 that neet thee? ihe lep- shall cleave unto thy seed for ever. out from his presence a snow (2 Kings Naaman leper as as b: du, Ch lars: Be sure your sin will find ou out (Num. 32; 23), Teachers: There is nothing covered ), that shall not be revealed: and Hid, t be known (Luke 12: 2 thon fre im hidden 123. 33 wt suall n Alls Clear faults (Psa. 19: LA 12. ~~Superintendent: And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray 1 open his eyes, that he may see, And the lord opened the eyes of the young man; and be saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of £re round about Elisha (2 Kings 6: 17). Scholars: with us are more Kings 6: 17). Teachers: The angels of the Lord encampeth ronnd about them that fear him, and delivereth them (Psa. 34: 7). All: O keep my soul, and deliver me (Psa. 25: 20). i ————————— THD: 06 § RON 1 Lalee, or ¥ Fear noi; for they that be han be with them (2 KISS HER AND TELL HER SO. You've a neat little wife at home, John. Ak sweet as you wish to see; As faithful and gentie-hearted, As fond as a wife can be: A genuine, homeJoving woman, Not earing for fuss and show ; 8be's dearer to vou than life, Jolin, Then Kiss her and tell ber so. Your dinners are prompt! + served, John, As, likewise, Your breakfast and teas Your wardrobe is always In order, With buttons where buttons should be. Her house is a cozy home nest, John, A heaven of rest below; You think she’s a rare litle treasure, Then kiss and tell her so, Ebe's a good wife and trae to you, Joha Let fortune be foul or fair; Of whatever comes to you, John, She cheerfully bears her share; You feel she’s a brave, true helper, And perhaps far more than you know "Twill lighten her end of the load, John, Just to Kise her and tall her so, There's a crossroad somewhere in fe, John Where a hand on s guiding stone Will signal one “over the river,” And the other must go on alone. Bhould she reach the last milestone firet, John "Twill be comfort amid your woe To know that while loving here, John, You kissed her and told her so, Conklin’s Dakotian