"REY. DR TALMAGR fhe Eminent Washington Sunday Sermon. Divine's Subject: “The Triumph of Texr: “Then want I up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned." --Nehemiah ii, , 15, A dead city id more suggestive than a live ing oity—past Rome than present Rome rains rather than newly frescoed cathedral, But the best time to visit a ruin is by moon- light, The Collssum is far more tascinating to the traveler after sundown than before. You may stand by daylight amd the monas- tie ruins of Melrose abbey, and study shafted oriel and rosetted stone and mul- hon, but they throw theirstrongest witchery by moonlight, Some of you remember what the enchanter of Scotland said in the “Lay of the Last Minstrel:" “Wouldst thou view fair Melrose aright? gE Go visit it Ly the pale moonlight,” Washington Irving describes the Andalu- sian moonlight upon the Alhambra ruins as amounting to an enchantment. My text preseuts you Jerusalem in ruins, The tower down. The gates down, The walls down. Everything down, ing with him, for they do not want the many horses to disturb the suspleions of the people, These people do secret of Nehemiah's heart, but they are go- ing us a sort of bodyguard. I hear the clicking hoofs of the horse on which Nehamiah rides, as he guldes it this way and that, into this gate and out of that, winding through that gate amid the debris ofonce great -Jerusalem, Now: the horas where ho cannot pass. Now he shies off at the charred timbers, where the water under the moonlight flashes from the mouth of the brazen dragon after which the gate was named. now amid the sears of the city that had gone The escorting party knows not what Nehe- miah means, Is ho getting crazy? Have his own personal sorrows, added to the sor- rows of the nation, Still the midnight exploration goes Nehemiah on horseback rides through fish gate, by the tower of the farnaces, by the king's pool, by the dragon well, ia and out, uatil tae miduight ride is completed, and Neheminh dismounts from his . and to the amazed and confounisd and ia- eredulous bodyguard, declares the dead secret of his heart when he says, “Come, now, Jet us balid Jerusa- lem.’ “What, Nehemiah, have you any money?” *N “Have vou nny kingly authority?” No." “Have vou any eloquence?” ‘No, moonlight ride of Nehemiah resulted in the on, horse [he people knew not how the thing was to be dome, but with great usinsm they eried out, “Let us rise up now and build the city.” Bome people laughed and said it would not be done, Some people were in- Turiate and offered physical violence, saying the thing should not be But the work- men wen! rig on, the wall, trowel in one hand, sword {a the other, 1 til the work was gloriou that very time ia Gree writing a history, aa philosophy, aud Demosther rattiing fis rhetorical thunder t all of then together did not this midnight, al 1 ol ia cour: eatl mpleted, r a Bs ing, Naheamiah. My subject first img what an intense thin Bafze the bridle of ! Nehemiah, Why are y hers in the ni Yo over these rai pray- 0! t tells w he was De Was 3 a0 Art will not stop, ¢ ast te story. He lots ar distant | ut axilla in a * AR CUD 3X Are uo great tro Then he king eriisaiom was broken had had that broken. “what the lown, § tomb eon denser nat the temple lefaced, how erad and sen dishonored and walls wore “Well,” says Artaxerxes, do you want? “Well,” said cupbearer, Nohamiah, “I want to go home. I waantto fix up the grave of my father, I want to restore the beauty of the temple. I want to rebuild the masonry 9! the olty wail, Besides. I want passports so that I shall not be hindered ia my jourasy, and besides that. "as you will find in the context, “I want an order on the man who keeps your forest for just 80 1 limber as I may ne:d tha rebulidia the city.” “How long shall you be go said the king. The time of absence is ar- eanged, In hot haste this seeming adven- SORE ~ for flad him on horseback, in the mudaight, rid- ing around the ruins, It is through the spectacles of this scene that we discover the arient attachment of Nehemiah for sacred Jerusalem, which in all ages has been the type of the church of God, our Jerusalem, which we k i 1 as Nehemiah lovad his Jerusalem, love the chureh of God *h that no spot on earth 35 sacred uniess it be your own Greside, The church has been to you so uch comfort and jl nothing that makes you 80 liate as to have it talked auainst, If ther when been carried Into captivity by sickness, you longed for the chu just as much as Nehemiah longed for his Jerusalem, and the first day you came out you came to the houses of the Lord, When the temple was in ruins, like Nehemiah, you walkad around and looked at it, and in the moonlight you stood listening if you could not bear the voice of the dead organ, the peaim of the expired Sabbaths, What Jeru- salem was to Nehemiah the church of God is to you. Skeptics and infidels may scoff at the church as an obsolete affair, as a relia of the dark ages, as a convention of goody goody people, but all the impression they have ever made on your mind against the chureh of God is absolutely nothing, You would make mors sacrifices for it to-day than any other institution, and if it were needful you would die in its defense, the words of ths kingly poet as he said, “Lf 1 forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” You understand {n your own experience the pathos, the home- sickness, the courage, the holy enthusiasm of Nehemiah in his midnight ride atrand the ruins of his beloved Jerusalem. Again, my text impresses mo with the fact that, before reconstruction, thers must be an exploration of ruins. Why was not Nehe- miah asisep under the covers? Why was not his horse stabled in the midnight? Let the pollee of the city arrest this midnight rider, out on some mischief, No. Nehemiah is going to rebuild the eity, and he is making the preliminary exploration. In this gate, out that gate, ens’, wost, north, south, All through the ruins, The ruins must be ex- before the work of reconstruction ean ve as have been times reason that so many people in this day ntiy do not stay converted is because t did hut 3 expiors the rains of their # sins, The trouble with a good deal of mod. the right foundation it builds on the debris of an uaregenerated nature, They attempt to rebuild Jerusalem before, In the midnight of conviction, they have seen the ghastilness of the ruin. They have such a poor founda tion for thelr religion that the first northeast storm of temptation blows them down. I not converted in the old fashioned way- John Bunyan's way, John Wesley's way, John Calvin's way, Paul's way, Christ's way, God's way. A man comes to me to talk about religion. Tho first question I ask him is, “Do you feel yourself to be a sinner?” If he says, “Well, I—vyes," the hesitancy makes me feel that thy man wants a ride on Nehemiah's horse by midoight through the ruins—in by the gate of his affections, out by the gate of his will--and before he has got through with that midnight ride he will drop the reins on the horse 4 neck and witl take his right hand and smite on his heart and say, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” and before he has stabled his horse he will take his feet out of the stirrups, and he will slide down on the ground, and he will kneel crying: ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies! Biot out my transgressions, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sins ars ever before { Thee,” i i { Again, my subject gives me a specimen of { busy and triumphant sadness, if there was | any man in the world who had a right go mops and give up everything as lost, it was {| Nehemiah, You say, ‘‘He was a cupbearer | in the palace of Bhushan, aod it was a grahd place.’ So it was. The hall of that palace | was 200 feet square, and the rool hovered | over thirty-six marble pillars, each pillar {sixty feet high, and the intense blue of the | sky and the deep green of the forest foliage, { and the white of the driven snow, all hung trembling in the upholstery. But, mv | friends, you know very well that fine archi- | tacture will not put down homesickness, Nehemiah did not give up. Then, when you saw him going among {these desolated streets and by those | dismantled towers and by the torn up grave of his fathes, you would suppose | that he would have besa disheartened and he would have dismounted from horse and gone to his room and sald: “Woe me! My father's grave is torn up. The { temple is dishonored. The walls are broken i down, I have no money with which to re- build, I wishI had never been born. I wish iI were dead,” Not says Nehemiah, | Although he had a grief so intense that It oxoited the commentary of his king, yet that { penniless, expatriated Nehemiah rouses him- soll up to rebuild the elty. He gots his per- mission of abeence. Ha gels his passports, {| He hastens away to Jerusalem. By night { on horseback he rides throt ruins, Ha overcomes the most ferocio fn { He arouses the plety and patriotis | people, and in less than (wo mon | namely, fifty-two days—Jerusalem was ro- built. That's what I call busy sad trinmph- | ant sadness, At 8 o'clock every | Yet { that his 8) i is an { Sabbath afternoon, for years, in a beautiful parlor in Philadelphia a parlor pletured an { stat uetted--there were from tea to twenty destitute children Those destitute children received religious instruction, concluding with cakes and sandwiches, How dol koow that that was going oo for sixteen years? I know it in this way: That was the first home in Phil- adeiphia I was called to { f the | at rest d = t where somiort a great sorrow. They had a splendid boy, and ho had been drowned at Long Branch, The father and mother almost idolized the boy, and the sob and shriek of that father ana mother as they hung over the coffin resound in my ears to-day, There be no uss of praying, for when I kueit down to | pray the outery in the room drowned out all prayer, 3at the" Lord eomforted sorrow, They did not forget thelr oe. If you should go any alternoon in- y Laurel Hill, you would flad a monument the word Falter” inscribed upon #8 wreath of flowsrs around I think thers was not an hour twenty years, winter or summer, when thers was not a wreath of fresh Bowers und Walter's nama. But the Christian mother i who sent those flowers thers, having no ebild left, afltern motherad te tw i nos of th at raat i= wamed 10 fresh the Sabbath YOR uty of t #4 has hard d ir Hao ‘hristian wo . Yo He has not faile t oT i Oh, I wish I scald persuade ail who have any kind of trouble never to up. I wish they would look at the mid: { rider of the text and that the four | that beast a which Nehen | out to pieces all their discourmgoments hardships and trials, Give up! Who | {ing to give up when on the bosom of God | etn have all his troubles hushed? Give up! i Never think of giving up. Are you borne | gown with poverty? A little child was found olding her dead mother's hand in the dark. ness of A tenement house, and some one com- {8% in the little girl looked up while holding { her dead mother's hand, and sald, “Oh, 1 do wish that Gol had made more light for i poor folks.” My dear, God will be your light, God will bs your shelter, God will be your home, Are you borne down with the bereavements of His? Is the { house lonely now that the child fis i gone? Do not give up. Thihk of what the old sexton sald when the minister asked him why be put 80 much cara on the little graves in the cemetery--#o0 much more care than on the larger graves—and the old sexton sald, ¢h ia the kingdom heaven,’ and I thiok the Saviour a i pleased when he sces so much white clover growige around thes little graves ' Fut when the minister pressad the old sexton for a more satisfactory answer (he oll sex- | ton said, “Sir, about these larger graves, I | don't know who are the Lord's saints aad who are not, but you know, air, it is clean | different with the bairns’ Oh, if you have i bad that keen, tender, indescribable sorrow {that comes from the loss of a child, do not i give up, The old sexton was right, Itis tall well with the balrns, Or, if you have sinned, {{ you have sinned grievously sinned until you have been cast oul by the chureh, sinned until you have been east out by society--~do not give up. Peruaps thers i al tha poop k i ot O3 fully utter the lamentation of another: Fall like a snowflake, from heaven to hell Fell to be trampled as flith in tho etreet— Fell to be scoffed at, spit on and beat, Praying, cursing, wishing to dis, Selling my soul to whoever would buy, Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread, Hating the living and fearing the dead. Do not give up! One like unto the Bon of sailants, “Let him that is without sin east the first stones at her.” 8 no reason why any one in this houses by reason of any trouble or sin should ive up. and in n strange land? Nehomiash was an exile, Are you pensiless? Nehemiah was r. Ate you homesick? Nehemiah was Bor saick, miah was broken hearted. But just see him in the text, riding along the sacrileged grave of his father, and by the dragon well, and through ling on the broken y throws a shadow, at which the and at same Ume that moonlight see not only the mark of sad romi the courage and ola Jae} Who Rilo ws J sins and out of your : ao} In thy rotage, and everlasting Belfast, 3 for gas. ONE WATCH AHEAD, | Remarkable Way in Which a Surgeon Ace quired Another Timepiece. A well-known surgeon who lives on Forest Park boulevard has had an ex- perience with a highwayman that he would like to guppress, if his conscience would let him But it will not, and to a reporter he told the following re markable story “There have been so many highway- men at work, and | am obliged to be out at such hours, that my wife persuaded me to carry a re- volver, a practice | have always avold~ | 2 I bought a 38-caliber bulldog, and about a month ago began to carry It around in my outside overcoat pocket, I seldom have much money on my per- on, but my watch is an unusually valu- | able one, set with diamonds of consider- able value, and I woud hate to lose it, “One night about ten days ago | was called to visit a patient on West Pine near Spring avenue, and was detained there until after midnight by the ex- tremely critical condition of my pa fient I had the satisfaction to see her well over the crisis and rallying nicely, unseasonable and therefore left the house in a very complacent frame of mind I suppose with pride, for and 1 had rouserg pockets I my my hands st: chest was swelling overcoat ick Ast open my in on mv t walked e Spring and south on I intended te home At the « almost ior 1 Spring who told saw 1 was promptly there in ni hwayman Was beach (hat night I don't want that wate and although I have found,” no one appears raving by which believe he went the reporter would not when there with a friend. Approaching a small, sluggish stream, we were surprised to see rising from the surrace of the water a number of bubbles, which glistened in the sun like It was a beautiful sight The iridescent spheres revolving rapidly after the manner of soap bubbles, float- ed rapidly upward, some breaking a height of ten twenty feet, soaring away above the tree tops out of sight, resembling more anything toy These bubbles sizes, than a much stronger brilliant glass ut others and than balloons. from an foot, or elgg ROrgeous were all in diameter to more were apparently deal more bubbles They and a ordinary A gas under the 1 great than sO/p Hine and an oil line had passed un this point, within a few inches of each other, and in pipe was a small The digging and refilling of the trenches bad made barrels of at each leak an dam which held a few There was some alkali which formed saponule, stagnant walter in the bination Of muddy bottom in com- with the oll, soap. This, while not being a kind wri (1 a perfect soup, was ifficiently sap onaceous and cohesive to make beaut ful b CADInE were full of gas caused churned Ly the es t that ubbles when ga The fa the bubbles them to ascend pre brilliant more thy ence THE IVORY TRA An Elephant Yields About 120 Pounds of the NMerchantable Article. mming got one eleven fame elephants have $105 $ risen iakes me N foe] of it i have not yet been able to bring myself to face the be showered on jokes and ile that will me if Il my fr fo give looks at fends about it My wi laugh very time she spanked fim LIN tittle 1 my 8 85° The Double Classes of the « rian the gia near and far vi ahead Une lever devices of the opti EVE for both Looking straight eyesight for ob-; jects at a distance; glancing downwards! they bring things to a quick focus Thus they do the work of two pairs of | spectacles, These glasses are familiar enough,’ but the manner in which they are put! together is interesting. Opticians nowa days secure the double adjustment in| three ways, One ia to fit into the lower | edge of 3 lens designed for far vision | and shaped something like a melon alice a section of a lens designed for near vision and shaped something like the melon itself. They so fit as to form the ordinary elliptical shaped glass. | The frame holds them in place. Another way is to take a strong lens | designed for near vision and grind upon the upper edge a slight convexity for! far vision. There is no need of a’ frame for this arrafgement, i The common way is to grind out what | fa substangially a slice from the lowe: | edge of one side of a lens designed’ for the far vision. "In the place of the glice is pasted on a segment of a lens! designed for near vision. The only adhesive substance available that js! perfectly fransparent is Canada balsam, | and all workmen use it. No frame is: needed — The New York Mail and Ex. BICAR, is designed on they adjust the Soap Bubbles Strangely Made. About half a mile above Franklin, Penn., is to be seen one of the most curious sights in this country, and one European demand sve exterminated Some vears ago, St menmplion of Ivo "i ponds 1 O00 Cu ft the average « IRsG of which An § five vears ef ma? Vor: Ket has succeeds il to so mucl Sheflicld’s former bus that it F ivory trading point in the world. The Antwerp for i806 amounted 600 000 pounds, 450.000 pounds came from district of the Congo. Some days be. fore the quarterly sale at Antwerp there is an exhibition for the benefit of New York Sun. § ness has become ihe reat anles of genuine ivory in to oi ¢ the which The Greatest Murderess. Aqua Tofano, the poisoner, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth turies, was probably the greatest mur. deress the world has ever known. Ii The poison was a up in small botties bearing toe image of Si. Nicholas, a martyr, who is said The illness produced by the poison resembled chol- era. Among the noted victimes was Pope Clement XIV. In 1708 the arch poisoner was arrested, and it was given out that she had been secretly stran- ged, but some historians insist that she lived until the year 1730, the Naples authorities making good use of her abilitiea as a polson-maker. ls Nb At the beginning of the present cen. tury the Iible could be studied by only one-fifth of the earth's population Now it is translated into languages which makes it accessible to nie tenths of the world’s inhabitants. Homo A A, CRANT AT THE MESS-TABLE, He Ate Very Little Meat, But Was Fond of Fruit. Horace Porter gives many intimate and familiar pletures of Gen eral Grant in his se “Campaigning with Grant,” now ning in the “Century.” He pays eral Grant at the mess-table About bee! General § article ruti- of ries of Gen the only meat he enjoyed was this he could not eat un,ess well done that no If blood appeared in any meat which came on the table, the sight of it seemed to entirely destroy his appetite wis the man whose enemies delights in Ovstlers and it was #0 thoroughly appearance of b.ood could be seen him a butcher.) and but procured an He never ate mutton tain anything elge, and alling CAINE fruit, these could he on active camps when he could ob- fowl abhorred As he it =] could goes on two logs he never vever have been of He did clining to eat balism ' hie operat among ancients claimed by tist A. C scientific St. Amand treat i ord Jefi ning boon on and las one. which was forwarded wit of ich the extra “Myself and two companions were sen! to look after some newly opened tombe ine following Aan is that had been discovered near a village called Delur. The mummies found within were in fine condition, and thinking 1 might find something of in- terest to you, 1 examined the teeth of one that had been unwrapped, Close gerutiny showed me four teeth that were filled with some substance hard as iron, so as you may judge for yourself you find what it is, let me know, as | ings were used 3000 years ago.’ attempts made by Dr. St. Amand to drill the tooth were futile, and, although exhaustive tests were made. nothing was found that would act on the old filling. mii Grant's Change of Complexion. Colonel Parker. the Indian, had been diligently employed in these busy days helping to take care of General Grant's correspondence. He wrote an excellent hand, and as one of the military sec- retaries often overhauled the general's correspondence and prepared answers to his private letters. This evening he was soated at the writing table in the general's tent, while his chief was standing at a little distance outside, talking with some of bis staff. A citi gen, whe had come to City Point in the employ of the sanitary commission, and who had been at Cairo when the gen. eral tool command there in 1861, ap- proached the group and inquired: “Where is the old man's tent? I'd like to get a look at him; haven't seen him for three years.” Rawlins, to avoid being interrupted, sald, ‘That's hig tent.” at the game time polluting to it. The man stepped the looked in saw the gswarthy feat- ures of Parker as he sat in the general's chair The zied, and as he walked away was heard - that's him, but Yen, sunburnt since [ last over to tent, and visitor seemed a little puz- tO remary he's got all-fired had a look at him.” The general was great ly amused by the incident, and repeated the remark afterward to Parker, who it much the others, — Magazine, ne as Cen. Meade in Action, Horace Porter for Petersburg” his series describes the on General of Dash in of artic in lev Campaigning with Grant ves the follow] picture Meade in action % “0 de He 8 fron: showed A Remarkable Book. the Wik in An Old wd or Story Retold. Mazewell and Gen- of the Navy together on the and while the Y E # anch a ten- wary Bac, roar, Br prove him to the “Well,” the of rivas said pointing oppotite isn’t that one gide Well, is: “Yes.” ''T1 ont the other side?” of the river?” n't thiz the other en, 48 you are here, “Why, it is; 11 win back Daniel came “Webster, i can de of the river.” gide?” . isn't that the other Yes but 1 not on that vad to pay for two hats, it is possible to bet upon neither —Ar- the victim, "so Webster, 1 4 m A 8 om him. ited him with prove this one Im ain learned ways and win Many Words ona Postal Charles Monnier, of Detroit, Mich. has just completed a task which he thinks is a record-breaker. He chal- it must be said right here that unlese one has time to waste, nerves to spare and doesn’t suffer from headaches he Monnlier. The champion put the 17.858th word best previous record by 11.000 words It was held between the thumb and index finger. The bolder was hed against the nose and the letters were made by moving the head from side to side or up and down as the case might be. Under a reading glass the words are distinet. The card contains forty-eight pages of “Portia.” by the Duchess. To the naked eve the postal looks like stipple work. Lavender is still used in English {linen closets, but the supply is threat- ened with extinction. The growers in the village of Hitchin, one of the chief centers of the lavender industry, assert that owing to a succession of bad sons the plant is dying out there, that, moreover, they 3 with foreign imitations of |
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