"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 |