REV. DR. TALMAGE. WHE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN- DAY SERMON, Subject: “Rubles Surpassed.’” Text: “ Wisdom is better than rulries,’ Proverbs vill. 11. You have all seen the precious stone com- monly called the ruby, It is of deep red «olor. The Bible makes much of ft. It owed in the first row of the high priest's stplate, Under another name it stood fn tho wall of heaven. Jeremiah compares the ruddy cheek of the Nasarites to the ruby, Eaekiel points it out in the robes of the king of Tyre, Four times doen Solomon use it as a symbol by whieh to extol wisdom or relig- fon, always setting its value as better than Tublies. The world does not agree as to how the Fracions ftones were formed, The ancients hought that amber was made of drops of perspiration of the goddess Ge. The thun- derstone was supposed to havedropped from | he emerald was sald to | The lapis | Iazuli was thought to have been born of the | a stormeloud, fave been made of the firefly, ory of an Indian giant. And modern min- eralogists say that the precious stones were made of gases and liquids, seams like a spark from the anvil of the set- ting sun. The home of the genuine ruby is Burmah, and sixty miles from its capital, where lives and reigns the ruler, called “Lord of the Rubies.” Under a careful Governmental jard are these valuable mines of ruby kept, rely has any foreigner visited them, When a ruby of large value was discovered, it was brought forth with elaborate ceremony, a procession was formed, and, with all ban- naorad pomp, military guard and princely at- tendants, the gem was brought to the king's palace Of great value is the ruby, much more so than diamond, as lapidaries and jewelers | will tell you. An expert on this subject writes, “A ruby of perfect color weighing five carats 1s worth at the present day ten | times as much asa diamond of equal weight," | It was a disaster when Charles the Bold Jost the ruby he was wearing at the battle of Grandson, It was a great affluence when Rudolph II of Austria mherited a ruby from | his sister, the queen dowager. It was thought | to have had much to do with the victory of | Heary V.as he wore It into the battle of | Agincourt, It is the pride of the Russian court to own the largest ruby of the world, presented by Gustavus III to the Russian Empress. Won- drous ruby: It has electric characteristics, and there are lightnings compressed in ita | double six sided prisms, it? Itis frozen fire! In all the world there is only one thing more valuable, and my text makes the comparison, “Wisdom is better than rubles.” But it is impossible to compare two things together unless there are some points of sim- flarity as well as of difference, I am glad there is nothing lacking here, The ruby is more beautiful in the night and under the lamplight than by day. It is preferred for evening adornment. How the rubies glow and burn and flash as the lights lift the dark- ness! Catherine of Aragon had oh her finger a ruby that fairly lanterned the night. What shall I eall Sir John Mandeville, the celebrated trav- | eler of 400 years ago, said that the Em seror of China had a ruby that made the night as bright as day, mon, under some of the lamps that illumined his cedar palace by night, noticed the pecu- Har glow of the ruby as it looked In the hiit of a sword, or hung in some fold of the up- holstery, or beautified the lip of some chalice, while he was thinking at the same time of | the excellency of our holy religion as chiefly seen in the night of trouble, and he cries out, ‘Wisdom is better than rubies,” Oh, yes, it is a good thing to bave religion while the sun of prosperity rides h and i averything is brilliant in fort dm worldly favor. Yet you can af such time hardly tell how much of it is natural exuber-. ance and how much of it is the grace of God, Eat let the sun set, and the shadows ava- Ianche the plain, and the thick darkness of sickness or poverty or persecution or mental exhaustion ili the soul and fill the house and fill the world ; then you sit down by the lamp of God's word, and under its light the consolations of the gospel come out; the Jace of God which passeth all understand- ng appears, You never fully appreciated their power until in the deep night oftrouble the Divine Lamp revealed their exquisite. | aess. Pearls and amethysts for the day, but | rubies for the night, All of the books of the Bible attempt in some way the assuagement of misfortune, Of the 150 psalms of David at least ninety allude to trouble, There are sighings in every wind, and tears in every brook, and | pangs in every heart. It was originally pro- sd to call the President's residence at ashington “The Palace’ or “the Execu- tive Mansion,” but after it was destroyed in the war of 1514 and rebuilt In was painted white to cover up the marks of the smoke and fire that had blackened the stone walls, Hence it was called “The Most of things now white with attractiveness were once black with disaster, What the world most needs is the consola- tory, and here it comes, our holy religion, with both hands full of anodynes and seds- tives and balsams, as in Daniel's time to stop mouths leonine as in Shadrach's time to cool blast furnaces ; ns in Ezekiel's time to console captivity ; as in St, John's time to unroll an apocalypse over rocky desolations, Hear its soothing voice as it declares “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the moming.” “The montains shall depart and the bills be removed, but My loving kindness shall not depart from you." “Whom the Lord loveth He chas. teneth.” “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, for the | Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall load them to living fountains of water, &nd God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” The most wholesome thing on earth fs trouble, if met in Christian spirit. To make Paul what he was it took ship wreck, and whipping onthe bare back, and penitentiary, and pursuit of wild mobs, and the sword of decapitation. To make David what he was it took all that Ahitkophel and Saul and Ab- salom and Goliath and all the Philistine hosts could do against him, It took Robert Chambers's malformation of feet to make him the literary conqueror, It was bereavement that brought William Haworth, of Wesley's time, from wickedness Lo an evangelism that won many thousands for heaven, The world would never have known what heroic stuff Ridley was made of had not the fires been kindled around his feet, and not liking this slow work he eried : “I eannot burn. Let the fire come tome, 1 cannot burn.” Thank God that thers are foms that unfold their best glories under the light! Thank God for the raby. oreover, | am sure Solomon was right in | raying that religion or wisdom is better than rubles, from the fact that » thing is worth what it will feteh, Religion will fetoh solid happiness, and the ruby will not. In all your observation did you ever find a person thoronghiy felicitated by an incrastment of Jewels? As you know more of yourself than any one else, are you happier now with worldly adornments and successes than be. fore you won them? Does the pleturs that cost you hundreds or thousands of dollnes on your wall bring you as much satisfaction as the engraving that at the expense of $5 was hung upon the wall when you first began to keep house? Do all the cutlery and rare plate that glit- ter on your extension dining table, surround od by flattering guests, contain more of roa hs than the plain ware of your firat table, at which sat only two? Does a wardrobe erowded with costly attire give you more satisfaction than your first clothes closet with its four or five pegs? Did not the plata ring set on the third lager of the left on the day of your betrothal give more glad- ness than the ruby that Is now enthroned on the third finewr of your right hand? To me the ruby | The probability is that Solo- | White House." | If in this journey of life we have learned anything, we have learned that this world, neither with its emoluments nor gains, can satisfy the soul, Why, here come as many witnesses as 1 wish to eall to the stand to testify that before high heaven and the world, in companionship with Jesus Christ and a good hope of heaven, they feel a joy that all the resources of their vocabulary fall to express, Sometimes it evidences itself in ejaculations ot hosanna ;sometimes in doxol- ogy | sometimes in tears, A converted na- tive of India in n letter sald : “How I long for my bed, not that I nay sleep—I He awake often and long--but to hold sweet commu- nion with my God." If so mighty is worldly joy that Julius IT, hearing his armies were triumphant, ex- pired, and if Talva, hearing that the Roman senate had decresd him an honor, expired, and if Dionysius and Bophooles, overcome of joy, expired, and if a shipwrecked pur- sor, waiting on the coast of Guinea in want and starvation at the sight of a vessel bringing relief, fell dead from shook of de- | light, is it any surprise to you that the joys of pardon and heaven rolling over the soul should sometimes be almost too much for the Christian to endure and live? An aged aunt said to me: De’ Witt, three times I have fainted dead away under too great Christian joy. It was in all thres oases at the holy communion.” An eminent Christian man while in prayer sald : “Stop, Lord ; I cannot bear any more { of this gladness, 1t is too much for mortal, Withhold! withhold!" We have heard of | poor workmen or workwomen getting a lot- | ter suddenly telling them that a fortune had | been loft them, and how they were almost | beside themselves with glee, taking the first ship to cinim the estate, to wake up out of the stupor of a sinful life, and through pardoning grace find that all our earthly existence will be divinely man- aged for our best welfare, and that then all heaven will roll in upon the soul! Compared with that a spring morning is stupid, and an August sunset is inane, and aurora has no pillared splendor, and a dia- mond has no flash, and a pearl no light, and a bery no aquamarine, and a ruby no ruddi- ness, My gracious Lord! My glorious { God! My precious Christ! Rollover on us {a few billows ofthat rapture. And now | I ask you, as fair minded men and women, | acoustomed to make comparisons, is not such a joy as that worth more than anything | one can have in a jeweled casket? Was not ter than rubles?” There is also something in the deep car- mine of the ruby that suggests the sacrifice | pends, While the emerald suggests the meadows, and the sapphire the skies, and the opal the sea, the ruby suggests the blood | of sacrifice, ling of all colors has the ruby. Solomon, the suthor of my text, knew all about the sacri- temple, and he knew the meaning of saeri- ficial blood, and what other precious stone | could he so well use to symbolize it as the ruby? Red, intensely red, red as the blood ofthe greatest martyr of all time—Jesus-—of the centuries! Drive the story of the eruei- fixion out of the Bible and the doctrine of the atonement out of our religion, and there | would be nothing of Christianity left for our worship or our admiration. Why should it be hard to adopt the Bible | theory that our redemption was purchased | by blood? | arches, what temple ever reared its towers, what Nation ever achieved its independence, what mighty good was ever done without | sacrifice of life? The great wonder of the world, the bridge that unites these two cities, cost the life of the first architect, saipyards of Glasgow and New York how many carpenters went down under socidents | before the steamer was launched ; ask the three great transcontinental raliroads how many in their construction were buried un- der crumbling embankments or crushed un- der timbers or destroyed by the powder blast, | have been martyrs to the cradle of siok chil. dren. Tell us bow many men sacrificed nerve and muscle and brain and life in the effort to support thair households, many men in E in France, many, in Italy, in the United States, have | died for their country. Viearious suffering is as old as the world, but the most thrilling, the most startling, the most stupendous sacrifice of all time and eternity was on a bluff back of Jerusalem when one Being took { upon Himself the sins, the agonies, the per- | dition of a great multitude that no man oan | sumber between 12 o'clock of a darkened noon and 3 o'clock in the afternoon, purchas- ing the mnsom of a ruined world, Dive in all the seas, explere all the mines, | erowbar all the mountains, view all the | crowned jewels of all the emperors, and find | me any gem that can so overwhelmingly | { symbolize that martyrdom as the ruby, | Mark you, there are many goms that are somewhat like the ruby. So is the cornelian, 80 is the garnet, 80 is the spinel, so Is the balas, so the gems brought from among the gravels of Ceylon and New South Wales, but | there is only one genuine ruby, and that | comes from the mine of Burmah, Andthere is only one Christ, and He comes from heaven, One Redeemer, one Ransom, one | Bon of God, only “one name given under heaven among men by which we can be saved.” tions of that ruby, but only one ruby. Christ had no descendant. Christ had no counter. part. In the lifted up grandeur and glory and love and sympathy of His character He is the Incomparable, the Infinite One! “The | only wise God, our Saviour." Let all hearts, all homes, all times, all eoternities, bow low | before Him ! our souls! In olden times Scotland was disturbed by freebooters and pirates. To rid the seas { and ports of these desperadoes the hero | William Wallace fitted out a merchant ves- Lot His banner be lifted in all | sels, but filled it with armed men and put | out to sea, The pirates, with their flag in- | scribed of a death's head, thinking they would get an easy prize, bore down upon the Scottish merchantman, when the armed | men of Wallace boarded the craft of the | | pirates and put them in chains and then salled for port under the Scotch flag flying. And to our souls, assailed of sin and death | and hell, through Christ are rescued, and | the black flag of sin is torn down, and the | str flag of the cross is hoisted. Blessed | ba God for any sign, for any signal, for any | precious stone that brings to mind the price | | paid for such a rescue, | Ilike the coral, for it soems the solidified | foam of breakers, and I like the jasper, for | | it gathers seventeen colors into its | bosom, and I lke the jot, for it compresses | the shadows of many midnights, and I like | Jukple is illu. | o | the ehrysoprase because its | mired with a small heaven stars, and I | like the chrysolite for its waves of color | which seem on fire, But this morning noth- | ing 80 impresses me as the ruby, for it de ] pets, it typifies, it suggests “The blood of | osus Christ that cleanseth from all sin.” | Without the shedding of blood there Is no | remission.” Yea, Solomon was right when in my text he sald, “Wisdom is better than rubles,” my text, [ put before you two last earthly scenes, The one is in a room with rubles, but no religion, and the other in a room first room, where an afMaent and worldly man is about to quit this life, There is a ruby on the mantel, bly among the vases, There Ik a ruby in the headdress of the queenly wite, On the finger of the dying man there is a ruby, The presence of these rubles implies opulenes of ail kinds, The plotures on the walls are heirlooms or the trophies of Eu- ropean travel. The curt <ins are from foreign looms, The rugs are rom Damascus or Cairo, The soins are stuffed with ease and quietude, The rocking chairs roll back. ward and forward on al lables. The pillows are exquisitely embroidered, All the ap. pointments of the room are a peroration to a successful commercial or professional life, But the man has no rel , never has had and never professed to have. There Is not a Bible or one religious book in the room, Tha devarting man fonle that his sarthlv But, oh, what it is | Solomon right when he said, “Wisdom is bet- | on which our whole system of religion de- | The most emphatic and start- | of b and dove on ) ) i It is petrified blood ! | flee of lamb and dove on the altars of the | What great bridge ever sprung its | Ask the | Tabulate the statistics of how many mothers | Ten thousand times 10,000 beautiful imita- | To bring out a contrast that will illustrate | with religion, but no rubles, You enter the | career is ended, and nothing opens beyond. Where he will land stepping off from this life is a mystery, or whether he will land at all, for it may be annihilation, He has no prayer to offer, and he does not know how to pray. No hope of meeting again in another state of existence, He is through with this life and is sure of no other, The ruby on the mantel and the raby on the wasted fin. ger of the departing one say nothing of the ransoming blood which they so mightily typily. Bo far as giving solace or {llumina- tion to a departing spirit, they are a dead faflure, © Midnight of utter hopelessness drops on all the scene, Another room of mortal exit, Raligion and no rubles, Bie never had money enough to buy one of these sxquisites, Sometimes she stopped at a jeweler's show window and saw « row of them inoarnadining the velvet, She had keen taste to appreciate those gems, but she never owned one of them. Bhe was not jealous or uahappy because others had rubles while she had none, But she had a richer treasurer, snd that was the grace of (lod that had comforted her along the way amid bereavements and temptations and per- secutions and siokness and privations and trials of all sorts, Now she Is going out of fe, The reom is bright, not with pletures or statues, not with upholstery, not with any of the gems of mountain or of sea, but there is a strange and vivid glow in the room, Not the light of the chandelier or star or noon- day sun, but something that outshines all of them. It must be the presence of super. naturals, From her {llumined face I think { she must hear sweet voloes, Yea, she does hear swoet voloes—-voloes of departed kin. { dred, voleces apostolic and prophetic and evangelio, but all of them overpowered by the volee of Christ, saying, ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom." From her illumined face, I think she must hear raptarous music, Yea, she does hear rapturous tausie, now soft as solos, now thunderous as orchestras; now a saintly voloe alone, now the hundred and forty and { four thousand in concert, From her illu. mined face, I think she must breathe redol- ence, Yea, she does inhale aroma from off the gardens whose flowers never wither and from the blossoms of orchards, every tree of | which bears twelve manner of fruit, From | her {llumined face, I think she must see a | | glorious sight. Yea, she secs the wall that has jus | top and blood red rubles betw=en. Goodby sweet soul! Why should you longer stay! | Your work all done, your burdens all carried, | Jour tears all wept! ight! Up into the joy! grandeurs! And after Out you have saluted Christ and your kindred, search out him of | the palaces of Lebanon cedar and tall him | that you have found to be gloriously true | | another when all cups of water service shall what thousands of years ago he asserted In this morning's text, “Wisdom is better than | rubles.” In those burnished palaces of our God may we all mest. For [ confess to you that my chint desire for heaven Is not the radiance, | or, to take the suggestion of the text, not the | rubescence of the scene. My one idea of heaven is the place to meet old friends, God, our best friend, and our earthiy friends al- ready transported, Aye, to meet the millions whom I have never seen, but to whom I have administered in the gospel week by | week by journalism on both sides of the sea, and throughout Christendom, and through many iands yet semibarbarie, For the last twenty-three years avery blast | of injustice agaiust me bas multiplisd my | readers all the world over, and the present | malignancy printed and uttered becasue our church is in financial struggle after having { two great structures destroyed by fire and we compelled to bulld three large churches ~1 say the present outrageous injustios in some quarters will multiply my audience in all lands it I can keep in good humor and | | bruise for our sakes (isa not fight back, A gentleman tapped me on the shoulder summer before last on a street of Edinburgh, | Beotland, and said, “I live in the Shetland Islands, North Scotland, and I read your ser. | mons every Sabbath to an audience of neigh. | bors, and my brother lives In Cape Town, South Africa, and he reads them every Sab. bath to an audiences of his neighbors.” And | I hear and now say to the forty millions of { the earth to whose eyes these words will { some, that one of my dearest anticipations | is to meet them in heaven. AR, that will be better than rabies, Coming up from different continents, from different hemispheres, from opposite sides of the earth, to greet each other in holy love in the presence of the glorious Christ who | rade it possible for us to get there, sins all pardoned, our sorrows banished, never to weep, never to part, never to dies! I tell you that will be better than rubles. Others may | have the crowns, and the thrones, and the soapters ; give us our old friends back again, Christ, “the friend who sticketh closer than a brother,” and all the kindred who have got up from our bereft households, and all our friends whom we have never yet seen, and Oar all you may have all the rubies, for that will be “better than rubles.’ Instead of the dying kiss when they looked 80 pale and wan and sick, it would be the kiss of welcome on lips jubllant with song, while standing on floors paved with what ex. quisiteness, under cellings hung with what | | glory, bounded by walls facing us with what splendor, amid gladness rolling over us with what doxology far better, infinitely better, | everlastingly better than rubles ! All About the Eyes, Don't allow a cold wind to strike the eyes. Don't have colored shades on the lamps ; use white or ground glass. Don't go directly from a warm room into a cold, raw atmosphere, Don't open the eyes under water in | bathing, especially in salt water, Don’t let any strong light, like that | from electricity, shine directly into | the eyes. Don't strain the eyes by reading, | sewing or any like occupation, with an imperfect light. Don’t bathe the eyes with cold water ; that which is as warm as can be borne | is better, Don't sleep opposite a window in such manner that a strong light will strike the eyes on awakening. Don't, above all, have the children sleep so that the morning sun shall shine in their faces to arouse them. Don't expect to get another pair of eyes when these have been destroyed | by neglect or ill use, but give them | fair treatment and they will serve faithfully to the end.-~New York Ad- | vei tiser, ‘ I = Cooking by Steam, Cooking dishes are now made in England in which, in the boiling pro- cess, the meat does not .come in con | tact with the water or steam. The edible is contained in a jacket, which [in turn is immersed in the outside | kettle containing the boiling water. It | is claimed that by this the nutritious | qualitios of meat are preserved, noth- ing passing oft in vapor. There is moisture enough in the meat to pre. vent it burning and all the flavor is retained, while, again, the fiber re- tains a tenderness not found in any other method, «~Hardware, sa ——— One Maine teacher says: *‘T oan teach my pupils more physiology in half an hour with a cat and a jack. knife than with all the textbooks that we have in the schools.” —— r at the base and amethyst at the | Forward into the | into the | | a burnt offering? SABBATH SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY LESSON 205. FOR Subject: “Trial of Abraham's Faith,’ Gen, xxi, 1-13--Goldep Text: Heb, xi, 17 ~Commentary. 1. “And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and sald unto him, Abraham. And he said, Behold, here Iam!" In due time tha promised son was given and was named Tsane as God had eom- manded (xvil., 19), Abraham was now hiv. ing at Beersheba in the extrema sguth, and Isaa had grown to boyhond when this prov. ing (R, V.) or trying came upon him, Con- sider how God proved Israel (Deut, vill, 2, 16). These are the trials that are precious and in which we are by pracetorejolos (Jas, f.,2.12:1 Pet, 1, 7). Abrabam's ‘Behold me!" (margin) i¢ the same word used hy Samuel and slab (1 Bam, Hi. 4 Isa, vi. (8), 2. “And He sald, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” If Abraham's heart centered in Isaac, then this would erush him, but if in God, who gave Isane, then ho would see God and still lve, Heb, xi., 17-10, tells the story. The ability of God ix the resting place, Compare Rom, fv.,, 21, On this mountain the Lord after. ward appeared to David, and there Bolomon built the templa (II Chron, iii, 1), 8. “And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son, and went unto the place of which God had told him.” Here is the prompt obadience of faith, Trials are God's vote of confidence in us and are our opportunities for manifesting Christ. Abraham's life was from one trial to another, lesser ones preparing for greater, and from one separation to another until he was separated from earth to heaven, there to rest and walt for the complete fulfillscont of every promise in God's good time, 4. '“Then on the third dav Abraham Jifted up his eves and saw the place afar off.” It was on this same day that be received him from the dead in a figure, and from the third day of the creation story when the land rosa up out of the waters and became covered with grass, herbs aid trees—tho third day poems to speak of resurreciion, Think of Jonah and the Lord Jesus, The third day marriage In Cana (John i. 1), suggesting { the kingdom =t Bee also Hos, be changed to the wine the marriage of the Lamb, vi. 3 5. “And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and [| and the lad will go yonder and worship and rome again to you.” Ree this faith-—-he and the lad will come again, That is true worship which oarrios with it an obedience that cost somes thing. David said he would not offer unto the Lord that which cost nothing (II Sam. xxiv, 24), but David's was nothing as him | compared with this, and what is this when compared with God giving His only begot- ten. 6. “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son, and be took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went, both of them together.” i This father and son were perfectly agreed (verse 8 and Amos fii, 3). Gaze upon this pleture until it becomes real 0 you, and you ean enter somewhat ir (0 their feelings, Then look forever on that other Son bearing His cross, whom it pleased His Father to Mik, 10), 7. “And Issac spake unto Abraham, his father, and said, My father. And be sald, Here am 1, my son. And besaid, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for What a sword to the inther's heart! What graoe to enable him to answer as he does In the next verse! Was ever a father brought so near to ihe boart of God as this father? £ “And Abraham said, Myson, God will wrovide Himself a lsmb for a burnt offering. ' they went both of them together.” And He has provided the costliest In the uni. verse, even His own Son, of whom Jobn the Baptist sald, “Behold the Lamb of God.” (John i, 29), and whom the beloved John saw in glory ‘a Lamb as it had been siain™ (Rev, v., 6 When God provides, He does #0 abundantly. Are you satisfied with His provision 9. “And they came 10 the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there and ladd the wood in order and bound Isase, his son, and inid him on the altar upon the wood Isaac now under- stands about the lamb, but he murmurs not he is a willing sacrifice. Wondrous son of a wonderful father! But turn to Him whose name is Wonderful and hear Him, “I de light to do Thy will, O My God” “I lay down My life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself” (Ps, x1. 8; John x.. 17, 18), 10, “And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.” The promise centered in Isaac (xvil, 19), and through him was the nation to come, and it was God's part to see it through, It was Abraban's part to obey and let God arrange the difficulties, It was for Abraham to see God and not Isaac the giver rather than the gift, Until our Isaac is onthe altar we cannot know God as fully as we might, 11. “And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abra- bam. And he said, Here am LL" Every movenynt had been watched in heaven, every heart pang and sigh had been noted there, The limit had been reached ; it is enough. Why do we not believe that every step and act and word and thought is seen by Him who understandeth even the ime aginations of the thoughts 12. "And he said, lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him ; for now I know that thou fearest God, see. ing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.” The Bible has much to say about the fear of the Lord, Is this, thea, the meaning of #7 Such unbounded econfi- dence in Him that we fear not to do any- thing He tells us, sure that He will keep His promises though everything may seem against it, Fuch an entire surrender to Him of all His gifts to us that we enjoy the Giver in the gift and not the gift apart from Him, | slight that it can only be detected by | | | cold season atame groundhog becomes 18. “And Abraham lifted up his eyee and | looked, and behold, behind him, & ram enught in a thicket by his horns, And Abra- ham went and took the ram and offered him up tor a burnt offering in the stead of his son." Isanc was spared, but God spareth not His own Bon, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom, vill, 32), Just as truly as the mm died in the stead of Isane so Jesus died in my stead, He was delivered for my offenses and raised again for my justifioa- tion (Rom, fv,, 25). And the gift of Hirself to us must include ail else, Therefcs) sou! should ever sing Jehovah-jireh, See wargio of verse 14, w Hr A Season of Disaster at Sea. All accounts agros that the present winter senson hos boss the roughest at sea lor many years, Ftories of shipwreek and disaster ave boon related with almost dally fre quency at Lioyd's since last November, and the number of wreeks eportel has been copstantly augmented. From the frag mentary weather reports received from olated points it is ascertained by compari son With the stories of the shipmuasters that the distarbances at sea are con'innd to uo given loeality, but embrace the Atlantic, the Pacific and Indinn Oceans, The number of vessels lost 'n the ast. named body of water exosed twenty, and tne number of lives Jost, sixty, Travel bot woen Paris and London has been rendered ox. tremely unpleasant by the tantrums of oid Neptuha on the Cuanne!, It takes a genuine sallorman to make the voyage st this season of the year without experiencing the terror of the mal de mar, most recent disaster on the Channel ha when two of five huge elephants which were being {ransferred trom France to England sucoumbed to sea- sieknose and shook, . ay i { is merely a device | abling the animal to get along withont | carried to the customary term | animal is not so complete as farther | ther south it is interrupted by periods | of | woodchuck goes abroad and gets its : { | bo had. PROPHETIC GROUNDHOGS. A CROSS BETWEEN A MOUSE A MONKEY AND heir Habits, Home and Food and How They Live Through the Winter Queerest of Mammals, + J HEN the legendary and / prophetieal groundhog comes out of its hole and looks sround for its shadow, if he sees it, which will natar ally be the case if the sun shines, he returns to his underground habitation for another long rest, being convinced that winter is destined to hinger in the lap of the forthcoming spring. This interesting animal is equally well known as the ‘‘woodchuck.”” Bat it has a great many other names be- sides. In fact, people would seem to have exhausted ingenuity in devising varied designations for the beast, Linusecus, the famous founder of the modern school of natural history, en- titled it ““mus monax,” which, being interpreted, means a cross between a mouse and & monkey, The Canadian French speak of it as the “‘sifleur,” or “whistler.” This is on account of the whistling noise which it sometimes utters when startled. In the great fur-bearing region about Hudson's Bay it answers to the name of the “‘thickwood badger,” while to the westward the hardy inhabitants of Alaska mean woodchuck when they exclaim “‘tarbagan,” and the Chippewss likewise when they grunt “kath-hilloe-koony.” The animal's habits do not vary with the multitude of his titles. He lives in a burrow remarkable for its extent. wild | It is dug in the slope of a hill or by | the side of & big stene, making an ex- cavation twenty or thirty which descends obliquely four feet, then round chamber, where the groundhog family sleeps and brings np its young. The little ones are born three to eight When the farmer, with his horses and 1m wing chances to slumr into appearing from by charitable neigh! ul a time. machine, one of view until excavated ire, hie ¥ apt to feel annoyed and to revile the whole woodehuek tribe witl It is on thi bounties for killing the off red New other States, as much as ten cents for each tail being psd Hunters will not kill them, for the fur is worthless and the flesh by no palatable, It is not trae that the country necessary to groundhogs barns, liscriminstion. int that creatures have and largely ACCON been in Hampshire means found it through their farmers have shovel paths in over fo reach ntioned, the no harm to Save in the way just ms woodchuck little or | anybody. feeding mostly on clover and grass, Rarely does he enter the garden, pre- ferring the open meadows and rocky hillsides. The first rains that | copiously after haying is over canse { the fresh green spring | anew, This in : places consists red clover, does grass to second crop large ly of which the groundbog regards as a most delightful delicacy It eats so much | daring the latter part of the first half of the that it bec exceedingly inert following OIes fat later it goes into winter quarters, and it does not come out again to til the middle of March, I'tiis creature existing example of It lays up n | visions as the squirrel d is of such nature that keep, and the gr sleep to save itself from starving It disappears with astonishing precision within the autumnal equinox ard remains nnderground un | til about the time un f the equals vernal Often the weather is very when 1t retires, and 1 March ground making long places where " maminasl store Its does OS, it indhog " nO a few davs of w hie un the the plane at the equinox will come on the Warn ut in when snow is journ the green grass has been laid bare by thaw, At the end of the winter the animal is thin and doubtless feels rather seedy, having lived on its own and without subsistence for so long a time. During the term of hibernation physical waste is reduced to a very low point, the heart's action slacken- ing and the breathing becoming so ve to patches of fission delicate kept in Even when through the instruments, a warm house torpid at the usual date and remains so until the hereditary habit has been In this latitude of the the hibernation north, and a few hundred miles far wakefulness, during which the meals The practice of hibernating of nature for en- food at times when there is no food to Otherwise it would perish and the snecies would become extinet, No use for the groundhog worth mentioning has ever been discovered, It is otherwise with snother queer mommal-the porcupine, Porcupines have been used as fuel, for which pur- pose they are said to be superior to wood, Some time ago at the Wilmot mine in Minnesota the poreupines ceme to be regarded as soch a nui sance, being very numerous, that one day the foremen threw a couple of dead ones irto the fireplace of the stoam drill. To his surprise the sceam and up to eighty pounds in a short time. From that time on the miners wore instructed to kill and bring in every poreupine they could eatch for use in the furnace. Such, at all food not | must | outs | feet long, | or five ! gradually rising to a large | | | Ea] these holes, dis- | | \ i in certain parts of i He is strictly a vegetarian, | i fall | up | many | | i Augn «t and month | and About September 30 or a little | | | stay un- | ISLOC most remarkable ! hibernating of pro- | | | | | ! ! | | | | | | - : find i coveted | events, is the story, — Washington Star, | England has women engineers, Russia has 700 lady physicians, Berlin has a housewife's anion, Stylish women in Mexico never wear bounets, Uncle Sam's Treasury employs 1000 women Black-and-white effects are to pre- vail again in '04, A woman's hair is said to weigh on the average fourteen ounces Corsets have not been worn by Queen Vietoria in over twenty years. About one-ninth of the professional writers in Great Britain are women. The wise woman is never the first to follow nor the last to abandon a fashion. Mrs. Mery B. Day bas just been elected State Librarian in Kentucky. the Hussain, The Czar is much interested in work of women physicians in Chinese women are said to regard the hairpin much as American women do the ring been they have H onus children White Only six born in the were all girls. over and Boston has so many women’s clubs that their notices fill three columns of short paragraphs Mrs. Ju, wife of the Chinese Minis- ter at Washington, paints her cheeks a bright magenta, Kansas Sate Univesity has woman in the law department called a sister-in-law. one She is Christina Rosetti, the years old, and because of poet her ww sixty health gues very little in society. The wife President Dole Hawaii, is a native of Maine, and for- merly taught school in that Siate A fee of $350 a day is given the phy- sician to the Empress of Russia when in attendance upon his sugust patient, that fifty- seventeen years of city last year, of of statistics show seven‘girls under age were married The Queen of Afghanistan cided to adept European dress husband's pocketbook won't Ameer trifle, Mrs. F. C of Nebrasks, has made a fortune in apples. She is one of the best authorities on pomol- ogy in the West Boston in that has de- Her find this Je yhnson, Ellen Terry, the actress, told a reporter that the progressive woman ‘is more in danger of wearing out than rusting out Lady Griselda Ogilvie, youngest sis- ter of the Earl of Airlie, has, like the Duke of Sutherland's sister, become a professional sick nurse. Actresses are compelled to paint ay stage, or the lights would give them the appearance of ghosts, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, the poet, does not hesitate to acknowledge that she has of “gifted with occult Powers, consulted scores people A number of Salem (Oregon) women have a ‘“‘rainy-day elub.” They advoeate short skirts and other dress reforms for muddy weather. Never roll a glove Pall it off wrong side out, instead of by the fin- gers. Smooth out the fingers fully and lay the straight box. Mrs well, formed care- gloves in a Kenneth Mcleod, of Cross- Mich. , has celebrated her cen- tennial. She was twenty years a maid, forty years a wife and forty years a widow, Women do not know it, but it fact men hate the ‘‘petticoats” ner candles, which often give a scorched paper viands, A that lacks breadth at the shoulders is greatly improved by = short, round waist, bib sleeves that do not fall the elbows and revers of lace or silk ruffles i" A on din- burn flavor to and the figure below wide Cotele, a heavy corded bengaline, is used for capes and coats and for the sleeves of velvet and plush coats, Sometimes tis used for the sleeves of seal coats, but it seems out of place there. Mrs Stevenson is one of the leading authorities in Egyptian archmology in thie country. She was one of the judges at the World's Fair and is now lecturing in the East on Greek art, Moorish women have one custom that commends itself! to womankind in enlightened lands. It is a point of honor among them never to know their own Ages They have no birthday celebrations, Mrs. Hetty Green, the sharp Wall street financier, goes about habitually in an attire that coald be matched any- where for twenty dollars. She is shy and looks queer, but is desegibed by ber landlady as a star boarder, Women are proverbially slonchy abont their shoes, a bit of the toilet that men notioe first. Heels shoud be kept straight, buttons on, sod soles even, to the very last. Untidy shoos will spoil an elegant toilet. Rusty shoes are a disgrace. Mrs. J. Pierrepoint Morgan is ered. ited with the intention of erecting a monument over the unmarked grave of brave Molly Pitcher, of revolution. ary celebrity, which lies near West Point, adjacent to the Morgan conntry sent nt Highland Falis on the Hudson, The awlal oraze for originality seize 1 a young Eoglishwaman a week or wo ago, and she had a “novel” wedding, As bride she wore a riding habit and “bowler” hat, and carried a hunting crop instead of a bouquet. Her ate tendants wore covert conte, spais, rod, whisteoats, and white polo Ves, © Cornelius
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers