s No. 2034. } |j EY KENNETH HERFORD. 4^o. The line of dingy-coated men stretched along the broad granite walk and like a great gray serpent wound in and out among the wagon-sliops and planlng-mills that tilled tlie prison ya:d. Down beyond the foundry tlie begin ning of the line, the head of the ser pent, was lost at the stairway leading to the second floor of a long, narrow building in which whisk-brooms were manufactured. An hour before, on 'the sounding of a brass gong at the front, that same line had wound round the same corners into the building whence now it crawled. There, the men had seated themselves 011 four-legged stools be fore benches that stretched across tlie room in rows. Before each man was set a tin plate of boiled meat, a heavy cup of black coffee, a knife, a fork, and a thick bowl of steaming, odorous soup. During the meal other men, dressed like the hundreds who were sitting, in suits of dull gray, with little round crowned, peaked-vizored caps fo match, moved in and out between the rows, distributing chunks of fresh white bread from heavy baskets. Now and then one of the men would shake his head anjl the waiter would pass by but usually a dozen hands were thrust into a basket at once to clutch the regula tion "bit" of half a pound. The men ate ravenously, as if famished. And now. their dinner over, they were marching back to the shops and mills of the prison, where days and weeks were spent at labor. Those em ployed in the wagon-works dropped out of the line when they came opposite the entrance to th ir building. Those behind pushed forward as their prison mates disappeared, and never for more than ten s. couds was there a gap in th > long, gray line. A dozen men in blue inifoims marched beside the line 011 its way from the mess-liall. six 011 each side, at two yards' distance. Their caps bore "Guard" in gold letters, and each carried a short, heavy, crooked cane of polished white hickory. On entering the workroom of the sec ond floor, the men assembled before a railed platform, upon which a red faced, coatless man stood behind a desk. In cold, metallic tones he eplled the numbers of tile convicts employed "011 the whisk-broom contract," and the latter, each in turn, replied "Here!" when their numbers were spoken. "Twenty-thirty-four!" called the red faced man. There was 110 response. "Twenty-tliirty-four." The red-faced man leaned over the desk and glared down. Then a voice from somewhere 011 the left answered. "Here!" "What was the matter with you the Grst time?" snapped the foreman. The man thus questioned removed his cap and took three steps toward the platform. In feature the word "hard" would describe him. His head was long, wide at the forehead, and yet narrow between the temples. His eyes were small and close together. His nose was flat, and his mout'.i hardly more than a straight cut in the lower part of his face. The lower Jaw was square and heavy, and tlie ears pro truded abnormally. A trifle above me dium height, with 11 pair of drooping, twitching shoulders, the man looked criminal. To the question he replied doggedly, "1 answered the first time, sir, but I guess you didn't hear me." The foreman gazed steadily at the man. Their eyes met. The foreman's did not waver, but "2034" lowered his, and fumbled nervously at his cap. "All right," saiil the foreman, quietly, "but 1 guess you'll better report to tli> warden as soon as you get through In here. Don't watt for any piece-work. Goto him as soon as you have tinish d your task. I'll tell him you're coming. He'll be waiting for you in the front office." "Yes, sir." The convict did not ra!s.» bis eyes. He st< pped back iuto line. Then, at a clap of the foreman's bands, the men broke ranks, and each walked away to his own li ■ucn or ma chine. Five minutes later, the swish of the corn-wisps as they were separ ated nml tied into rough brooms, and the occasional tap of a hammer, w re the only sudds in that long room Where 113 id. Now n 1 one of the men would goto tli? pi, i form where the foreman sat bent over half a dozen little books. In which it was liis duty to record the number of "ta*U>»" completed '>y 1 adi of workmen "on his contract" —a "It In the prison vernacular, being thf 'fiiuuut of work each man is coiu |ie, ed to accomplish within a given space of time. (Mi the approach of a workman, the foreman would look up, and a few whispered words would pass between the two. Tllell the broom-maker would dart luto tl.e stock ,'ooui. adjoining the factory, where, upon leeching a written requi sition from the shop foreman, the of ficial In charge would give 111111 the material u lilch he needed In Ills work - n ball of twine, or a strip of plu*h with which the bandies of the brooms were decorated. At tell minutes past three o'cioi k. •JO.:I crossed to the platform. bat d<> you want?" asked the fie.e mail ll* lie eyed keenly the uiau ill the dull gray suit. "A of kitiall tu< k«." was the reply quietly spoken The order was written, and as 2»i:tl muted away lo ward the door leading to tlie stock room, the man 011 the plutl'orm watelu-d him closely from between half-closed lids. A guard who had come round from behind the broom-bins noticed the way in which the foreman followed every movement of the convict, and stepping over to the platform asked, in an un dertone, "Anything wrong. Bill?" "That's what I don't know, George," the foreman replied. "That man Kile.v's been acting queer of late. I've got an Idea there's something up his sleeve. There's not a harder nut on the contract than that fellow, and by the way he's been carrying on, sullen like and nil that, I'm fearing some thing's going to happen. You rem 111- ber him, don't you? What, 110? Why, lie's that Itiley from Acorn. He came in two years ago <>n a burglary job in Cllve, where he shot a drug clerk that offered objections to his carrying off all there was in the shop. They made it manslaughter, and he's in for 15 years. And I'm told there's another warrant ready for him when ln> gets out, for a job done four years ago in Kentucky. He's a bud one. A fellow like that is 110 good round this shop." The guard smiled cynically at tha foreman's suggestion that a convict may be too bad even for prison sur roundings. It was quarter to four by the fore man's watch when the door at the head of the stairway opened and the warden entered, 'accompanied by two friends whom he was showing through tile "plant," as he always persisted in calling the prison. The warden was a stout, jovial man, who looked more like a bishop than a "second father" to 800 criminals. The foreman did not observe his entrance into the room, and only looked up when lie heard his voice. "This is where the wlilsk-brooms are made," the warden was explaining to his friends. "On the floor below which we just left, you will remember we saw the boys turning out broom-handles. Well here, the brooms are fastened to those little wooden handles. Some of tlie work, you *,'»>, is done by machine. The brooms are tied and sewn, though, by hand, over at tho e benches, la the room beyond, through that door, we keep the stuff handy that is called for from time to time, and in a farther 100111 is stored tlie material used in tlie manufacture of the brooms, the tin tips, the twine, the tacks, audabout ten tons of broom-straw." As the warden ceased sp -aking. th;> foreman leaned across the desk and tupped him on the shoulder. "Riley's coming into see you this afternoon, lie's been acting queer—don't answer the call, and the like. I thought may be you could call him down." Tlie warden only nodded, and contin ued Ills explanations to the visitors of the work done in the shop. "Now," he said, moving away to ward the door leading into the stock room, "If you will come over here I'll show you our storerooms. You see we have to keep a lot of material on hand. Beyond this second room the stuff is stored up. and is taken into the stock room as It is wanted. Between the rooms we have arranged these big slid ing iron doors that, in case of tire, could be dropped, and thus, for a few uliuutes at least, cut the flames 'jff from any room but that in which they originated. See?" He pulled a lever at the side of th:> door, and a heavy iron sliding sheet dropped slowly and easily to the floor. "YOll see," be went on, "that completes the wall." The visitors nodded. "Now come on through here and loo* at tlie straw and vi lvet we have stored away in bales." The visitors followed the waul 11 through the second room, and into the third. There arraeg. d regularly 011 the lloor. were huge bales of brooiu-straw, and against the walls of the room, boxes upon boxes of velvets, taeks. ornament' nl bits of metal, and all tin- other separ ate parts of the commercial whisk broom. The visitors examined the tacks and Ihe tins and felt the bales of straw. "Very interesting." observed one of them,as lie drew his cigar-ease from his pocket, and biting the tip from one of the cigars it contained, struck a little wax match on the side of his shoe. He held the match in Ills hand until it had burned down, then threw It on tlie floor, and followed tin- warden and the other visitor under the heavy Iron screen lulu the workroom of the fac tory. The fun man was busy at h's hooks and did not observe the little party as it passed through the shop oil the other side of the broom-blus and out the big door. Two 111! u utt * later. 'JtKll happened to lIIOU out through ill" window across his bench, and lie saw the ward a with Ills friends crossing the prison yard t 1 the foundry. A guard just th 11 sail 11 tend into tl.e room and stopped at the fir»t of tlie bins, lie Idly picked up one ot the tiiilNhid brooms and exam ined It. Ills attention a moment later whs il »tr*i ted by some one pulling at his ('out from behind, lie turind. "Why, Tommy, my boy what I* ll?" The two soft browil eyes of a l-tlle boy were turned up to him. "I'm luok lull for |w|w." replied the little fellow, "Tlie li reman downstairs said lit tollled Up bile. I in b' linage Is link 111 tin house, and mamma s.'iii me out lo Unit UftlM," The guard-patted the little fellow's head. "And we will find him, Tommy," he said. He went over to the foreman's desk. "Bill, did the warden come up here? Tommy is looking for him; his mother sent him out." The foreman raised his eyes from his books. "Yes," he replied, "he went in there, with a couple of gentlemen." The guard looked at the little boy. "He's in the stock-room," he said. "You'll find him in there, Tommy." Then he turned and walked out of the shop. The child ran on Into the room beyond. His father wus not there. The stock-keeper did not ob serve the little boy as he tiptoed, in a childish way past the desk. Tommy passed on into the farther room. He knew he would find liis father in there, and he would crawl along between the tiers of straw bales and take him by surprise. lie had hardly passed the door when the stock-keeper, raised his head from the lists of material he was preparing, held his face up and sniffed the air. Quietly he rose from his revolving chair and went to the door of the straw-room. He merely peered inside. Turning suddenly, lie pressed upon the lever near the door and the iron screen .slid down into place, cutting off the farther room. Then snatching a few books that lay on his desk, he slipped out into the shop, and at that door re leased the second screen. As it fell In to place with a slight crunching noise, the foreman turned in his chair. The eyes of the two men met. The stock keeper raised his hand and touched his lips and with the first linger. He crossed rapidly to the desk. "Get the men out! Get the men out!" he gasped. "The store-room in there is 011 lire!" The foreman rapped on the table twice. Every man working in that room turned and faced the desk. "Work is over for today," said the foreman, liis manner was ominously calm.and the nienlookedat one another wonderingly. "Fall in!" At the order, the dingy gray suits formed the same old serpent, and the line moved rapidly through the door at the end of the room and down the outside stairs. % There, in front of the building, they were halted, and a guard was de spatched to find tiie warden. He was discovered in the foundry. "Fire in the broom-shop!" whispered the guard. The warden's face paled. He dashed through the doorway .and one minute later came round the corner of the building, just in tiiue to see the first signs of flame against the windows of the rear room up-stairs. Within five seconds, a troop of 15 guards had drawn the little hand-en gine from Its house and hitched the hose to the hydrant nearest the shop. From all the other buildings the men were being marched to their cells. "These men!" hurriedly whispered the foreman to the warden. "What shall I do with theiu?" "(Jet 'em inside as soon as you can! This won't last long, the front of the building is cut oft". It'll all be over in ten minutes." The foreman gave an order. At that instant a woman came running down the prison yard. Beaching the ward en's side, she fell against him heavily. "Why. Harriet," he exclaimed, "what is tlie matter?" "Oh," she gasped, "Tommy! Tbnimy! Where is Tommy?" A guard at tile end of the engine-rail turned ashy white. He raised a hand to his head, and with the other grasped tin wheel to keep from falling. Then lie cried, "Mr. Jeffries, I—l believe Tommy is up there in the stock-room. He went to look—" The warden clutched the man's arm. "Up there? I'll there? he cried. The sudden approach of the woman and the words that followed liatl wrought so much confusion that the men paid no attention tf> the foreman's command, and lie had even failed to observe their lack of attention, in the excitement of ithat moment. "Great (Sod!" cried the warden. "What can I do—what can 1 do? No one can live up there!" There was a crash. One of the win dows fell out. "Get a ladder!" some one cried. A guard ran back toward die prison-house. Then, in the midst of tiie hubbub, a man In a dingy gray suit stepped out a yard from the line of convicts. Ills prison number was JH.'.I. He touched his little square cap. "If you'll give me permission, 1 think 1 can get up there." was all he said. "You! you!" exclaimed the warden. "No, no. I will tell 110 man to do It!" There was a second crash. Another window had fallen out, and now the tongues of tlaiiie were lapping the outer walls above. The convict made 110 reply. With a bolllld he was at the end of the line and dashing up tiie outer stairway. *i'li.- warden's wife was on her knees, clinging to the huiid of her husband. In IIIH eyes was a dead, void look. A few of the men bit their lips, and u faint shadow of a smile played about the mouths of others. They all waited. A convict had broken a regulation— hiiii run from the Hue! He Would lie punish) d! liven as he had clambered up tiie Mali's a guard 111111 cried, "Shall I shoot The silence was broken by a shriek from the woman kin cling at the ward en's feet. "I.ook!" she cried, Ulld pointed toward the last of the up ululrs windows. There, surrounded by a halo of htnoke, ami hemmed 111 on all side* by flames, stood 11 iiiuii in a dingy g.ay ► nit One sleeve was 011 isv, but In ben I out the tliiuie* Willi his left li.luil Those below heard liim cry, "I've got him!" Then the figure disappeared. Instantly It returned, bearing some thing in its arms. It was the limp form of a eliild. All saw the man wrap smoking straw round the little body and tie round that two strands of heavy twine. Then that precious burden was low ered out of the window. The father wished forward and held up his arms to receive it. Another foot—he hugged the limp body of his boy to his breast! On the ground a little way back lay a woman, as if dead. "Here's the ladder!" cried the fore man, and at that moment the eyes that were still turned upon the window, where stood a man in a dingy gray suit, witnessed a spectacle that will reappear before them again and again in visions of the night. The coat the man wore was ablaze. Flames shot out on either side of him and above him. Just as the ladder was placed against the wall, a crackling was heard—not the crackling of lire. Then, like a thunderbolt, a crash oc eured that caused even the men in their cells to start. The roof caved in! In the prison yard that line of con victs saw 2034 reel and fall backward, and heard as lie fell, his last cry, "I'm a-comin', warden!" He was a convicted criminal, and died in prison-gray. But it would seem not wonderful to the warden if, when that man's soul took flight, the Ile cordiug Angel dill write his name in the eternal Book of -Record, with the strange cabalistic sign, a ring around a cross—that stands for "gdod behav ior."—Youth's Companion. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. In /ante, one of the lonian islands, there is a petroleum spring which has been known for nearly 3000 years. It is mentioned by Herodotus. A strange clock was made during the last century for a French nobleman. The dial was horizontal, and the fig ures, being hollow, were filled with different sweets or spices. Thus, run ning ills linger along the hands, by tasting the owner could tell the hour without a light. The postmaster at Burlingame re ceived a letter the other day addressed to the man living just across the road from and a few rods north of the sclioolhouse about two miles south of Burlingame, Kan. The postmaster promptly delivered the letter to Thom as Mitchell, whose residence answers this description. Insects may be briefly described as small animals with very large families. They think nothing of having a few hundreds of little ones at a single birth. Many of them are never satis fied with less than eight of 10 thou sand, while there are not a few whose offspring resembles the sands of the sea, since they cannot be numbered for multitude. In several of the Western Kansas towns along the I'niou Pacific a curi ous sight is presented to the traveler. The scarcity of cars lias caused the wheat elevators to overflow, and some of the buyers have made huge piles of grain 011 the ground along the rail road tracks. At one place the elevator man lias procured a small circus tent. The centre pole Is standing »»reet in the middle of a mountain of wheat, and the canvas is on the ground ready to be hoisted in case of rain. Several carefully observed eases ot failing of hair from emotion have been recorded of late in the Progres Medl eale, and a still more striking case re ported by K. Boissler is now added. "A normal, healthy farmer. Its years of age, saw liis child thrown and trampled by a mule. He supposed it killed, and experienced in liis fright and anguish a sensation of chilliness and tension In his face and head. The child escaped with bruises, but the father's hair, beard and eyebrows commenced to drop out next day, and by the end of the week he was entirely bald. A new growth of hair appeared in time, but liner, and exactly the color of the hair of an Albino. The Monkey uml tl»e Parrot. Here Is a Chinese fable with a moral, which might be expressed in Knglisli, "Don't monkey with the buzz-saw." But that is getting tiic cart before the house. It Is about a monkey and a par rot, and Is as follows: A sparrow had its uest half-way up a tree, in the top of which dwelt a mon key. After a heavy ruin the sparrow, snug and dry In its warm n<st, saw the monkey shaking his dripping body, and could not refrain from addressing him tlitis: "Comrade, your hands are skillful, your strength great, your In tellect clever; why do you live in sueli a miserable state? Why not bu'hl a snug uest like inineV" The monkey, augeretl at the com placency of the sparrow, replied: "Am 1 to be mocked l>y un evil creature like you'f Your nest Is *iiuy. Is ItV" and mo saying he litre w the uest to the ground. Moral: Don't talk with a punsluiiate man. kuiliiliilni t*»w»r »r HannuiM. One of the most courageous marches ever taken was that of Colonel Will cocks to Kuuiusl. We Itcur that dur lug the march froui Kumasl the whole party ll\ t-tl on tmiiiiiinn On one occasion they had wailed shoulder high though 11 river for two hours D>M* anyone want u higher test ~t endurance on a vegetahlx diet iL.,u thW'f 'I he NcgeturUtu DR. TALMAGEVS SERMON. SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED DIVINE. Subjoot : A T'rpclniiß Rn v.len~-Solon of 1 lie House of David in tTehoslieba'* Arms— A Lesson Front Ilie Similiter of the rrintos-Lfad Children to Christ. rCopvrijrht lsoo.l WASHINGTON. T). C. —In this discourse on a neglected incident of the Bible Dr. Talmage draws some comforting lessons, and s' \vs that all around us are royal na tures that. we may heln deliver. The text is IT. Kings jti, 2. 3: "Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Aha ziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which wer* slain, and thev hid him, even him i- 1 Ms nurse, in the bedchamber from Ath Hah. so he was not slain. .And he was with hid in the house of the Lord six vears." Grandmothers are more lenient with their children's children than thev were with their own. At forty vears of age if discipline he necessary chastisement is used, but at seventy the grand mother, 100l ting upon the misbehavior of the grand ch i 1 .1 is apologetic and disposed to sub stitute confectionery for whip. There is noth'ng more beautiful than childhood. Grandmother takes out her nockcthand kerchief and wipes her spectacles and puts them on and looks down into the face of her mischievous and rebellious descendant and aavs: "I don't think he meant to do it. J\et him off this time. I'll be responsi ble for his behavior in the future." Mv mother, with the second generation around her, .. boisterous crew, said one dav: "T suppose they ought to be disciplined, but I can't do it. Grandmothers are not fit to bring up grandchildren." lint here in my text, we have a grandmother of a dif ferent tyne. I have been at Jerusalem, where the oc currence of the text took place, and the whole scene came vivid Iv before me while T was going over the site of the ancient temple and climbing the towers of the king's palnep. Here in the text it is old Athaliah. the royal mnrderecq. She ought to have honorable. Her father was a king. Tfcr hnshand was a king. Her son was a king. And vet we find her plotting for the extermination of the entire royal family, including her own grandchildren. The executioners' knives are sharpened. The palace it red with the blood of princes and nrineesses. On all sides are shrieks nnd hands thrown up and struggle and death groan. No mercy! Kill! kill! But while the ivory floors of the palace run with carnage and the whole land is uwler the shadow of a great horror a fleet footed woman, a elert*vman's wife. Jeho sheba bv name, stealthily approaches the imnerial nursery, seizes upon the grand child that had somehow as vet escaped massacre, wraps it un tenderlv. hut in haste, snuggles it against her, flies down the palaoo stairs, her heart in her throat lest slm be discovered in this compassion ate abduction. Get her rut of the way as ouick as you can, for she earries a meeions burden, even a young king. With this youthful prize she into the room of the ancient temple, th~ church of olden time, unwraps the voung king and puts him down, sound asleep as lie is and un condemns of tlie neril that has been threat ened. and there for six years he is secreted in tli it church apartment Meanwhile old smaeks her »*!ns with satisfaction and thinks that all the royal familv are dead. But the six years expire, and it is time for young Joash to come forth «ind I>ke the throne and to pnsh back into di< r rnce and death old Athaliah. The arrangements are all made for po lit»oal revolution. The military come and tike possession of the temole, savour loy alty to the boy Joash and stand around for *i's defense. Sop the sharnened swords an-1 the burnished shields! .K very thing is ready. Now Joash. half affrighted at the armed tramn of his defenders, scared at the vociferation of his admirers, is brought forth in full regalia. The scroll of author ity is putin his hands, the coronet of gov ernment is put on his brow, and the peo ple claimed and waved and huzzaed and trnmpete»l. "What is that?" said Atha liah. "What M tint sound over in the temple?" And she flies to see, and on her way they lr her and say: "Why. haven't yon heard? You thought you had slain rll the royal family, but Joash has come to light." Then the roval mur deress. frantic with rage, grabbed her man t'e and tore it to tatters and cried until she foamed at the mouth: "Yon have no light to crown mv grandson. You have no ri'd.t to take the government from my sluxiMoi'g, Treason, treason!" While she stood there crying the mili tarv started for her arrest, and she took a short cnt through a back door of the tempV and ran through the royal *taides, but the hattleaxes of the military fell on her in the barnvard. and for manv a dav when the horses were being unloosened from the chariot after drawing out young Joash the fierv steeds would snort and rear the place as they smell the pine-* of the earnage. Phe thought T hand you from this subject is that the extermination of rigVt eousness is an impossibility. Alien a woman is good she is ant to be verv good, and when she is bad *he is apt to he very bad. and this Athaliah was one of the latter sort. She would •exterminate the last scion of the house of David, through whom Jesus was to come. There was plenty of work for embalmers and under tak u*. She would clear the land of all God fearing and God loving people. She would put an end to everything that could in anynise interfere with her imperial criminality. She folds her hands and savs: "The work is done. It is completely done." |s it? In the swaddling clothes of that «h "< h . pariment are wrapped the cause of God and the Cfiuse of good gov ci' Mien 1 That is the scion of the house of David, li is Joash. the God-worshiping I' li-rii r. It is Jca«h, the friend ot God. I< is .lua*h. the demoralizer of BaalitUh idolatry. Hock him tenderly, nurse him gently, Athaliah. you may kill all the other children. but you cannot kill him. Kternal defens. s are thrown ali around him. and thi« clergyman'* wife, .lehosheba, will sn itch him un from the palace nurs erv and will run down with him into the hou*c of the Lord, and there she will hide him for six years, and at the em! of thai time he will come forth for your de thronement am! obliteration. Well, mv friend*. just as poor a botch doe* the world always make of extin guishing righteousness Superstition rises up and isrtv*, "1 will just put au end to pure religion" Doniitian slew 4«UNNi ('hrislian*. Diocletian slew K4-|.tNM) ('litis tians. And the scvtlie of persecution has been fettling through ail the age*, and the flame* hissed and the guillotine chopped, and the Ra»tlie groaned, hut did the foes of Tin stuuiitv exterminate it? Did they rxtfiininate Alhan. the first BriUli sacri fice. or Xwingh, the Swiss reformer, or John o'dr istle, the t 'hristiaii llohU mail, oi \bdallah the Arabian martyr, or Anne Askew or Sait lers or t'raiiuier? Great work of extermination they made of it. Ju*t at the time when thev thought they had idaiii .ill the roval family of Jesus noitie Joash would spring up and out and take the throne of power and wield a very scoter of Christian dominion* Inlid lit\ savs, "1 will exterminate the Itibl# " and the Script tires were thrown into the stre« for the moh to t*ample on, ;.i I ()k v piled lip in the Dttblil *4|i» ue« and art on fire, and mountains of indignant «ontempt "ere hurled on them, and learned uni\rrsitle* decreed the Itdde it i exist 11 ■ I*l KM Paint said "In "t * Km 9 ot I'* *son' I bave annihilated the HMllire* V»»ur Wa»hi»nl<»n is i pu»t! '«'iniKt 14 I |i* an. hut lam ihe 100 of I!II>'VJ AID oi iliitrtU**." Oh. how man) assaults unon that -rord! All the hostili ties that have ever been created on earth are not to be compared with the hostilities aarninst, that one book. Said one man in his infidel desperation to his wife, "You must not he reading that Bible." and he snatfhed it away from her. And though in that. Bible was a look of hair of the dead rhild—the only child that Cod had ever given thorn—ho pitched the book with its contenu into the fire and stirred it with the ton"" and spat on it and cursed it and said, "Susan, never have any more of that damnable stuff here." How many individual and organized nt temnts have boon made to exterminate that Bible? Have its enemies done it? Have thev exterminated the American the British ano Foreign Bible Society? Have they exterminated the thousands of Christian institutions whose only object it is to multinly copies of the Scriptures and them broadcast around the world? They have exterminated until in stead of one or two copies of the Bible in our houses we have eight or ten. and we pile them up in tn« corners of our Sabbath school rooms and send great boxes of them evervwhere. If they get on as well as thev nr.- now going on in the work of extermination. I do not know but that our ehildr-n inav live to see the millen nium. Yen. if there should eime a time of persecution in which nil the known Bi bles of the enrth should be destroyed, all these lnmps of life that blaze in our pul pits and in our families extinguished, in the verv day Hint infidelitv ard sin should be holdim? jubilee over the universal ex tinction tbore would be in some cloret of n hnekwoods olim-eh a secreted cony of the Bible, and this .Toash of eternal literature would eorr out and come un and tnke the throne, and the Athaliah of infidelity and nerseent : on wou'd fly out the bnok door of the palace and dron her miserable cnrca«s under the boofs of the horses of the king's stables. Vou cannot o\-tonr>inate Chris tianity! You cannot kill .Toash! The second thought I hand vou from my si'biect is that there are onntrfun't >'es in which you may save roval life. Yon know that prof-no historv is renlete with stories of strangled monarchs and of vonng princes v iio have been put out of (he way. H«"-e is the story of a voting king saved. How .Tehoshebn. Hie c'orgymnn's wife, must hn'-e trembled as she rushed into the imperial nnrserv and snnt.ehed un •Tonsil! How slio hushed lii«*i lrst liv his crv he binder the psonn*! Fly with him. .Tehoshebn! You hold in your arms the cat's-- of (sod ind cood gnvernmc it. Fall and ho is slain. Succeed, and vou I urn the tide of the world's historv in the ritlit direction. It. seems as if between that vonng u[n ,r and his assassins there is noth ing bo fhe frail n-ii of n woman. But why should we spend our time in praising this bravery of expedition when (Jod a«ks the same thing of von and me? All around us the imperiled thi'dren of a grcnt king. Thev are born of Almighty parentage, and will come to a throne or a crn'i-n if permitted. But sin, the old ath aliah. goes forth to the massacre. Mur derous temptations are out for the assas sination. Yalens. the Fmperor, was told thai there was somebody in his realm who would rsurp his throne, and that the name of the man who should be the usurper would boo-in with the letters T. H. F. O, D. and the edict went forth from the Km peror's throne. "Kill evervbodv whose name begins with T. H. E. O. 11." And hundreds of thousands were slain, hoping by that massaere to put an end to that one usurper. But fin is more terrific in its denunciation. Tt matters not how vou spell your name, you come under its knife, under its sword, tinder its doom, unless there be some omninotent relief brought to the rescue. But. blessed be God, there is snob a thing as delivering a royal soul. W'-o will snatch away .Toasli? How few of n* appreciate the fact that the cuhrch of (sod is a biding place. There are many people who put the church at so low a mark that thev begrudge it every thing. even the few dollars tb«y give to ward it. They make no sacrifices. They dole a little nut of their surplusage. They pay their butcher's bill, and thev pay their doctor's bill, and they pay their landlord, and they nay everybody but the T.otrl, and thev come in at the last to pay the T.ord i" His church and frown as they sav: "There. T ord. it is. Send me a reeeint in fu". and don't bother me soon again!" There is not more than one man out of a thousand that appreciates what the church is. Where are the souls that put aside one-tenth for Christian institutions — one-tenth of their income? Where are those who, having put aside that one-tenth draw upon it cheerfully? Why. it is pull and drag • i hold on and grab and clutch, and giving is an affliction to most people when it ought to bo an exhilaration and a ra nt ure. Oh. that God would remodel our souls on this subject and that we might appre ciate the house of God as the great ref uge! If your children are to come up to lives of virtue and hanpiness. thev will come up under the shadow of the church. If the church does not get tlieni, the world will. Ah. when vou , ass away—ami it will not be long before you do—when you pass away, it will lie a satisfaction to see your children in Christian sooietv. You wnnt to have them sitting at the holy sac raments. You wan* them mingling in Christian associations. You would like to have them die in the sacred precincts. When you are on vour dving bed and your little ones cor ■> up to take your last word, and you look into their bewildered faces, you will want to leave tlieni under the church's benediction. I do not care how hard vou are, that is so. And so', (hough you inav have been wan derers from God. and though you may have some times caricatured the ehurcM of Jesus, it is your great desire that your sons and daughters should be standing ill the>r lives within this sacred inolosnrc. More than that You yourself will want the church for a hiding plan- when the mortgage is foreclosed, when your .laugh ter, lust blooming into womanhood, sud denly clasps her hands in a slumber that knows no waking; when the gaunt t.-uible I walks through the parlir and the sitting room and the dining hall and the nursery, you will want some shelter from the tem pest. Ah. snnte of you have been run upon by misfortune and trial. Why do you not come into the shelter? I said to a widowed mother after she ihail buried her ouly son -months after— \ said to her. "How do vou get along now a ' tys?" "Oh," she replied. "1 get along tolerably well except when the tun shines." I said, "What do you mean by that?" when she said: "1 can't bear to see the sun shine. My heart is so dark that all the brightness of the natural world seems a mockery to me." O darkened toul! O broken hearted man, broken hearted woman! Why d«> vou not come into the shelter? I swing it ironi nail to wall. Come in! Come in! You w n * place where your troubles thai Ib- interpreted, where your burdens shall he uiistrap|ied, where your tears shall he wiped awav. Church cf God. be a hiding place to all these people! Give then- a seat where tliey iin lest their Weary souls. Flash some light from your chandelier* upon their darkness .Villi soiue soothing hymn Innh these griefs. Oh, church of God. tale of heaven, let me go through it' All other institutions •re uiig ti fall but the church of tiod— its foundation is the Hock of Ages, its i haiter is for everlasting years, its kevs tie bald !>/ the universal I'roprietor, its dividend is heavin, its ure*t«tent is Godl "Sure as Thy truth shall last. To /ion shall t>e given Th«* highest glories earth can yield And brightest bliss of hemen " Cud grant thai all this audience, ths \uUHgest, til* eldest. the Worst, the lirst, •it*% 1111 . their site and glorious hiding plate when Jwaali found It m the tempi*.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers