DEATH OF OR. TALMAGE Makei Appropriate Reprinting HIS FAMOUS SERMON Considered by Many the Ma: terpiece of the Great Pulpit Orator "On the Choice of a Wife." MarrUs Hot For All Multitudes Who Never Will Marry, Who Ara Not Fit to MarryHomo Eminent Blunderers Arold Matchmakers Kssentlal Qnall tles Scanty a Benediction. Wabhinotos, D. O. The following discourse is one of a scries of sermons on domestic life delivered several years ogr by the late Rav. Dr. T. De Witt Talnrnge, and by many admirers is considered hif pulpit masterpiece. In commemoration of his death it in now republished. It was founded on the text, Judges xiv, 3: "is there never a woman among the daugh ter of thy brethren, or among all my people, that tliou goost to take a wife of the uncircuntcised Philistines!;" Samson, the giant, ia here asking con tent of his father and mother to mar riage with one whom they thought unlit for hint. He was wiso in a skins; their counsel, but not wise in rejecting it. Cap tivated with her looks, the nig son wanted to marry a daughter of one of the hostile families, a deceitful, -hypocritical, whining and saturnine creature, who afterward made for him a world of trouble till she quit him forever. In my text his parents forbade the bunns, practically saying: "When there are so many honest and beautiful maidens of jour own country, are you so hard put to for a lifetime part ner that you propose conjugality with this foreign flirt? Is there auch a dearth of lilies in our Israelitiah gardens that you must wear on your heart a Philistine thistle? Do you take a crahapple because there are no pomegranates? Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircum cised Philistines?" Excuseleas was he for such a choice in a land and amid a race celehrated for fe male loveliness and moral worth, a land and a race of which self-deriving Abigail and heroic Deborah, and dazzling Miriam, and pious Ksther. and glorious Ruth, and Mary, who hugged to her heart the blessed Lord, were only magnificent specimens. The midnight folded in their hair, the lakes of liquid beauty in. their eye, the gracefulness of spring morning in their posture and gait, were only typical of the freater brilliance and glory of their soul, likewise excuseleas is any man in our time who makes lifelong alliance with any one who, because of her disposition, or heredity, or habits, or intellectual vanity, or moral twigtiheation, may be said to be of the Philistines. The world never owned such opulence of womanly character or such splendor of womanly manners or multitudinous in stances of wifely, motherly, daughterly, sisterly devotion, as it owns to-day. I have not words to express my admiration for good womanhood. Woman is not ony man's equal, but in affectional and re ligious nature, which is the best part of us.she is seventy-live per cent, nis su perior. Yea, during the Liat twenty years, through the increased opportunity opened for female education, the womon of the country are better educated than the ma jority of men: and if they continue to advance mentally at the present ratio, be fore long the majority of men will have difficulty in finding in the opposite sex enough ignorance to make appropriate consort. If I am under a delusion as to the abundance of good womanhood abroad, consequent upon my surroundings since the hour I entered this life until now, I hope the delusion will last until I embark from this planet. So you will understand, if I say in this course of sermons some thing that seems severe, I am neither cynical nor disgruntled. There are in almost every farmhouse in the country, in almost every home of the great town, conscientious women, worshin ful women, self-sacrificing women, holy women, innumerable Marys, sitting at the feet of Christ: innumerable mothers, help ing to feed Christ ill the person of His suffering disciples; a thousand capped and spectacled grandmothers Lois, bending over Bibles whose precepts they have fol lowed from early girlhood; and tens of thousands of young women that are dawn ing upon us from school and seminary, that are going to bless the world with good and happy homes, that shall eclipse all their predecessors, a fact that will be acknowledged by all men except those who nre struck through with moral decay from toe to cranium; and more inexcusable than the Samson of the text is that man who, amid all this unparalleled munili cence of womanhood, marries a fool, liut some of you are abroad suffering from such disaster, and to halt others of you from going over the same precipice, I cry out in the words of my text: "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncir cumcised Philistines?" That marriage is the destination of the human race is n mistake that I want to correct before I go further. There nre multitudes who never will marry, and still greater multitudes who are not fit to marry. In Great Britain to-day there are nine hundred and forty-eight thousand more women than men, and that, I un derstand, is about the ratio in America. By mathematical and inexorable law, you see, millions of women will never marry, The supply for matrimony greater than the demand, the first lesson of which it that every woman ought to prepare tu take care of herself if need be. Then there are thousands of men who have no right to irmrry, because thev have become so corrupt of character that their offer of marriage is an insult to any good woman, (society will have to be toned up and cor rected on this subject, so that it shall realize that if a woman who has sacrificed her honor i unfitted for marriage, so is any man who has ever sacrificed his pur ity. What right have you. O masculine beast! whose life 1ms been loose, to take under your care the spotlessneas of a vir- f;in reareil in the sanctity of a respectable mme? Will a buzzard dare to court a dove? But the majority of you will marry, nnd have a right to marry, and as vour re ligious teacher I wish to say to these men, in the choice of a wife tiist of all seek divine direction. About thirtv-five years ago, when Martin Farquhar Tupper, the English poet, urged men to prayer before they decided upon matrimonial association, people laughed. And soma of them have lived to laugh on the other side of their mouth. The need of divine direction I argue from the fact that so many men, and lomo of them strong and wise, have wrecked their lives at this juncture. Wit ness Samson and this woman of Timnath! w '.tness Socrates, pecked of the historical ..antippe! Witness Job, whose wife had nothing to prescribe for his carbuncles but allopathic doses of profanity! Witness Ananias, a liar, who might perhaps have .u cured by a truthful spouse, yet mar lying as great a liar as himself Sapphiral ituess John Wesley, one of the beat men that ever lived, united to one of the moil outrageous and scandalous of women, iwho sat in (Jitv Road Chapel makiuii itnouths at him while he preached! Wit ness the once connubial wretchedness ol lolm Kunkiu, the great art essayist, and Frederick W. Robertson, the great preach er. Witness a thousand hulls on earth kindled by unworthy wives, termagants jtliat scold like a March northeaster; fo 'male spendthrifts, that put their bus 'band into fraudulent schemes to get iinoney enough to meet the lavishment, of Idoinejtiu expenditure; opium-using wo linen about vour thousand of them in the Jl'nitod States who will have the drug, Itliougli it should cause the eternal damna Jiou at tiie whole household; heartless and overbearing,' and namoy psmny and un reasonable women, yet married marries perhaps to good men! These are the wo men who build the low club-houses, where the husbands and sons go because they can't stand it at home. On this sea of matrimony, where so many have wrecked, am I not right in advising divine pilotage? Especially ia devout supplication needed: because of the fact that society is so full of artificialities that men are deceived as to whom they are marrying, and no o.te, but the Lord knows. After the dress maker, and the milliner, and the jeweler, and the hair-adjuster, and the dancing master, and the cosmetic art have com pleted their work, how is an unsophisti cated man to decipher the physiological hieroglyphics, and make accurate iudg nient of who it is to whom he offers hand and heart? That is what makes so many recreant husbands. They make an honor able marriage contract, out the goods de livered nre so different from the sample by which they bargained. They were swindled, and they backed out. They mistook Jezebel fori Longfellow's Kvange line, and Lucretia Borgia for Martha Washington. , Aye, as the Indian chief boasts of the scalps he has taken, so there are in society to-day many coquettes who boast of the masculine hearts they have captured. And these women, though they may live amid richest upholstery, are not so honorable as the cyprians of the street, for these advertise their infamy. While the former profess heaven while they mean hell. There is so much counterfeit woman hood abroad it is no wonder that some cannot tell the genuine coin from the base. Do you not realize you need divine guid ance when I remind you that mistake is possible in this important affair, and, if made, is irrevocable? 1 The worst predicament possible is to be unhappily yoked together. You see it is impossible to break the yoke. The more you pull apart, the more galling the yoke. The minister might bring you up again, und and in your presence read the mar riage ceremony backward, might put you on the opposite sides of the altar from where you were when you were united, might take the ring oil of the finger, might rend the wedding veil asunder, might tear out the marriage loaf from the family Bible record, but that would fail to uiimarry you. It is better not to make the mis take than to attempt its correction. But men and women do not reveal all their characteristics till after marriage, nnd bow are you to avoid committing the fatal blunder? There ia only one Being in the universe who can tell you w hom to choose, and that is the Lord of Paradise. Lie made Kvc for Adam, and Adam for Eve, and both for each other. Adam had not a large group of women from whom to select his wile, but it is fortunate, judg ing from some mistakes which she after ward made, that it was Eve or nothing. There is in all the world some one who was made for you, as certainly as Eve was made for Adam. All sorts of mistakes occur because Eve was made Out of a rib from Adam's side. Nobody knows which of his twenty-four ribs wus taken for the nucleus. If you depend entirely upon yourself in the selection of a wife, there are twenty-three possibilities to one that you will select the wrong rib. By the fate of Ahub, whose wife induced him to steal: by the fate of Macbeth, whose wife pushed him into massacre; by the fate of James Ferguson, the philosopher, whose wife entered Hhe room while he was lecturing and willfully upset his astronomical ap paratus, so that he turned to the audience and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have the misfortune to he married to this woman;" by the fate of Bulwer, the novelist, whose wife's temper was so in compatible that he furnished her a beau tiful house near Loudon and withdrew from her company, leaving her with the dozen uogs whom she entertained as pets; by the fate of John Milton, who married a termagant nfter he was blind, and when some one called her a rose, the poet said: "I am no judge of flowers, but it may be so, for I led the thorns daily;" by the fate oi an Englishman whose wife was so., determined to dance on his grave that be was buried iu the sea; by the fate of a village minister whom I knew, whose wife threw a cup of hot tea across the table because they differed in sentiment by all these scenes of disquietude and domestic calamity, we implore you to be cautious .and prayerful before you enter upon the connubial -state, which decides whether a man shall have two beaveDS or two hells, a heaven here and heaven forever, or a hell now and a hell hereafter. By the bliss of Pliny, whose wife, when her husband was pleading in court, bad messengers coming and going to inform her what impression he was making; by the joy of Grotius, whose wife delivered him from prison under the pretence of having books carried out lest they be in jurious to his health, she sending out her husband unobserved in one of the book cases; by the good fortune of Roland, in Louis' time, whose wife translated and composed for her husband while Secretary of the Interior talented, heroic, won derful Madame Roland; by the happiness of many a man who has made intelligent choice of one capable being prime coun selor and companion in brightness and in grief pray to Almighty God, morning, noon, and night, that at the right time and in the right way He will send you a good, honest, loving, sympathetic wife; or if she is not sent to you, that you may be sent to her. At this point let me warn you not to let a question of this importance be set tled by the celebrated matchmakers flour ishing in almost every community. De pend upon your own judgment divinely illumined. These brokers in matrimony are ever planning how they. can unite im- Iiecunious innocence to an heiress, or celi late woman to millionaire or marquis, and that in many caics makes life an unliapm ness. How can any human being, who knows neither of the two parties as God knows them, and who is ignorant of the future, give such directions as you re quire at such a crisis? Take the advice of the earthly match maker instead of the divine guidance, and you may some day be led to use the words of Solomon, whose experience in home life was as melancholy as it was multitudinous. One day his palace, with its great wide rooms and great wide doors and great wide hall, was too small for him and the loud tongue of a woman belaboring him about some of his neglects, and he re treated to the housetop to get relief from the fungal bombardment. And while there he saw a pour man on one corner of the roof with a mattress for his only furni ture, and the open sky his only covering. And Solomon envies him and cries out:. "It is beter to dwell in the corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wido house." And one day during the rainy season the , water leaked through the roof of the palace and began to drop in a pail or pan set there to catch it. And at one side of hint all day long the water went drop! drop! drop! while on the other side a- female companion quarreling about this, and quarreling about that; the acrimonious and petulant words falling on his ear in ceareleas pelting drop! drop! tlropl and he seized his pen and wrote: "A continual dropping in a very rainy) day and a contentious woman are alike." If Solomon had been as prayerful at the beginning of his life as he was at his close, how much domestic infelicity he would have avoided? But prayer about this will amount to nothing unless you pray soon enough. Wait until vou are fascinated and the equilibrium of your soul is disturbed by magnetic and exquisite presence, and then you will answer your own prayers, and you will mistake your own infatuation for the voice of God. If you have this prayerful spirit you will surely avoid all female scoffers at the Christian religion; and there ore quite a number of them in all communities. It must be told that, though the only in fluence that keeps woman from being estimated and treated as a slave aye, as a brute and beast of burden is Christi anity, since where it is not dominant she is so treated: yet there are women who will so far forget themselves and forgot their God that they will go and hear lec turers malign Christianity and scoff at the most sacred things of the soul. A good woman, over-persuaded by her husband, may go once to hear auch tirade against the Christian religion, not fully knowing what she is going to hear; but she will not go twice. A woman, not a Chrittian, but re specter of religion, said to me: "I was pertiiaded by my husband to go and hear an infidel lecture once, but going home tu him: "liv. dear, husband I weuin not go again tnougn my declination' should result in our divorcement forever." And the woman was right. If after all that Christ and Christianity hsve done for a woman, she can to again and again to hear such assaults, she is an awful crea ture, and you had better not come near such a reeking lepress. She needs to he washed, and for three weeks to be soaked in carbolio acid, and for a whole year fumigated, before she is fit for decent society. While it ia not demanded that a woman be a Christian before marriage, she must have regard for the Christian re ligion or she is a bad woman and un worthy of being your companion in a life charged with such stupendous solemnity and vicissitudes. What you want, O man! in a wife, is not a butterfly of the sunshine, not a giggling nonentity, not a painted doll, not a gossiping gadabout, not a mixture of artificialities which leave you in doubt as to where the humbug ends and the woman begins, but an earnest soul, one that can not only laugh when you Inngh, but weep when you weep. There will be wide, deep graves in your path of life, and you will both want steadying when you come to the verge of them, I tell you. When your fortune fails you will want some one to talk of treasures in heaven, and not charge upon you with a bitter, "I told you so." As far as I can analyze it, sincerity and earnestness are the foundation of all worthy wifehood. Get that, and you get all. Fail to get that, and you get noth ing but what you will wish you never had got. Don't make the mistake that the man of the text made in letting his eye settle the question in which coolest judgment directed by divine wisdom are all-important, lie who has no reason for his wifely choice except a pretty face is like n man who should buy a farm because of the dahlias in the front dooryard. Beauty is a talent, and when God gives it Ho in tends it ns a benediction upon a wonmn's face. When the good Princess of Wrales dismounted from the rail train last sum mer, and I saw her radiant face, I could understand what they told me the day before, that, when at the great military hospital where are now the wounded and the sick from the Egyptian and other wars, the Princess passed through, all the sick were cheered at her coming, nnd thn.e who could be roused neither bv doctor nor nurse from their stupor, would get up on their elbows to look at her, and wan nnd wasted lips prayed an audible prayer: "God bless the Princess of Wales. Doesn't she look beautiful?" But how uncertain is the tarrying of luautv in a human countenance! Explosion of a kerosene lamp turns it into sacrifica tion. and a scoundrel with one dash of vitriol may dispel it, or Time will drive his chariot wheels across that brieht face, cutting il up in deep ruts and gullies. But there is an eternal beauty on the face of some women, whom a rough and tintral hint world may criticise as homely; nnd though their features mav contradict ull the laws of Lavater on physiognomy, yet they have graces of soul that will keep them attractive for time and glorious through all eternity. There are two or three circumstances in which the plainest wife is a queen of beauty to her husband, whatever her stature or profile. By financial panic or betrayal of business partner, the man goes down, and returning to his home that evening, he says: "t am ruined; I am in disgrace forever; I care not whether I live or die. ' It is an agitated story he is telline in the household that winter night. He says: "The furniture mur.t go, the house must go, the social position must go." and from being sought for obsequiously they must be cold-shouldered everywhere. After he ceases talking, and the wile has heard all in silence, she says: "Is that all? Why. you had nothing when I married you, and you have only come back to where you started. If yon think that my happiness and that of the children depend on these trappings, you do not know me, though we have lived together thirty years. God is not dead, and the National Bank of Heaven has not suspended payment, and if you don't mind, I don't care a cent. Whnt little we need of food nud raiment the rest of our lives we can get, and I don't propose to sit down and mope and groan. Mary, hand me that darning needle. I declare! I have forgotten to set the rising for those cakes! And while she is busy at it be hears her humming Newton's old hymn, "To-morrow." The husband looks up in amazement, and says- "Well, well, you are the great est woman I ever saw. I thought you would faint dead away when I told vou." And as he looks at her all the glories of physiognomy in the Court of Louis XV, on the modern fashion plates, are tame as compared with the superhuman splendors of that woman's face. Joan of Arc, Mary Antoinette, and La Belle Hamilton, the enchantment of the Court of Charles II, are nowhere. There is another time when the plainest wife is a queen of beauty to her husband. She has done the work of life. She has reared her children for God and heaven, and though some of them may be a little wild .they will yet come back, for God has promised! She is dying, nnd her husband stands by. They think over all the years of their companionship, the weddings nnd the burials, the ups and the down, the successes and the failures. They talk nver the goodness of God and His faith fulness to children's children. She has no fear about going. The Lord has sustained her so many years she would not dure to distrust Him now. The lips of both of them tremble as thev say good-hy and en rourane each other about an early meeting in n better world. The breath is feebler and feebler, and stops. Are you sure of it? Just hold that mirror at the mouth, and see if there is any vipor gathering on the surface. Gone! As one of the neiehbors takes the old man by the arm gently and says: "Come, you had better go into the next room and rest." he says: "Wait a moment; I must take one more looV nt that face and at those hands!" Beautiful! Beautiful! Mv friends. I hope you do not call that death. That is an autumnal sunset. That is a crystalline river pouring into a crys tal sea. That is the solo of human life overpowered by hallelujah chorus. That is a queen's coronation. That is heaven. That ia the way my father stood at eighty two, seeing my mother depart at seventv nine. Perhaps so vouc father and mother went. I wonder if we will die as well. War In the Iron Trade, The costly revenge that one firm en gaged In the Iron trade took upon an other In 1805 will always And a place , in the annals of British trade. Both ; firms were engaged In the same class of work, and one chanced to clash 'with the other over the exportation of their goods, which so enraged the first firm that they determined to be re : venged, however great the cost, i Tbey began by buying up all the : smelting coat they could procure at a ;com. of 1375,000, but as this did not ruin the other firm they tried to copy ! their rival's goods and fold them in ; America at a loss of 11,600 a day. The .opposing firm still held out doggedly, however, and at last the revengeful parties, unable to stand this serious . drain upon their resources, decided to ; give up the game aa not being worth the candle. This, however, was only one when their revenge had cost them .over 11,250.100. Laughing riant. Have you ever board of the laughing plant? It gets its name from the in toxicating property of Its seed. It grows In Arabia, a buBh of moderate size, with yellow flowers, each produc ing a pod of black beans, which are ground and the powder taken. Its ef fect Is like that of "laughing gas," causing the very soberest man to ca per, laugh and shout for nearly an hour until ho Is thoroughly exhausted I and falls asleep. On awakening hi seems to have no recollection of bis previous antics. This frivolous plant has not jet been classified by botaa-lsts. THE SABBATH SCHOOL Icrnaiional Lesson Comments Tor April 27. 5ubjcc(: (kntilcs Received Into the Church, Arts H, 118-Ooldti Text: Arts x., 43 Memory Verses, 7 Commentary ob (he Day's Lesion. 1. "Heard." The news that the Gentiles had received the gospel and had been bap tized spread throughout the whole coun try. "Had also received." The manner in which the fact is stated shows, in the first plsce, that it had made a favorable impression on tlw apostles and brethren. In the second pladt, the expression implies that the event was regarded as involving an important principle. 2. "Was come." There is no evidence that Peter was summoned to Jerusalem to defend his conduct, but he had reason to foar that he would be, censured until the particulars were known, and he may have hastened his return in order to fur nish that information. "The cireumoi sion." The Jews who had become Chris tians. This must) have been the whole church at this time, but St. Luke's narra te was compiled when "they that were of the cireumcision" had become a distinct party. "Contended. " Disputed, reproved him, charged him with being at fault. They maintained that those who accepted Christianity should first become Jewish Jiroselytca by submitting to the Mosaic aw and being circumcised. 3. "Didst eat with them." The disci ples would have rejoiced, and would have welcomed the further spread of the word os they did the conversion of the Samari tans (chap. 8: 14). but it was a cause of of fense that Peter had consented to become the guest of a Gentile. He had eaten with men with whom there would be no regard to the character of the food, nor to the way in which it was prepared. 4. "From the beginning." The apostle furnished a detailed account of all the facts in their order. 5. "Praying." It was about noon. Tcter was on the housetop. The flat roofs formed a convenient place for retirement. "In a trance." Or ecstacy. A state of mind when the attention is absorbed in a particular train of thought, so that the external senses are partially or entirely suspended. He was transported out of himself and put into a mental state in which he could discern objects beyond the apprehension of man's natural rowers. "A great sheet." What the apostle saw was an extended sheet, the four corners of which were held up as it were by cords let down front the four extremities of the open sky. The significance of the out stretched sheet, aa a figure of the wide world, and the four corners as the direc tions into which the gospel was now to be borne forth into all the world, has of ten been dwelt upon. "Came even to me." In chap. 10: 11 Luke says it was ' let down to the earth." In the vision it was below Peter, so that he could look from the housetop down upon its upper surface. 6. "And saw," etc. The vision repre sented the whole animal creation. There were in it living creatures typical of each kind, not a multitude of the same sort of birds nnd beasts. All kinds of animals were there, domestic and wild, clean and unclean, together with creeping things and fowls of tne air. 7. "Slay and eat." That is, any one of the animals exhibited to him, without re gard to the distinction of clean and un clean. This particular vision was suggested by Peter's hunger. Chap. 10: 10. 8. "Common or unclean." By common, whatsovcr was in general use among the Gentiles, is to be understood; by unclean, everything that was forbidden by the Mo saic law. However, one word may be con sidered as explanatory of the other. The rabbins and many of the early fathers be lieved that by the unclean animals the Gentiles were meant. "At any time en tered." The devout Jew exercised great' care in observing the ceremonial distinc tions between clean and unclean. Kzek. 4: 11; Dan. 1: 8-12. 0. "Hath cleansed." God made the dis tinctions between clean and unclean tor wise purposes, and now for equally wise purposes those distinctions are removed. He had authority to give the law; He has authority to revoke the law. "Make not thou common" (K. V.) The old dispensa tion is now to give place to the new and Peter is taught that men are not to make such distinctions and separations longer. For meat destroy not the work of God. Kom. 14: 20. 10. "Three times." For the greater cer tainty and in order that a deep and lasting impression might be made on the apostle's mind. Compare Pharaoh's dream (Gen. 41: 32) and Joseph's interpretation there of. "Drawn up again." The reception of the whole into heuven again was designed to point out that it was a lesson which God had as directly sent as of old He sent the law on Sinai. 11. "Behold." Behold how remarka bly the incidents coincide! This shows that God is directing in the matter. "Im tned ately.'' St. Luke tells us (chap. 10: 17) that when Peter had aroused from bis trance he was "much perplexed in himself" (R. V.), not knowing at first how to ap ply what he had seen and heard. 12. "The Spirit." Before this God had spoken to him with a voice, but here 'Spirit spoke to spirit," silently yet clear ly. "Nothing doubting." "Making no dis tinction." K. V. Between Jew and Gen tile. But, according to the Cambridge Bible, this torm of the verb is not used uutil after the events had taught htm pre cisely what the vision and the spiritual application meant. 13. "An angel." Cornelius referred to this heavenly messenger as a "man in bright clothing." 14. "Tell thee words." The gospel mes sage concerning Christ. "All thy house." The assurance embraces them because they were prepared, aa well as Cornelius to welcome the apostle's message. "Shall be saved." They were indeed now saved, with t present salvation, and yet, now that Christ is presented, acceptance is neces sary to a final salvation. Peter is sent not to be the instrument of the conversion of Cornelius, but simply to "show him the way of God more perfectly." 15. "As I began." While he was speak ing but before lie had proceeded far in his discourse. "On them." On the Gentiles. "As on us." The Jews. "At the begin ning." On Pentecost. Acts 2: 113. ltf. "The Lord." Peter remembered Christ's words as recorded in Acts 1: 5. 17. "What wus 1?" What right or pow er had I to oppose the manifest will of God that the Gentiles should be received into the Christian church. "Withstand God." Oppose or resist God. He had indicated His will and Peter's prejudices must give way, IS. "Held their peace." They opposed Peter no longer because they saw that God had directed him in all he had done, and that the Holy Spirit had indorsed his action. Mosquitoes Hear Bound. Major Ronald Koss writes to the . British Medical Journal that he has . recently received a communication ; from Mr. Brennan of the public works department, Jamaica, containing the following observation: "You will par don me for drawing your attention to the fact, If you have not already no ticed It, that the mosquitoes (I do not know If every variety) will respond to such sounds as a continuous whoop or hum. I have tried the experience late ly, and find swarms gather round my bead when I make a continuous whoop. There may be, however, some particular note or pitch that would be more attractive to them." f ish Powder as food. One of the newest things in the way of foods is fish powder, which. It 1 claimed, is a highly nutrition article, easy of digestion, and therefore, par tlcularly suitable for Invalids. It Is intended, however, tor ordinary house hold use. I TIIE GREAT DESTK0YER SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE. Whisky Leads h Horde of Moral Mon sters. That For A km Has Trampled on Man If Lire Is Kail, Brighten It by Honest Achievement, Nul limn. The foundation, the1 leading factor in hu man ills to-day is intemerance. It is a hideous army that attacks man kind. Jgnoranco, vice, immorality, quarrel someness, disease, obstinacy, brutality, cru elty, timidity. Kead over this list and ask yourself this question: Is not every one of these tormentors of mankind maile more powerful by whisky? Who is the commonest murderer the murderer of whom you read every day? He is the man naturally good-natured, kind enough when sober, but rendered combative and murderously furious by whisky. What is the history of the diseased man 'who goes in the amnulnnce to the public hospital and thence to the Potter's Field? It is the history of a man born healthy, naturally able to work and to enjoy good health whose health and power lor work have been destroyed by whisky or other strong driiO:. What is the story of many a broken hearted mother, and what is the story of the women who work among the unfortu nates in big cities? It is always the same story good moral character, good family influences de stroyed; life and soul wrecked by drink. Timidity: There is one ot man's curves. It destroys the promising career. It checks thu rising man at the moment ol success. Whisky is the father of timidity. Whisky gives the temporary false cour age that is followed by apathy and timid ity, k Whether men speak of the prize lighter whose courage failed, of the linaiicicr whose nerves went to pieces at the criti cal moment, or the writer whose iiuagin otion and will died out, the story will be the same: "He took to whisky and that was the end of him." Deceit is another sign of mental decay. The lie in a man is like the hollow at the centre of the tree it sounds hollow, it tells of decay. Whiskv is the father of lving. Who be i: -l' j..i i- - 4, jieves Lilt; uriiiiKnru H mory . He tells how it happened to drink too much the judge does not even listen. No one listens all know he is probably lying. He swears that he will never drink again. The whisky is swearing and lying, fvo one believes him except, perhaps, some poor confiding woman whom nothing can discourage. From drink comes boasting another kind of lving. From drink men get lying, disease, ob stinacy (did you ever see sober men try ing to make a drunkard go home?), bru tality, cruelty (does any but the drunken man murder his own children?) and many other vices that destroy them. What single good thing comes from whisky? Not one. Artificial .trength. bragging instead oi' achieving, lack of will power, weakness of purpose, conceit ba.cd on an over-stimulated brain, foolish dreams, never to be realized these things whisky gives. It gives nothing better. This monstrous urniy of vice rides over Immunity, crushing all those unfortunate enough to be in the way. Many of these are unfortunate. The man made desperate by poverty cannot be blamed when he drinks: "Give strong drink unto him that is rccly to perish, And wine unto the bitter in soul: Let him drink and forget his poverty. And remember bis misery no more." Proverbs xxxi., 6 and 7. Divine pity and forgiveness are extended to "the bitter in soul." Many a miserable drunkard may be a better man at heart than the righteous man who ilcspiseH him. Many u man has good excuses lor his drinking and loss of manhood. But you have not that excuse. There is no reason why you should fall under the feet of this huge monster with the whisky barrel on his back. Keep your blood clean and your brain clear. If life is dull, make it bright by honest achievement, ot nt least bv bard trying. A whisky bottle can't make you better than God made you. Give yourself a fair chance. You would give this same advice to any other young man who niiuht think of drinking, wouldn't you? Then take the advice for yourself. New York ournal. Kunt Drinkers of No Account. Magistrate Meade, of New York City, delivered a brief temperance lecture when Mary Woods had her husband up before the magistrate for non-support. She said he drank too much. ' A man who drinks rum is of no account," thundered Magis trate Meade. "Ho is no good. No one wants him around: he is a general nuis ance. A woman who lives with a drunk en husband might just as well be locked up in an iron cage with a royal Bengal tiger." Local Option In Sydney. In '.ydney, Australia, the vote for local option was taken in connection with municipal election, and was car ried in every ward. So that, for the next three years for certain, there can be no new licenses in Sydney. Although not qinte so emphatic, yet by a very large majority, it "was also carried that there be no renewal of licenses for the t ime pe nod." Germany's Ills; Drunk Imlnilry. An article on drunkenness in the sixth volume of Dr. Konrad's "Cyclopedia of Political Economy," makes the statement that one-fourteenth of the men in gainful occupations in Germany are employed in the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and that one-fifteenth of the ara ble land is required to grow the materials for these drinks. A Campaign ot Education. A Berlin firm, making electrical ap pliances, is carrying on a campaign of edu cation against beer drinking among its men, and has found an increase of ten per cent, in product per man. Aside from the physical harm which it causes, drink is mure and more recognized as a handi cap in business. Youth a Companion. Cry Ids; Kvll of the Ago. The curse of drink is too apparent to re quire sober discussion; it is the crying evil of the age. It is sapping the riiun hood of the rising generation, and alas! both sexes seem to have fallen beneath t!ie power of its seductive influence. Ths Crusade In Brief. The saloon is the breeding place of the criminal. Saloons are the devil's best nets with which to catch those whom he seeks to de vour. The man who best solves the Sunday opening question for himself is the man who doesn't drink on Sunday or any other day. The drinkers have got the idea into their heads that their families should not see them get drunk it being time enuugh for them to seu the effects of drinking after they are drunk. One of the best firms of British shipbuild ers recently stated that there is a loss of Unit amounting to nearly twenty per cent, due largely to drunkenness. When a crime lias been committed tiie police make a round of the saloons where the criminal element congregates, in search of a clue, and they generally find it there. The exhausting effect of the demands of society upon its devotees creates a desire for a stimulant, and henco the ever-preaeut and generous punch bowl is often the most popular feature of the social ovent. The American saloon is bad enough and churchmen hsve made up their minds more upon making the six days of the week more decent. But surely do not let us bring Sunday duwa to the low level of week days. CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR TOPICS. April 27 "Samuel's Calf I Ssm. HL I-2L (Union Meeting With the Juolors.) Scripture Vcrnflg. Onn. III. 8-10; Isa. xlv. 22: 1 Tim. vl. 12; Ina. vl 8: John I. 35 39; Gal. I. 15, 16; Mark 11. 14. Lesson Thoughts. Ood's volco may be hfard In child hood. "Heaven lies about, tm In our Infancy;" and If boys and girls will only answer "Here am I" whrn God calls, guidance,, both provldontlal nnd spiritual, will bo vouchsafed to them through life. God's voice Is most plainly heard by those who are alrsady consecrated to him. If a child be sincerely de voted to Ood's service, whether by his own Infantile doclr,lor., or by the solemn baptismal covenant of his par ents, of by nomo Christian pastor or teacher, that fact Is always recogniz ed by Ood. Selections. Tho power of devoting children In their earliest years to tho nervlco of Ood Is welt Illustrated by the ntory told by Merlvale, In his History of Rome, of the famous Carthasinlan General, Hannibal. When ho was nine years of age. his father, Hamll car, proposed to take him on one of his military expeditions, which offer the young Hann'bal capierly accepted. His father then bade him to devote himself once for all to the service of his country Carthage. and with his hand upon the altar to swear eternal enmity to Ilonin. This dedi cation in youth determined the course of his whole life. Like Samuel we should answer God's call by "Here am I;" beraimo, 1. it Is easier to bo a Christian In ymith. 2. Then It gives un a much loncer time In which to serve God. 3. Wo may not live to be old, and thus by putting off our duty we may fall al together. 4. We cscapo many evils and dangers. No ono can sow wild oats In youth, and not reap a harvest of evil. SuRsested Hymns. Come to the Savior, make no de lay. When he cometh, when he cometh. Quiet, Lord, my troward heart. O come to the fc'.vlor. Young men In Christ the Lord. Oh! do not let the word depart. EPW0RTH LEAGUE MEETING TOPICS April 27 Samuel's Call Union Mtetiog With the Juniors I Sam. ill. 1-21. Cod does, not always speak in sounds. Sometimes ho rails to the soul In hushed whispers. In the "still small voice" he spoke to one in olden times. His messages come oftenest In our Inaudible thoughts. He Bweetly whis pers to the soul In the' holy hush of prayer. T.v mind must be in tho lis tening mood. Listless souls seldom hear the lays of love. It Is encourag ing to youth that God thinks It worth while to speak to the young. That Is an Important point. Another point that must not be missed is that God calls children to serve In his sanctuary. When the ark of the covenant was in Shiloh Kll war high priest of the Jews. He was a good man, but too Indulgent with his sons Hophni and Phlnehas, who were widted priests. Samuel was the son of Elkanah and Hannah. His mother dedicated him to the seiv Ice of God. God intrusted metsages to him because he was a boy who .could be trusted. The Call of God Came to Camue! In Tones that Sounded Familiar to Him. Out of the old past God brlugs us to the fresh future. Up tho stair way of the old God wo'lld brlnp; us to the new. The human-sounding volco has often been God'a call. It was the human teacher's, Cut the truth that It told was God's. The call of the Master comes in the volco of t he min ister. We need souls attuned lo di vine accents to catch God's call Is the human cry. The bush vaa familiar to Moses in the meadows of Mldiau, but out of that familiar shrub spoko the strange, eweet voice of God God Calls by Convictions. We call those convictions conscience. Or wo Bpeak of them as impressions. Vo re fer to the feeling tha. we ought. Then we say of something clso Ihiit wo ought not. Whatever we r.amo this sense of duty, it Is God's rail t; us. It is high honor to be thus callud. Tho Lord' of harvest falls the reapers to the white fields. Ood Calls by Capacity. Ho points out duties along ths way our strength lies. Ability fixes responsibility. Serv ice according to strength that Is tho law of labor. "To whom much In given, of him much shall be required" is Ood's plan. He never asks othar than a reasonable service at our hands. RAM'S HORN BLASTS- HE greatest fault of all la to be con scious ot no fault. Love flows over too lines of liking. Pisgah Is always a hard hill to climb. Brightest hopes dawn on darkest days. When grain rip ens by moonlight the soul will be saved by culture. The greater a man's treasure the less he will complain of his taxes. Pride and Ignorance are the babes that help one another to get lost. Tho Christian who fears to be spent for Christ Is a candle unwilling to be lighted. It does not make heaven a fact to call earth a fiction. Straight running makes better speed than the swiftest circling. No amount of pruning ever made peaches grow on fence-posts. The heavenly man does nut need to writs "Holiness" on his brow. The vlBlon of Ood gives right views of all things. Proficiency needs no parade. A parasite makes a' poor partner. He wcrks best who worries least. A blessing abused, becomes a banc No perfection without pain. A hard heart Is apt to be brittle. Service is the first sign of freedom. Faith alone lifts the fug at the future. Endeavor counts for more than essays. The more we look up the less we need to look out for ourselves. The religion that does not reach character does not rise with Christ. You cannot sop up the sins of the week with solemn face on Sunday. GOD'S MESSAGE TO MAlfl PREGNANT THOUGHTS FROM THst' WORLD'S GREATEST PROPHETS. Poemi A Prayer For a Man's I. ark of Physical Devslopmaat ta sa, Causa of Sorrow; Lack of HjflrUaaC Development Is Unnoticed Let me not pass till eve. Till that day's tight is donej What soldier cares to leave The lie'.d until it's won? - And I have hived my work, and fa!n Would be deemed worthy of tha ranks, sgain. Let twilight come, then night; And when the first birds sing Their matin songs, and light Wakens each slumbering thing, , -Let Some One waken me, and set My feet to steps that lesd me upward yat, II. V. butherland, in Christian Register B A 'i-lttla Sermon- Daily in a large city museum s Kttisr creature was exhibited, in years a woman but in stature not so large as a health baby. Her picture was sold in which sbai; appeared sitting on the hand of a giant, of a showman, the contrast making hr, appear like a doll. Her eyes were wistful and her pinched features drawn in si pitiful expression. Unhappiness, dissatis faction sat upon her face. Her hands werW shrunken and claw-like. Poor littW dwarf! What was her life but a show! All the grandeur of a woman's existence' her youth, her joy, her love, shut away from her forever. Her body had neve grown to its full stature and her strengtor was not equal to the tasks of the great work in the world. Of what use was sb but to be a showman's puppet? i How like was she to many Christian, lives, puny helpless things, with but a. name to live. The only line they have foi) religion is to exhibit it, and alas, they are not even curiosities like the tiny dwarfs! of the museum! They are all about us J nay, let us lie sure that we ourselves ara not numbered among them. The spiritual growth is even easier to stunt in the be- ginning than is the physical, and the facb that it is so common a thing makes isj seem no calamity. A lack of physical dc-t velopnient is looked upon as a cause oC grout sorrow, but lack of spiritual de velopment passes unnoticed. Indeed, to day the man who has grown in grace to ward his full measure of the stature ot Jesus is looked upon as the curiosity, s sort of spiritual giant not to be ranked with other men at all. In a certain otherwise happy home, the) eldest son, a young man of twenty-five sits all day long shaking a stick with a rag tied about it. This is his sole mm. ment and employment in the world. Hs is an imbecile and nobody ever expects) anything else from him. There are man in the church who are metaphorically going about shaking sticks with rags on. them. They are given some little thing; to do to keep them contented and no sow ever expects any other church work of them. They never have grown enough! since they united with the church ta bar able to do anything else. They stopped short with the act of accepting Christ? they never have grown an inch. Their strength is not great enough for even the simplest service Christ asks of those who have named His name. They are full grown men, able to go out into the world of business and make a success in life, but in the church sitting dumb when there is need for some one to pray or lead a. meeting, utterly incapable of pointing tha way to Christ because they know Him so little themselves. There are a few essentials of physical life which we dare not ignore and hopo to live. It is exactly so in the Christian life. We cannot grow in grace without the same essentials. The first essential ot life is breath. We must have air t breathe or death comes instantly. Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, The Christian's native air: Without it bow can we live? Physi cians say that the cause of many phys ical ills is that we do not breathe deep enough. The brain worker is sometimes so absorbed in his work that he barer draws in enough oxygen to keep his hearb going, but not enough to expand his lungs lully and give the poison in the blood at chance to be expelled by the outgoing breath. With how very little prayer some of us manage to get along! The next essential is nourishment. That Bible is the food of the Christian, and many Christians exist on one meal a week on Sunday and that not a hearty one either. Who has not watched a thoroughly normal baby eager for its food, castings aside playthings, pushing away everyone, caring not for gold or glittering treasures, or ambition, or anything in its future, so it may get its food? , It is that way we are to read our Bible. As newborn babes desire," mark that word desire "the sincere milk of tha word. Everything else is as nothing ta the Bible. Who of us feels that way? How many Christians are almost unwilling, to pledge themselves to read the Biblo every duv because of the time it takes? What baby feels so about its daily meals? And yet that is the condition of growing in grace. There are other essentials, too. Exer cise for instance. Christian work is th daily exercise we are to take. But the most glorious part of it all comes in our last selection of Scripture. There is coming a time when all ministry of the gospel shall be unnecessary, when we shall have grown to a place where wa do not need teaching and preaching, wheat we have attained, all of us, "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. And it becomes us to take heed to the warnings, and to put aside all hindrancs and apply our hearts to growth, for some of us have a great way to grow before w shall- attain. Grace L. Kill, in the New York Mail and Express. Translate Prayer Into Action. Prayer is practical, is a means to an end. There is food for thought for us all in tha disparity between our prayer and our working. We pray with an undoubted fervor for the kingdom of God. It is so easy to say, "Thy kingdom come." Jt ia so hard to work for the coming of that kingdom. To work, to translate praver mto action, to do the deed on which tba coming of the kingdom depends that is the test.-The Kev. Dr. R. W. Perkins, President of the Leland University, New Orleans. Look Upward. It is wise for us to look at fhe dangers, to be fully aware of the perils, to be tremblingly conscious of our own weakness; hut it is folly and foolishness to look at the danger so exclusively, or to feel our own weakness so keenly as that either tine or the other, or both of them com bined, ahull obscure to our sight the far greater and conHdcnce-giving truth of tha nowledge, the sympathy, and the ex tended protecting hand of our iirothae and Lord. lata Is Forever. When God gives us love. He gives it for ever. Superficial sympathies, based os accident, oil proximity, or common in terests of the hour, are fugitive. But tha love which sees what is best in us, anil cares for that, is something which canuut pass away, For this is like God's lovs. Whan Ood Laiifhs. It is said that He that sitteth in tha. heavens shall laugh at some things. May lie not laugh when a man with a big bsnfc account puts in a petty sum, saying that he gives "the widows mite?" Sunctsj school Times. "rosea Soap liubblea. Many Interesting experiments can ba made with soap bubbles blown from a. mixture of eastilo soap and glue. It is not generally known, however, that bubbles can be frozen, though It is very easily done. Blow a bubble of modaxat sixe aud carry it to the door or pot It out of an open window on a winter day. The bubble will freess instant";',! retaining its thape. but forming' me r. beautiful crystals. If you try this f- s experiment on a clear day when t - is Utile wind, you will be do.".' "J wttb the result.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers