+ | niteve DEATH AND THE BRSURRECTION. The Sunday Sermon as Delivered by the : Brooklyn Divine. , E——— Text: “Surely the bitterness of death is past.’—I Bamuel xv. 32. So cried Agag, and the only objection I have to this text isthat a man uttered it. Nevertheless it is true, and in a higher . a> better sense than that in which it was sriginally uttered. Years ago a legend something like this was told me: In a hut lived a very poor woman by the name of Misery. In front of her door was a pear tree, which was her only resource for a living. Christ, the Lord, in poor garb was walking through the earth and no one would enter- tain Him. In vain He knocked at the door of palaces and of humble dwellings. Cold oy hungry and insufficiently clad, as He was, none received Him. But coming one “¢éay to the hut of this woman, whose name * was Misery, she received Him, and offered Him a few crusts and asked Him to warm Himself at the handful of coals, and she sat up all night that the wayfarer might have & pillow to rest on. n the morning this divine being asked her as He departed what she would have Him do in the way of reward, and told her that He owned the universe and would give her what she asked. Allshe asked was that her pear tree might be protected, and that the boys "who stole her fruit, once climbing the tree, * might not be able to get down without her gonsent. So it was granted, and all who ‘climbed the tree were compelled to stay there, After awhile Death came along and told the poor wqman she must go with him. But she did not "want to go, for, however r one’s lot is, no one wants to go with Death. Then she said to Death, ‘I will go . with you if you will first climb up into my ~ pear tree and bring me down a few pears “before I start.” This he consented to do, “bus having climbed into the tree he could wot again come down. ‘Then the troubles of the world began, for Death did not come. The puysicians had no patients, the undertakers no business, law- yers no wills to make, the people'who waited for inheritances could not get them, the old men staid in all the professions and occupa- tions so that there was no room for the young who were coming on, and the earth got overcrowded, and from all the earth the ery went up: “Oh, for Death! Where is Death?” Then the ple came to the poor woman and begged Poo to let Death descend from the tree. In sympatay for the world, she consented tolet Death come down on one eondition, and that was that he should never molest or take her away, and on that condi- tion Death was allowed to come down, and he kept his word and never removed her, and for that reason we always have Misery with us. In that allegory someone has set forth the truth that 1 mean to present on thi Easter morning, which celebrates the resurrection of Christand our coming resurrection—taat one of the grandest and mightiest mercies of the seid is our divine permission to quit it. Sixty-four persons every minute step off this planet. Thirty million people every year board this planet. As a steamer must wmload before it takes another cargo, and as the passengers of a rail train must leave it | in order to have another company of passen- gers enter it, so with this world. ‘What would happen to an ocean steamer * jf a man, taking a stateroom, shouid stay in it forever? What would happen to a rail * train if one who purchases a ticket should always occupy the seat assigned him? And what would happen to this world if all who eanik into it never departed from it? The ave is as much a benediction as the cradle. Phat sunk that ship in the Black Sea a few days ago? Too many passengers. What was the matter with that steamer on the Thames which, a few years ago, went down swith 600 lives? Too many passengers. Now this world is only a ship, which was launched some six thousand years ago. It is sailing at the rate of many thousand miles an hour. It is freighted with mountains and cities, and has in its staterooms and steerage about sixteen hundred million passengers. So many are coming aboard, if is necessary that a good many disembark. Suppose that all the people that have Kived since the days of Adam ani Eve were still alive. What a cluttered up place this werld would be—no elbow room—no place #0 walk—no privacy—nothing to eat or . wesar, or if anything were left the human race would, like a shipwrecked crew, have fo be put on small rations, each of us having peraaps only a biscuit a day. And what ehance would there be for the rising genera- fons? The men and women who started when the world started would keep the modern people back and down, saying: *Wo are six thousand years old. Bow down, History is nothing, for we are older than history.” What a mercy for the hu- san race was death! Within a few years you can get from this world all thers isin After you have had fifty or sixty or sev- enty springtimes, you have seen enough Blossoms. After fifty or sixty or seventy mutumns you have seen enouzh of gorgeous foliage, ‘After fifty or sixty or seventy winters, you have seen enough snowstorms and felt enough chills and wrapped yourself im enough blankets. In the ordinary length of human life you have carried enough bur- dens, and shed enough tears, and suffered enough injustices, and felt enough pangs, and been clouded by enough doubts, and swrrounded by enough mysteries, We talk mbout the shortness of life, but if we exer- @ised good sense we would realize that life is guite long enough, If we are the children of God wearsata banquet, and this world is only the first “eourse of the food, and we ought to be glad that thers are other and better and richer eourses of food to be handed on. We are Here in one roo of our Father’s house, but $here are rooms up stairs. They are better . pictured, better upholstered, better fur- nished. hy do we want to stay in the antercom forever, when there are palatial spariments ~waiting for our occupancy? - hat a merey that there is a limitation to © garthly environments! Death also makes room for improved “physical machinery, Our bodies have won- , @rous powers, but they are very limited, Thers are beasts that can outrun us, outlift ue, outearry us. The birds have both the #arth and air tor travel, yet we must stick $oithe one. In this world, which the human #zce takes for its own, there are creatures ‘of God that can far surpass us in some shins, Death removes this s.ower and less adroit machinery and makes roem for some- ~Shinz better. These eyes that can see half a mile will be removed for thos» that ean gee frond world to world. These ears, which can hear a sound a’ few fest off, will beremoved for ears that can hear from wone to zone. These feet will be removed jor powers of locomotion swifter than the peindeer’s hoo! or eagle's plume of lightn- fug’'s dash © fhen we have only five sensas, and to these wre are shutap, Why only five senses? Why sit fifty; why not one hundred: why not a thousand? Wo can have, and we will have #bem, but not until tnis present physical * gmgchinery is put out of the way. Do not Swink that this body is the best that God ean do for us. Godweid not hail try when’ ho contrived your bodily mechanism. Mind ‘you, | believe with all apatonists and with all nhvsiolozisis and wita all ntists and wiih the psalmist © .uily and nab ve nares fee ] Spppderfuily made.” Buc I believe andl ‘that God-can ant will get us better | al egninent. Is it possible for a man to. m2'ke fmprove- ment in almost anvth'ng and ~Gol not be able to make improvements in man’s physi- | pal niachinery?. Shail canal boat give way $a limited express train? Shall slow letter ive riace to telegranhy, that places San’ i ‘New York within a minute of “able to | have a substitute. velocities and infinite multiplication? Beneficent Death comes in and makes: necessary removal to make way for these supernatural improvements. So -also our slow process of getting information must © Through prolonge1 stwdv ‘wa learned the alphabet, and then we learnad to snell, and then we learned to read. Then the book is put before us and the eye travels from word to word and from paze to page, and we take whole davs to read ths bro's ani if from that book of four or tive hundred pages we have gained one or two profitable ideas we feel we have done well. here must be some Swifter way and more satisfactory way of taking in God's universe of thouzhts and facts and emotions and information. But this cannot be done with your brain in its present state. Many a brain gives way under the present facility. This whitish mass in the upper cavity of the skull and at the extremity of the nervous system —this center of perception and sensation cannot endure more than it now endures. But God can make a better brain, and He that He may put in a superior brain, “Well,” you say, ‘‘does not that destroy the idea of a resurrection of the pressant bodv?#’ Oh, no. 1t will be ths old factory with nsw machinery—new driving wheel, new bands, new leversand new powers. Don’t you see? So I suppose the dullest human brain after the resurrectionary process will have more knowledge, more acuteness, mors brilliancy, more breadth of swing thanany Sir William Hamilton or Herschel or Isaac Newton or Faraday or Agassiz ever had in the mortal state or all their intellectual powers com- bined. You see God has only just begun to build you. The palacaof your nature has only the foundation laid and part of the lower story, and only part of ona window, but the great architect has made His draft of what you will be when the Alhambra is completed. John was right when he sail, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” Blessed be death! for it removes all the hindrances. And who has not all his life run against hindrancas? We cannot go far up or far down. If we go far up we get dizzy, and it we go far down we get suffocated. If men would go high up they ascend the Matterhorn or Mount Blanc or Himalaya, but what dis- asters have been reported as they came tumbling down. Or if they went down to> far, hark to the explosion of the firedamps, and see the disfigured bodies of the poor miners at the bottom of the coal shaft. Then there ars the climatolozical hin- drances. We run azainst uapropitious weather of all sorts, Winter blizzard and summer scorch, and each season s23ms to hatch a brood of its own disorders. Tae summer spreads its"wings and hatchss ous fever and suustrokes. and sprinz and autumn spread their wings and hatch out malarias, and winter spreads its wings and hatches out pneumonia and Russian grippes, and the climate of this world is a hindranca which every man and woman and child has felt. Death is to the good transierencs to superior weather— weather never fickle, and never too cold, and never too hot, and never too light, and never too dark. Have youany doubt that God can make better weather than is characteristic of this planet? Blessed isdeath! for it prepares the way for change of zone, yea, it clears tha path to a semiom- nipresence. ow often we want to bein different placss at the same time! How perplexed we get being compelled to choose between invita- tions, between weddings, between friendly groups, between three or four places we would like to be in the same morning or the same noon or the same evening. While death may not open opportunity to be in man: places at the same time, so easy and so quic! and so instantaneous will be the transference that it will amount to about the same thing. Quicker than I can speak this sentence you will be among your glorious kindred, among the martyrs,among the apostles, in the gate, on the battlements, at the temple, and now from world to world as soon as a robin hops irom one tree branch to another tree branch. Distance no hindrance. Immensity easily compassed. Semiomnipresence! “But,” says some ons, “I cannot see how God is going to reconstruct my body in -the resurrection.” Oh, that will be very easy as compared with what He has alrsady done with your body four or six or ten times. All scientists tell us that the human body chanzes entirely once in seven years, so that if you are twenby-sight years of age you have now your fourth body. If you are forty-two years of age you have had six bodies. lt you are seventy years of age you have had ten bodies. Do you not,” my un- believing friend, think if God could build for yon four or five or ten bodies Ho could really build for you one more to ba called the resurrection body. Aye! to make that resurrection body will not require half as much ingenuity and power as those other bodies you have had. Isit not easier for a sculptor to make a statue out of silent clay than it would bs to make a statue out of some material that is alive and moving, and running hither and thither? Will it not bas easier for God ta make the resurrection body out of the - silent dust of the crumbled body than it was to make your body over five or six or eight times while it was in motion, walking, climbing, falling or rising? God has already on your four or five bodies bestowed ten times more omnipotence than He will putupon the resurrection body. Yea, we have the foundation for the resurrection body in usnow. Surgeons and physiologists say there are parts of the uman body the uses of which they cannot understand. They are searching what these arts are maae for, but have not found out. can tell them. They are the preliminaries of the resurrection body. God does not make anything for nothing. '('he uses of thoss now surplus parts of the body will be demon- strated when the glorifisd form is construc- Now, if Death clears the way for all this, why paint him as a hobgoblin? Why call him the king of terrors? Why think of him as a great spook? Why sketch him with skeleton and arrows, and standing on a bank of dark watsrs! Why have children so frightened at his name that they dare not go to bel alone, and old men have their teeth chatter'lest soms shortness of breath hand them over to the monster? All the ages have been busy in maligning Death, hurling repulsive metaphors at Death, slandering Death. Oh, for the sweet breath of Easter to come down on the earth. Right after the vernal equinox, and when the flowers are beginning to bloom, well may all nations with song and with congratulation and gar- lands celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and our own resurrection when the time is gone by, and the trumpets pour through the flying clouds the harmonies that shall wake the d2ad. By the empty niche of Joseph’s meuso- leum, by the rocks that parted to let the Lord come through, let our ideas of chang- ing worlds be forever revolutionized. Te what I have been saying is true, how dif- ferently we ought to think of our friends departed. The body they have put off is only as, when entering a ball lighted and resounding with musical bands, you leave your hat and cloak in the cloakroom. What would a banqueter do if he had to carry those encumbrances of apparel with him in- to the brilliant reception? What would your departed do with their bodies if they had to be encumbered with them in the king's drawing room? Gone into the light! Gone into the music! Gone into the festivity! Gone among kings and queens and con querors! tell of the chariot of fire drawn by horses of ‘fire and the sensation of mounting the sap- hire steeps! Gone to meet with Moses and Bo him describa the pile of biack basalt that shook when tne law was given! Gone to meet Paul and hear him tell how Felix trembled, and Low the ship “went to pieces in the breakers, and how thick was the darkness in the Mamertize dungeon! Gone to meet John Knox and John Wesley and Hannah More and Francis Havergal, Gone to meet the kindred who preceded them! Why I should not wonder if ley hada larger family group there than they ever bad here. have got to- went years apatt, Sat hey gether, and fmiprove the man himselt with infl- | sends Dezeth to remove this inferior brain |’ Gone to meet Elijah and hear him Oh, how many ot them have got | together again! Your father and mother ldren that went ne out of hindrances into un- bounded liberty! Gone out of January into June! Gone where they talk about as we always talk about absent friends and say: “I wonder when they will come up here to join us. Hark! the outside door of heaven swings 0 Hark! there are feet on the golden stairs. Perhaus they are coming!” I was told at Johnstown after the flool that many people who had been for months and years bereft for the first time got com- fort when the awful flood came to think that their departed ones were not present to see the catastrophe. Asthe people were float ing down on the housetops they said: *‘Oh, how glad 1 am that father and mother ars not here,” or ‘How glad I am that the chil- dren are not alive to see this horror!’ And ought not we who are down here amid the upturnings of this life be glad that none of the troubles which submerze us can ever affright our friends ascended? Before this I warrant our deperfed ones have been introduced to all the celebrities of heaven. Some one hassaid to them: “Let me introduce you to Joshua, the man who by prayer stopped two worlds for several hours. Let me make yon acquainted with this group of three heroes—John Huss, Philip Melancthon and Martin Luther. Aha! here is Fenelon! Here is Archbishop Leighton! Here are Latimer and Ridley! Here is Matthew Simpson! Here is poet’s row--James Montgomery and Anna Bar- bauld and Horatius Bonar and Phoebe Palmar and Lowell Mason.” W ere your departed ones fond of music? What oratoris led on by Handel and Hay- en. Were they fond of pictures? What Raphaels pointing out skies with all colors wrought out into chariot wheels, wings of seraphim and coronations. Were they fond of poetry? What eternal rhythms led on by John Milton. Shall we pity our glorified kindred? No, they had better pity us. We, the shipwrecked and on a raft in the hurri- cane, looking up at them sailing on over calm sees, under skies that never frowned with tempests, we hoppled with chains; they lifted by ‘wings. ‘‘Surely the bitterness of death is past.” Further, it what I have been saying is true. we should trust the I.ord and ba thrilled with the fact that our own day of escape cometh. If our lives were going to end when our hearts ceased to pulsate and our lungs to breathe, I would want to take ten million years of life here for the first installment. But, my Christian friends, we cannot afford always to stay down in the cellar of our Father's house, We cannot always be postponing the best things. We cannot always be tuning our violins for the celestial orchestra. We must get our wings out. We must mount. We cannot afford always to stand out here in the vestibule of the house of many mansions, while the windows are illuminated with the levee angelicc and we can hear the laugh- ter of those forever free, and ) ground quakes with the boundin feet of those who have entered upon eterna play. Ushers of heaven! Open the gates! wing them clear back on their pearly hinges! Let the celestial music rain on us its cadence. Let the hanging gardens of the king breath on us their aromatics. b our redeemed ones just look out and give us one glance of their glorified faces. Yes, there they are now! I seethem. ButI can- not stand the vision. Close the gate, or our eyes will be quenched with the overpowering brightness. Hold back the song or our ears will never again care for earthly anthem. Withdraw the perfume or we shall swoon in the fragrance that human nostrils was never made to breath. All these thoughts are suggested as we stand this Easter morn amid the broken rocks of the Saviour’stomb. Indeed, I know that tomb has not been rebuilt, for 1 stood in Decamber of 1889 amid the ruins of that, the most famous sepulcher of all time. There are thousands of tombs in our Greenwood and Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn with more polished stone and more elaborate ma- sonry and more foliage surroundings, but as I went down the steps of the supposed tomb of Christ on my return from Mount Calvary, I said to myself: ‘‘This isthe tomb of all tombs. Around thisstand more stupendous incidents than around any grave of all the world since death entered it.” I could not breathe easily for overmaster- ing emotions as I walked down the four crumbling steps till we came abreast of the niche in'which I think Christ was buried, I measured the sepulcher and found it four- teen and a half feet long, eight feet high nine feet wide. It is a family tomb an seams to have been built to hold five bodies. But I rzjoice to say that the tomb was empty, and that the door of the rock was one, and the sunlight streamed in. The y that Christ rose and came forth the sepulcher was demolished forever, and no trowel of earthly masonry can ever rebuild it. : And therupturs of those rocks, and the snap of that Governmental seal, and the crash of those walls of limestone, and the step of the lacerated but trinmphant foot of the risen Jesus we to-day celebrate with acclaim of worshiping thousands, while with all the nations of Christendom, and all the shining hosts of heaven we chant, *Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” Oh, weep no more your comforts slain, The Lord is risen, He ives again. stAnd now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant ma 0 ou perfect in every good word and work, Tallolajab! Amen, OUR DEBT TO MISSIONS. Why shonld you feel a special interest in foreign missions? Because of your special indebtedness to them. This is one of the many replies which may be given to that question. Perhaps it is a reply which many have never considered. You may thank God for the long line of Christian ancestry from which you have sprung. You may go back to the very times of the Reformation, and count among the heroes of those dayssome whose blood is still coursing in your veins. But go farther thau that. Imagine fifty of your ancestors in a continuous line, gathered in your own home. Let them stand side by side around the walls of one of your rooms; first your grandfather, and so on to the most remote. Now what group bave you before you? While the nearer part of the line em- braces the Christian ancestors of whom you boast, at the farther end they are a line of savages, ignorant, degraded worshipers of Thor and Woden and the other gods of the Holland marshes, the German forests, the Scandinavian mountains, or the British Isles. Never were there more absolute heathen beneath the sun. And what has transformed that line into the beauties and graces of Christianity which you enjoy? It was the arduous, perilous, self-denying labors of missionaries from the shores of the Mediterranean, traveling the entire breadth of Europe on foot, clambering over its mountains, toiling through its weary forests, sacrificing comfort and often life, that they might proclaim to those wretched savages the love of God in Jesus Christ. Never were there more devoted missionaries. Some of them have left their names on the scanty annals of the church, but the most of them Jott no record on earth, but a shining one on igh. You shall meet them there, and may learn from their lips the debt of gratitude you owe the foreign mission work they wrought, whose influences have reached even down to your salvation. How can you repay that debt better than by doing what you can to bring other heathen to the same sweet hope: in Christ which you enjoy? ‘‘Freely ye have received, freely give.””—[Christian Intell gencer. Deeds are efforts the soul makes in trying <0 speak. It is hard to make anybody believe that shaking harids with two fingers has a grain of religion in it.—[Ram’s Horn, ¥ LESSON FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 24 “The Lord is My Shepherd,” Psalm xxiii.; 1-8+—Golden Text: Psalm xxiii; © 1—Commentary. 1. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Inasmuch as this psalm comes be- tween one that describes the death and res- urrection of the Christ, and one that speaks of the fullness of ths earth belonging to the King of Glory, it looks as if this, too, was a kingdom psalm. It is one of the most help- ful and practical of all the psalms for the daily life, but we are constantly enjoying kingdom truth by anticipation. It is true for us now in a measure, but the fullness of fulfillment is yet futur. David knew how _he eared for his sheep, how he fed them, protected them, led them and all but laid down his life for them. He firmly believed that in much greater de- ree Jehovah as a shepherd cared for him, e is the good, great, chief Shepherd, wha actually laid down His life for the shee rose again from the dead, knows all a sheep by name, seeks them when they go astray, will never “ise one of them, and when He appears in glory will reward all the under shepherds who have been faithful to Him (John x., 11, 14, 27-30; Heb. xiii., 20: Luke xv., 6, Pet. v., 4). No good thing will He withhold from any who are truly His, but will supply all their needs according to His great riches (Ps. Ixxxiv,, 11; xxxiv., 10; Phil, iv., 19). To believe heartily and live daily upon this one verse would bring joy to many a sad A statement like this that does not bring us joy and peace is sim- ply not believed. As to what the chief Shep- herd will do for Israel when He comes in Shs glory read Isa. xl, 9-11; Ezek. xxxiv., 2. “He maketh mero lie down in green pastures; He leadeth “me beside the still waters.” Or, as in the margin, pastures of tender grass and waters of quietnsss. When sheep lie down in good pasture they must be abundantly satisfied, and with quiet water close at hand what more can they want? What glories of millennial blessedness are here foreshadowed for Israel! and they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid (Ezek. xxxiv., 13-15 28). No more hunger nor thirst, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them into Jving fountains of waters (Rev. vii, 16, 17). But what about the believer now? _esus Christ Himself is not only our Redeemer, but He is also our green pasture and fountain of living waters. “He that eateth Me shall live by Me,” and *‘He that eateth Mv flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me, and Iin him,” and ‘the water that I shall give him shall be in him a weil of water spring- ing up into evesk g life” (John vi., 56, 57, iv., 14. 3. “He restoreth soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.” He is the great restorer, and when He comes aga He will restore all things of which the prophets have spoken. Then a Rig shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule in judgment. Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins and faithfulness the girdle of His reins (Acts iil.,, 21; Isa, sxxii., 1; xi, 5). to present experience, as He is the only Saviour, so He is the only restorer, and all our dealings must be person- elly with Himself. Salvation, once ours, cannot be lost. He gives Himself to us and He is ours forever; and where He truly be- gins a work He will carry it on (John x., 27, 28: Phil. i., 6). But a very little thing may interrupt our communion and cause us to walk in darkness. The least turning trom righteousness will cause a cloud between our souls and Him; but as all clouds are earth born, let us live in the heavenlies where we belong (Eph, ii., 5, 6,) and we may have uninterrupted communion. Or if a cloud arose through our failure to abide in Him, one truly penitent look to Him and He will restore our souis to conscious fellow= ship with Himself and not a cloud between, 4. *Yea, though I wiik through the val- ley of the shadow of death 1 will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comrort me.” Possibly there is a reference to the awful valley of death that shall be in connection with the judgment upon the enemies of fsrael when it shall re- quire seven months to bury tae dead. (‘om- pare Ezek. xxxix., 12; Joel iii., 2.) In thoss days Israel, the rod of God, shall be His comfort (Ps. Ixxiv., 2; cx., 2; Jer. x=., 16; Mic. vii., 14), As to the piesent experience, we can rejoice that the sting of deatn, waica is sin (I Cor. xv., 55-57), has been taken away. Sinstung Jesus todeath, and lett its sting in Him, so tbas death cannot now harm any child of God. We may never die, but, like Enoch and Elijah, be trans. lated body and soul (I Cor, xv., 51, 52). But if Jesus should yet tarry awhile and we pass out from the body for a little season, the romise will be as good in. death as it has een in life. ‘I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying, Fear not. I will help thee” (Isa. xli., 13) = To die is gain, to depart and be with Christ is far better. Absent from the body is present with the Lord (lI Cor. v., 8; Phil i,, 21, 28). Not for one moment will the Saviour leave us, so that abiding in Him there may not even be a shadow. Many have found itso, and found it sunshine all the way. 5. “Thou preparest a table before mein the presence of mine enemies; thou anoint- est my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” Following for a moment the kingdom line of truth we turn to Isa. xxv, 6-9, and at the very time of the overthrow ¢ Israel's ene- mies we Tead of a great feast for the pebple of God. Zech. xiv., and Rev. xix., may be read in the light of this with great profit, The anointing speaks of priests and things, and suggests Isa, Ixi., 6 for Israel and Rev. v., 9, 10 for the church, in connection with Ps. cx., 4 for Him who i8 both King of Israel and bead of the church. As to the dally life of the Christian, enemies are everyw seen and unseen, but the soul yt fh dn Jearned to feed on Christ has a continual feast, even in the presence of his enemies, as He delighted in the Father’s will and made that His meat and drink (John iv., 34; vi, 38). us do likewise and our cups shall Tun over. 6. ‘‘Surely goodress and mercy shall fol. low me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Israel shall dwell safely in her own land; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sor- row and sighing shall flee away (Isa. xxxvVv., 10). The church shall dwell in the New Jer- usalem, the glory of God will lighten it and the Lamb bathe light thereof (Rev. xxi., 23). The goodness and mercy of the Lord shall fill the whole earth; we shall see it and enjoy it in all the vigor and freshness of eternal youth if only we are redeemed by the prec- ious blood of the Lamb. As to the present life “He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall'He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ And inasmuch as all things are for our sakes, and working together for our good, and He will never leave us nor forsake us, how can it be anything but goodness and mercy all the way along to all who are the house of Christ?—ILesson Helper. |» THE DRINK TRAGEDY If the shocking tragedies connetted with the liquor traffic were not so common, popu- lar indignation against its continued legzali- zation would speedily end it. But they are so frequent that they have come tobe, how- ever horrible, accepted and acquiesced in generally as a matter of course. Recently, a dissipated driver named Rankin, of this city, whose drunken habits have made his married life wretched, went home in the evening fiercely drunk, and. began to abuse his wife: Working himself intoa frenzy of rage, he finally struck her in the face with such force that sha fell like a log to the ound, herright arm being broken Then he lifted the moaning woman in his arms and despite her shrieks and cries for mercy, carried her to the stove and threw her on it, Advocate. side were terribly turned!—Temperance and held her there until her left arm and. HOLD THE TRAIN. “Madam, we miss the train at B—" “But can’t you make it. sir?” she gasped. “Impossible! it leaves at three, And we are due at quarter past.” #'Is there no way? Oh, tell me, then, Are you a christian?” “I am not.” “And are there none among the men ‘Who run the train?’ “No—I forgot— 1 think the fellow over here, Oiling the engine claims to be.” She threw upon the engineer A fair face, white with agony. “Are you a Christian?’ ‘“Yes,I am.” “Then, O sir, won’t vou pray with me, . All the long way that God will stav, That God will hold the train at B—?" “Twill do no good; its due at three, And’’—¢Yes but God can hold the traln, My dying child is calling me, And I must see her face again; Oh, won't you pray?’ *I will”—anod Emphatic, as he takes his place, ‘When Christians grasp the hand of God They grasp the power that rules the race. Out from the station swept the train On time—swept on past wood and lea; The engineer with cheeks aflame, Prayed, ¢*O Lord, hold the train at B—1 Then flung the throttles wide, and like Some giant monster of the plain, ‘With panting sides ana mighty strides, Past hill and valley swept the train. A half—a minule—two—are gained. Along those burnished lines of steel His glances leap, each nerve is strained, And still he prays with fervent zeal. Heart, hand and brain, with one accord, Work while his prayer ascends to heaven, “Just hold the train eight minutes, Lord, And Pll make up the other seven.” With rush and roar through meadow ‘ands, Past cottage home and green hillsides, The panting thing obeys his hands, And speeds along with giant strides. . » * * * rney say an accident delayed The train a little while; but He Who listened while His children prayed, In answer, held the train at B—— —[New Orleans Picayune. WOMANLINESS FIRST. Miss Frances BE. Willard says, concerning the higher education of woman : “If, to take up the classics, she must lay down the dust-brush and broom; if, while her mind brightens, her manners rust; if a taste for” Homer is incompatible with a taste for home; if, in fine, she must put off the crown of womanliness ereshe can wreath her brow with laurels of scholarship,—then, for the sake of dear humanity, let her fling away the laurels that she may keep the crown. She must gain without losing or all islost. Be this ber motto: ‘Womanliness first—after- ward what you will.””? FALSE HUMILITY, The master is robbed of much service from a false humility which belittlies individual importance. It would not have been. the proper thing for the prodigal to have gone around to the kitchen like a tramp when his father opened the front door for his entrance and offered a full reinstatement in all the joys and privileges of sonship. And this is a lesson of the grand parable which we may well Jay to heart. We may not take a lower lace than that to which God calls us. There s quite a general tendency to undervalue humble spheres of service. Small, weak churches contract their efforts within them- selves and withhold their contributions to the Boards, because what they can do seems so insignificant. Individuals think because they do not stand on high pedestals there is no light for them to shed. But this is not God’s thought. Measured against the vast- ness of the work to be done, one church, one individual, may seem of small account. One gun in battle does not seem decisive, yet it is all one soldier is called upon to carry. God can and does make use of the one church and the one man power very signuicantly ofttimes. One Mozes was enough for his purpose in bringing bis charch out of Egypt. One Luther was enough to fire the tor¢h which set the reformation ablaze. One Stanley is enough for God’s plan in the dark continent so far. His work will give the entire church enough to do ere long. Souls are redeemed in units, not in masses. The redeeming blood rescues each ransomed soul from insignificance. There is not a spare member in all the sacramental host. ‘What isthatin thy band? Neglect not the gift that is in thee. Let no man take thy crown. —[Christian Intelligencer, HELPING THE MINISTER. ‘Wallace is seven years old. Ever since he was three, he has been a Sunday school boy. He loyes Sunday school; but, till lately, has not liked going to church. It was so much pleasanter he thought to stay at home, as he was sometimes allowed, with mamma, who is an invalid, and listen to her stories from the Bible and “Our Little Ones.” One day last spring a great change came Into Wallace’s life; his papa, a machinist, was suddenly killed. When the next Sabbath came, Wallace asked ‘“Mayn’t I come home after Sunday school and stay with you?” But his lonely, heart-broken mamma had the courage to say, “No, my son. Remem- ber papa will not be there loday ; and when the minister looks from his pulpit, and sees the empty seat, it may trouble bim. Ithink he will like to see you in papa’s place.” 80 4hat morning, atthe close of Sunday school, the little man went at once up-stairs and took the seat his father bad occupied from week to week, with rare exceptions, for years back. he After service he hurried home to tell his mother: “I guess I helped him a litte, cause he came and spoke to me.” Since then. every Sunday, Wallace feels that he has a place to fill in the church. ‘When, sometimes, the ushers brings stran- gers to that pew, the little boy by the door, standing up makes his slender figure very small that they may pass in; but never gives up ‘“papa’s seat” to any one. Not only the pastor, but many of us; while our hearts ache with pity, feel confident that such a boy, with stch a mother, wil some day take his good father’s placein the church and the world.—[National Baptist. © LIQUOR IN ALASKA, ‘Ine President has issued an executive order continuing in force, with certain mod- ifications, the existing rulesand regulations regarding the sale of intoxicating liquorsin Alaska, with a view to a more strict en- forcement oii the act of Congress prohibit- ing the sale of intoxicating liquors in the Territory, except for medicinal, mechanical or seisntific purposes.—New York Observers Kindness comes with a double grace and tenderness from the old; it seems in them the hoarded and long purified benevolence of years, as if it had survived and conquered the selfishness of youth. : 4 Rtg ———— i ———— Tae American Baptist Year Book, just out, gives the total Baptist membership last god as 3,164,227. The total this year is 3,~ ,806, an increase of 105,679. The numbef reported baptized in 1890 was 140,058; in 1891, 160,247. The total contributions re- rted in 1891 were $11,215,579; total in 1892, 11,886,558, a slight increase, not propor- tioned to the increase in numbers and wealth, In the contributions of this year three States exceed $1,000,000, in the follow- ing order: Massachusstts, $1,037,408: New York, $1,640,534; Pennsylvania, $1.012,% It takes more courage to endure t to act. ia - Mercy is the touch of a mother ing a wound. The right kind of a man is never any by persecution. i The gold plating on a wire does make it any stronger. i The surest way to win the love of peo- ple is to becomes lovable. : Whenever a wise man makes a mistake it teaches him something. Some of the organ’s sweetest n come from pipes that can not be seen. Self-conceited people are very apt to think they can get along without help. ; He On the day that a man finds out that he is 4 fool he has became a near neigh- bor to wisdom. : The only people who are not made better by giving are those who do nck give half enough. or The people who are trying the herdest to get. rich in this world will be the poorest in the next. : : No man can get wisdom enough keep him from seeing to-morrow that he has been a fool to-day. : Light travels at the rate of.neaely two hundred thousand miles { it is a small consolation to think: of it when you fall over a wheglbarrow in 2 dark.—Indianapolis (Ind.) Ram's Horn. ' Russian Justice. At the last sojourn of the Czar of Rus- siain Denmark some months a stranger threw a paper into the carriage of the Czar and was arrested. The truth The paper was a petition of a civil engineer from the city of Philipps polis, in Bulgaria, called Ilnitzky. He ad been in business at Kieff, in Ru 1a, and had been very successfal. had supplied the brains and several Rus- sians'the cash. ‘When the business was most flourishing his partners asked to go out witha small gratification. As he refused they managed to have him ex- pelled and taken across the frontier. obtdined some money and’ went to | Petersburg to sue for his right, when he was again arrested and kept in prison foi five months, at the end of which time he was again sent across the frontier He obtained a Turkish passport again went into Russia. He was aga arrested and accused of participation in the murder of General Irentelen. He was taken to Kieff to be tried, but no proof against him was forthcoming, Then he was accused of irregularities in his office during the time he was in busi ness there. He was sentenced to eigh— teen months’ imprisonment, at the end of which time he was again taken across the frontier. He went to Denmark and cast his petition to the Czar asking for justice only. But he has never received an an swer to his petition. When at Vienna, Ilnitzky was asked to goto the Russian consulate; where he was handed the val- uables that had been taken from him when. he was confined in prison. Among them was a ring set with" a ruby. The original stone had had a value of $2500 the glass imitation in: the ring handed him at the consulate was not worth fifty cents, but the consulate refused to do anything in the matter.—Chicago Here ald, . Steaming Babies. g Within the past few months mem- branous croup has been usually prevalent among small children throughout the: tity, and the children’s wards in the numerous hospitals have been crowded with the little sufferers from this scourge. At the Children’s Hospital, where they. have had a large number of cases, a new form of treatment is issued which has proved successful in forty-two per cent. of the cases, an extremely large propor- tion. 2 ” ge At this institution, as soon as the children are found to be suffering from fe complaint, they are placed on a cot, rom the four corners of which poles ex- tend upward several feet. They are joined at the top by strips, and blankets are thrown over the whole, complotely inclosing the patient. stove, on which is a large kettle, stands on the floor at the foot of the bed. The kettle is filled with amixture of gum camphor, oil of turpentine and water. = This is brought to a boil, and a tube leading from the kettle goes under the blankets and carries the steam inside, where it condenses on the blankets in great drops, the moisture and the fumes of the - drug enabling the patient to breathe. 3 Yio When the case is extremely bad ane. other instrument is used consisting of a small spirit lamp which is a small vessel that acts as & boiler. On the sideisa glass bulb filed with bicarbonate of soda, glycerine and water. A glass tube extends into the bed and is placed at the patient’s mouth. The heat from the lamp causes the steam from the liquid in the tube to pass into the boiler and thea through the second tube to the patient's mouth.—Philadelphia Record. Successful System of ¢‘Banting.” To those who have reason to wish that their too solid flesh would melt the following list of things to be abstained from, which is part of a successfui sys- tem of ¢‘banting,” may -be of interest. - Meat, fish and game, generally speaking. may be eaten, but there must be no soups, no sauces, no butter, no patatoes, no salmon, no pork, no veal, no beerand no milk or sugar in the coffee or tea. No liquid is to be drunk with meals half hour afterward a *‘straight” cup coffee or tea may be {taken. To th on the other hand, who wish to plump up a bit the advice is given to take at least eight glasses of milk a day, with cream in it, in addition to threes good meals. To take massage instead of. ercise, remain in bed as much as p ble and after each bath be rubbe: ut oil. —Chicago Posts A small kerosens
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers