BEV. OR. TALWAGE'S SERNON #HE EVILS OF SLOTHFULNESS, he Sunday Sermon as Delivered by the : Brooklyn Divine. Text: “The slothful man roasieth not . that which he took in huniting.'—Prov- erbs xii., 27. David and Jeremiah and Ezakel and Micah ana Solomon of the text showed that some time tiey had been out on a hunting ex- pedition. Spears, lances, swords and nets were employed in this service. A deep pit- fall would be digred. In the center of it there was some raised ground with a pole on which alamb would be fastened, and the wild beast not seeing the pitfall, but only seeing the lamb would plunge for its prey and dash down, itseif captured. Birds were ceught ip gins or pierced with arrows. The hunters in olden time had two missions—one . to clear the land of ferocious beasts, and the otber to obtain meat for themselves and _ their families. Ths occupation and habit of hunters are a favorite Bible simile. David seid he was hunted by his enemy like a par- ' fridge upon the mountain, My text is a Lunting scene. A sportsman arrayed in a-garb appropri- ate to the wild chase lets slip the bloo?- thirsty hcunds from theic kennels, and mounting his fleet horse, with a halloo and the yell of the greyhound pack they are off and away, throuzh braks and del), over marsh and moor, across caasms where a misstep would karl horse and rider to death, Pp-unging into mire up to the haunches or in- to swift streams up to the bit, till the gams is tracked by dripping foam and blood, and the antiers crack on the rocks, and the hunter has just time to be in at the death. Yet, after all the hasie and peril of the chase, my text represeats this sporisman as being too indolent to dress the game and prepare it for food. He lets it lie in the : dooryard of his home and become a portion “for vermin and beaks of prey. Thus by one master siroke Solomon gives a picture of laziness, when he says, ‘‘The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting.” Ghee most of hunters have the game they shot or entrapped coo ed the same evening or the next day, but not so with this laggard of the text. Too lazy to rip off the hide. Too lazy to kindle the fire and put toe grid- iron on the coals, The first picture 1 ever bouzht was an en- graving of Thorwaldser’s ‘‘Autumn.” The clusters of grapes are ripe on the vine of the homestead, pe tie returned hounds, pant- ing from the chase, are lying oa the doorsill the hunter is unsiouldering the game, , while the housewife is about to take a portion of it and prepare it for the evening meal. Unlike the person of the text, she was énough industrious fo roast that whica had been taken in huuting. But the world has had many a specimen since Solomon's time cf those whose lassitude and improvi- dence and absurdity were depicted in my text. The most of those who have made a dead failure of life can look back and see a time when a great opportunity opened, but they did not know it. hey were not as wise as George Stephen- son, ‘the father of railways,” who, when at ‘ sixteen years of age he received an apppint- ment to work at a pumping engine for twelve shillings a week, cried out: “Now, I am a made man for life.” God gives to most men at least one good opportunity. A great Grecian general was met by a group of bag~ gers, and he said to them: ‘If you want sts to plow your land I will lend you some. If you want land I will give you some. If you want seed to sow your land, 1 will see that you get it. But I will encour- aze none in idleness.” So God gives to most people an opportunity of extrication from depressed circumstances. As if to create in us a hatred for indolence, God has made those animals which are slug- gish to appear loathsome in our eyes, while those which are fleet and active he has clothed with attractiveness. The tortoise, the sloth, the snail, the ¢rocs- dile repel us, while the deer and the gazelle are as pleasing as they are fleet, and from the switt wings of innumerable birds Gol has spared no purple or gold or jet or crim- son or snowy whiteness. Besides all this the Bible is constantly assaulting the vic: of laziness, Solomen seems to order the idler out of his sight as beyond all human instruc- fion when he says, ‘“Go to the anf, thou shig- ard: consider her ways and be wise.” And aul seems to drive him up from his dining table before he gets through with the first course of food with the assertion, ‘If any will not work, neither shall he eat.’ Now, what are the causes of laziness and what are its evil results? I knew a man who was never up to time. It seemed impossible for him to meet an engagement. When he was to be married he missed the train. His . watch seemed to take on the habits of its owner, and was always too slow. He hdd a ponstitutional letharzy ior which he did not seem responsible. So indolence often arises from the naiural temperament. I do not know but there is a constitutional tendency {0 this vice in every man, owever active you may generally be, have you not on some warm spring day felt a touch of this feeling on you, although you may have shaken it off us you would a reptile? But some are so powerfully tempted to this by their bodily ccnstitution that all the work of their lite has Leen accomplished wiin this lethargy _ hanging on their back or treading on their heels. You sometimes behold it in childhood. The child moping and longing within doors while his brothers and sisters are at play, or if he join them he is behind in every race “and beaten in every game. His nerves, his muscles, bis Lones are smitten ~with this palsy. He vegetates rather than lives, creeps rather than walks, yawns rather tina preaties. The animal in his naturs is stronger than the intelieciual. He is gen- erally a great eater and active only when he cannot digest what he has eaten. Itre- quires as much effort for nim to walk as for others to run. Tanguor and drowsiness are ' his natural inheritance. He is built for a . slow sailing vessel, a heavy hulk and an m- sufficient cutwata. Place an active man in such a. bodiiy structure and the latter would be shacken to pieces in one day. very Jaw ot physiology demands that he be supine. Such a one is not responsible for this powerful tendency oi his nature. His great duty is resistance. * When I see a man fighting an unfortunate .femperament all ny sympathies are aroused, and I think of Victor Huzo’s account of a ‘scene on a warship, where, in the midst of a ‘storm at sea, a great cannon got loose, and it was crasting this way and that and would ‘have aestroyed tie ship: and the chief gun- ner, at the almost certain destruction of his own life, rushed at it with a handspike to thrust between the spokes of the wheel of the golling ¢annon, and by a fortunate leverage arrested the gun till it could be lashed fast. Bur toat struggle did not seem so dishearten- ing as that man enters upon who attempts $o fight his natural temperament, whether it be too fast of too slow, 100 nervous or too lymphatic. God help bim, for God only can. Furthermore, involence is often the result of easy circumstances. Rough experience in eartier lite seems to be necessary in order to make a man active and enterprising. Mountaineers are nearly aiways swarthy, and those who have toiled among mountains of trouble get the most nerve and muscle and brain, Chose who have become the de- liverers of nafions, once had not. where to Jay their heads. Locusts and wild honey have been the fare of niany a Jobn the Bap- . gist. while those wio had been fondled of "fortune and petted ani praised have often grown up lethargic, i Brey es none of that heroism which " gomes from fighting ons own battles. The warm summer sun of prosperity has w ‘ened and relaxed them. ~ Born among the: Taxuries of life, exartion has been unneces- gary, and therefore they spend their time in taking it easy. Tiley niay enter into. busi- 36 at they are not fitted for its applica- raships, for ils repulses, and a igh e ast of that which they have go. b horough inaction | garnered health fi on 4 ey ey] 7 mA if ‘costly yacht may do well enough on the smooth, glassy » but cannot livean hour amid a chopped sea. Another Sauge of indolenes is severe dis- couragemen ere are those around us who started life with the most sanguine expectation, Their enterprise exci the remark of all compeers. But some sudden and overwhelming misfortune met them, and henceforth they have been inactive. Trouble, instead of making them more de— termined, have overthrown them. They have lost all self-reliance. They imagine that all men and all occurrences ars against them. They hang their heads when once they walked upright: They never look you up in the eyes, ey become misanthropic and fEonoance all men liars and scoundrels. ey go melancholic and threadbare to their ves. You cannot rouse them to action by the most glittering offer. In most cases these persons nave been hon- orable and upright all their lives, for rogues never get discouraged, as there is always some other plot they have not laid and some other trap they have not sprung. There are but few sadder sights than a man of talent and tact and undoubted capacity giving up life as a failure, like a line of magnificent steamers rotting against wharves, from which they ought to have been carrying the exports of a nation. Every great financial panic produces a large cropof such men. In the great establishments where they were partners in business they are now weighers or draymen or clerss on small salary. Reverie is also a cause of indolence. There are multitudes of men who expect to achieve great success in life, w ho are entirely un- willing to put forth any physical, moral or intellectual effort. They have a great many eloquent theories of life, They are all the while expecting something to turn up. They have read in lizht literature how men suddenly and .unexpectedly cams to large estates, or found a pot of buried gold at the foot ot the rainbow of Good Luck, or had some great offer made them. They have passed their lives in reverie, Notwithstanding he is pinched with pov- erty, and any cther man would be downcast at the forlorn prospect, he is always cheer- ful and sanguine and jovial, for he does not know but that he may within a day or two of astounding success. You cannot but be entertained with his cheerfulness of tem- pér. All the world wishes him well, for he never did anybody harm. At last he dies in just the same condition in which he lived, sorrowful only because he must leave the world just at the times when his long-thought- of plans were about to be successful. 2t no young man begin lite with reverie. There is nothing accomplished without hard work, Do notin idleness expect something to turn up. It will turn down. Indolence and wicke iness always make bad luck. These people of reverie are always about to begin. They say, ‘Wait a little.” So with the child who had a cage containing a beau- tiful canary, and the door of the cage was open and a cat was in the room. ‘Better shut the door of tha cage,” said the mother. “Wait a minute,” said the boy. While he was waiting the feline -ertature with one spring took the canary. The way that many lose the opportunity of a lifetime is by the same principle. They say, ‘Wait a minute.” y advice is not to watt at all, Again, bad habits are a fruitful source of indolence. Sinful indulgences shut a man’s shop and dull his tools and steal his profits. Dissoluteness is generally the end of in- dustry. Thera are thoss who have the rare faculty of devoting ‘occasionally a day ora wees to loose indulgences, and at the ex- piration of that time go back with bleared eyes anl tremulous hands and bloated cheeks .to the faithful and successful per- formance of taeir duties. Indeed their em- ployers and neighbors exp:zct this amuse- ment or occasional season of frolic and wassail. Some of the best workmen and most skill- ful artisans have this mode of conducting tnemseives, but as the time rolls on the sea- son of dissipation becomes more protricted and the season of steadiness and sobriety more limited, until the employers become disgusted and the man is given up to a con- tinual and ruinous idleness. hen that point has arrived he rushes to destruction with astonishing velocity. When a man with strong proclivities of appetite has noth- ing to do, no former self respect or moral restraint or the beseechings of kindred can save him. The only safety for a man who feels himself under the fascination of any torm of temptation is an employment which affords neither recreation nor holiday. Nothing can be more unfortunate for a man of evil inclination than an occupation which keeps him exceedingly busy during a part of the year and then leaves him for weeks and months entirely unsmployed. There are many men who cannot endura protracted leisure. .. They are like fractious steeds that must constantly be kept to the load, for a week’s quiet makes them intrac- table and uncontroliable. "Bad habits pro- dues idiepess, and idleness prodnces bad habits. he probability is that you will either have fo give up your looses indulgences or else give up your occupation. Sin will take all enthusiasm out of your work and make you sick of life's drudgery, and though now and then between your s2asons of dissi- pations you may rouse up to a sudden activity and start azain in the chass of some high and noble end, even thouzh you catch the game you will sink back into slothfulness before you have roasted that which you took in hunting. Bad habits unfit a man for any- thing but politics. Now, what are the results of indolence? A marked consequence of this vice is physical disease. The nealthiness of the wholenatu- ral world depends upon aetivity. The winds, tossed and driven in endless circuits, scattering the mists from ths mountains, and scooping out death damps from the caves, and blasting the miasma of swamps, and hurling back the fetid atmosphere of great cities, are healthy just because. of their swiftness and uncontrollableness of sweep. But, after awhile, the wind falls and the hot sun pours through it, and when the leaves are still and the grain fields bend not once all day long, then pestilence smites its victims and digs trenches for the dead. All the healthy beauty of that whica we see and hear in the natural world is depend- ent upon activity and uarest. Men will be healthy —intellectually, morally and physi- cally—only upon the condition of an active industry, [ know men die every day of over- work, They drop down in coal pits, and among the spindles of Northern factories, and on the cotton plantations of the South. In every city and town and village you find men groaning under burdens as, in the East, the camels stagger under their loads between Aleppo and Damascus, Life is crushed out every day at counters and workoencaes and anvils. But there are other multitudes who die from mere inertia. Indulgences every day are contracting disease beyond the catholicon of allopathy and homeopathy and hydropathy and eclecticism. Rather than work they rush upon lanc:ts and scalpels. Nature has provided for thuss w.io violate her laws by inactivity—what rheum for the eyes, and what gout for the fest, and what curvature for the spine, and what strictures for the chest, and what tubercles for the lungs, and what rheumatism for the muscles, and what neuralgias for the nerves. Nature in time arraigns every such culprit at her bar, and presents against him an indictment of one hundred counts, and convicts him on each one of them. Thelaws of nature will not stop their action because men may be ignorant of them. Disease, when it comes to do its work, does not ask whether you un- derstand hygiene or pathology or materia medica. : if thers were not so many lies written on tombstones and in obituaries you would see what multitudes of the world’s inhabitants are slain in their attempts to escape the necessity of toll. Men cross oceans and con- tinents, and climb the Alps, and sit under the sky of Italy or the shadow of Egyptian’ Pyramid, and go down into ancient ruins, ‘and bathe at Baden Baden, and come home L with the same shortness of breath, and the same poor digestion, and the same twitch- ing of the nerves, when at home with their own spade they might have dug health out of the ground, or with their own axe hewn health out of a log, or with their own scythe he grain field. spectability of an occu exertion 1% demands, a their children enter any employment where their hands may be soiled, for ing that a laborer’s overalls are just as honorable as a priest’s robesand an anvil is just as re- spectable as a pulpit. Health flies from the bel of cown and says. “I cannot sleep here;” and from the table spread with ptarmigan and epicurean viands, saying, *‘[ cannot eat here;” and from the vehicle of soft cushions and easy sorings, saying, “I cannot ide here;” and from houses luxuriously warmed and upholstered, say- ing, *‘I cannot live hers;” and some day you meet health, who declined all these luxuriant places, walking in the plow’s furrow, or sweltering beside the hissing forge. or spin- ning among the looms, or driving a diy, or tinning a reof, or carrying hods of brick up the ladder of a wall. Farthermore, notice that indolence en- dangers the sou’. Satan makes his chief conquests over men who either have noth- ing 10 do, or, if they have, refuse to do it. There is a legend that St mas, years after Christ's resurrection, began again to doubt, and he went to the Apostles and told them about his doubts. Each Apostle looked at him with surprise and then said he must be excused, for he had no time to listen aay. longer. Then St. Thomas went to the de- vout women of his time and expresssd his doubts. They said they were sorry, but they had no time to listen. Then St. Thomas concluded that it was because they were so busy that the Apostles and the de- vout women had no doubts. Idleness not only leads a man into asso- ciations which harm his morals, but often thrusts upon him the worst kind of skep- ticism. oafers are almost always infidels, or fast getting to be. Consummate idlers never read the Bible, and if they appear in church can be distinguished in an audience of a thousand by their listlessness, for they are too lazy to hear. It is mot so much among occupied merchants, industrious me- chanics and’ professional men always busy that Fou hear ae religion i of Jesus maligned, asin public lounging places, given up to profanity and re They have no sympathy with the Book that says, “Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” I never knew a man given up to thorough idleness that was converted. Simon and Andrew were converted waile fishing, and Lydia while selling purple, and the shepherds of Bethlehem watching their flocks heard the voice of angels, and Gideon was thrash- ing on the thrashing floor, but no one was ever converted with his hands in his pockets, Let me tell the idler that there is no hopa for him either in this world or in the worid whichis to come. If the Son of God, who owned the whole universe, worked in the carpenter shop of Joseph, surely we, who own so little, yet want so much, ought to be busy. The redeemed in heaven are never idle. What exciting songs they sing! On what messages of love they fly through all the universe, fulfilling God’s high bshests and taking worlds in one circuit; rush with infinite flerceness against sin ws cruelty and oppression, and making the gates of hell to quake at the overthrow of the principalities of darkness, and in the same twinkle of an eye speeding back to their thrones with the news of sinners re- pentant. The River of Life is ever flowing, and the palms ever waving, and tha hallelu- Jjahs ever rising, and the harps ever sound- ing, and temple always open, and the golden streets always a-rush with chariots of salva- tion, and the last place which you ought ever to want to go to is heaven, unless you want to be busy. Alas, my hearers, that in this world there should be so many loungers and so few workers, Wego into the vineyard of the church and we hear the arbor groan under the heft of the vines and the clusters hang- ing down, large and thick and ripe, cluster and cluster, fairer than the bunches of Eshcol and Engedi, and at a touch they will turn into wine more ruddy than that of Libanus and Helbon. But where are the men to gather the vintage and tread the wine press? ' There comes to your ear a sound of a thousand wheat fields ready for the sickle. The grain is ready. Itis tall, it is full, it is golden. It waves in the sunlight, It rustles in the wind. It would fill the barns, It would crowd the garners. After a while it will lodge, or the mildew and the rust will smite it, Oh, where are the reapers to bind the sheaves! The enemies of God are mar- shaled. You see the glitker of ~their bucks lers. You hear the Pawing of their chargers, and all along the line of battle is heard the shout of their great captain, and at the armies of the living God they hurl their de- fiance. They come, not in numbers like the hosts of Sennacherib, but their multitude is like the leavesof the forest, and the sound of their voices like the thunder of the sea. Mailed in hell’s impenetrable armor, they advanca with the waving of their banners and the dancing of their plumes. Their ranks are not easily to be broken, for the batteries of hell will open to help them and ten thousand angels of darkness mingle in the fight. Where are the chosen few who will throw themselves into the jaws of this conflict? King James gave to Sir John Scott, for his courage, a charter of arms with a num- ber of spears for the crest and -the motto, “Ready! aye, ready!’ and yet, when God calls us to the work and the cause demands our espousal and interests dreadful ‘as the judgment and solemn as eternity tremble in the balance, how few of us are willing to throw ourselves into tha breach, crying, “Ready! aye, ready!” Ob, I should like to see God arise for the defense of His own cause and the disenthral- ment of a world in bondage! How the fet. ters would snap and how the darkness would fly, and how heaven would sing. You have never seen an army like that which God shall gather from the four winds of heaven to fight His battles. They shall cover every hilltop and stretch through every valley and man the vessels on every sea. There shall neither be uproar nor wrath nor smoke nor bloodshed. Harvests shall not lie waste in the track nor cities be consumed. Instead of the groans of captives shall come the song of those redeemed. et the conquest shall be none the less complete, for if in that hour when all stould be vigilant the church of God should neglect to seize the prize and the cause should seem to fall from the graveyards ‘and ceme- teries of all Christendom the good and faith- ful of the past would spring to their feet in time to save the cause, and though the sun might not again stand still above Gibeon, or the moon in the valley of Ajalon, the day would be long enough to gain a decisive vie- tory for Ged and the truth. But my text is descriptive also of those who hunt for opportunities, and when they get them do not use them. The rabbit they overcome by an early morning tramp lies for weeks uncooked in the dooryard. The deer that they brought down after long and exhausting pursuit in the Adirondacks lies on the doorsill undressed, and the savory venison becomes a malodorous carcass. They roast not that which they ‘took in hunting. Opportunities Iaborously captured, yet use. less, and that which came in invitingly, like a string of plover-and quail and wild duck hung over a hunter’sshoulder, turns to some- thing worse than nothing, So with Agrippa when almost persuaded tobe a Christian. So with the lovely young man who went away from Christ very sor=3| rowful. So with tens of thousands who have whole hands full, -whole skies full of winged opportunities which profit’ them nothing at all, because they roast not that which they took in hunting. Oh, make out of this captured moment a banquet for eter- nity. The greatest prize in the unjvssole- be won is the love ‘and pardon of’ Win that-and you can say: sey Now I have found a Friend Whose love shall never-ende- «<-ccc.c. Jesus is mine! wi eee GI esr According to a recent estimate there are under ditch in the West 18,533,107 man ho. estimate the re- acres. 11 Pet. i., 8). LESSON FOR SUNDAY MAY 1. “Prayer of the Penitent,” Psalm 1-13. Golden Tex’: Psalm iv10—Com: msntary. 1. “Have mercy upon me, O God, accord- ing to Thy en dues; according unto the multitude of tender mercies blot out my transgressions’ This is the third of the seven penitential psalms, the others being the vi,, xxxii.. cil, exxx., cxliii., xxxviii, The title gives the circumstances which led David to write this psalm, and the whole story is found in Il Sam. xi., and xii. Let all consider the true significance of the seventh commandment as taught 'by our Lord Jesus, and let only those who are not guilty throw stones. ¢ ¥ 2. “Wash me thoroughly from mine in- iquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” Like the leper who said, **Lord, if Thou wilt Phou canst make me clean” ( viii, 2), he be- lieves that the Lord can cleanse him, and he wants it done Shoroughls, How such a word as I John i,, 9, would have comforted him ‘If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” tually the same teaching in Lev. vi., 1-7. 3. "For I acknowledge my transgressor: -and my sin is ever before me.” *Only ac- .knowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy 2 was 's Dies with Israel by Jeremiah (Jer. iii, 18). avid does this, not making light of 1% nor sseking to hide either his TARY, the root of all the trouble, or his transgres- sion in which he overstepped the line, or his sm in which he came short of the mark (Ex. RS Vhr ast thes, thes only. baveT . ee, thee on ave I sinned, and done this evil in thy nt that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,and ‘be clear when thou judgest.” hen Nathan reproved him he said, ‘I havesinned against the Lord” (II Sam, xii., 13). When Joseph was sore tempted, insteadof yielding as David did, he said, ‘‘How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? (Gen. xxxix.,, 9.) 5. ‘Behold, I was shapen in iniqui , and in sin did my mother conceive me.” David zes sin in his naiure, he did not-be- lieve that we are by nature holy, but as Paul testifies by the Spirit, ‘By nature the hildren of wrath, even as others” (Eph. if.y . *Byone man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.” “The carnal’ mind is enmity against God” (Rom. v., 12; viii., 7). 6. *‘Behold. thou desirest truth in the in- ward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” There is something in us known in Scripture as **The imaginaiion of the thoughts of the heart” (I Chron, xxviii., 9; xxix., 18). And it is writ- ten, *‘f, the Lord, search the heart, I try the rems.” 3 7. “‘Furge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” God made provision for the cleans- ing of the people whom He redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, and to understand this verse one should be. familiar with the story of the leper and the two little birds of Lev. xiii. and Xiv., and also the red heifer story of Num. xix. In the cleansing of each case, the leper and the defilement contracted by the way, the unclean one could do noth- ing for himself until pronounced clean by the Priest. The hyssop was used to sprinkle the blood, or the ashes and water, which symbolized and typified the blood of Jesus Christ, (See Lev. xiv., 4, 7; Num. xix, 18, and compare Isa. i., 18.) 8. ‘‘Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may re- joice.” One's very bones are figuratively said to suffer because of sin, ‘‘My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” Neither is there any rest in my bones, because of. my sin” (Ps. xxxil., 3; xxxviii., 3). And of Christ, our substitute, bearing our sins, it is written: *‘I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels” (Ps. xxii., 14). How foartul is sin thus to affect the Holy One of od. 9, “Hide Thy face from my sins ani blot out all mine iniquities.” God said concern- ing Israel, ‘Mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquities hid from Mine eyes” (Jer. xvi., 17). But Hezekiah could say after his repentence, “Thou hast cast ai my sins be- hind Thy back” (Isa. xxxviii., 17), and con- cerning Israel when she shall return to God it is written, *‘I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.” “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (lsa. xlii, 25; xlvi., 22; 0, vii,; 10), 10. “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God; and renew a right spirit within me.” This is going to the root of the difficulty. We sopetimes hear of a change of heart; if by thit is meant a new one instead of the old sinful one, all is well; for the old cannot be improved (Rom. viii., 7). We must be born from above (John iii., 8, margin) and receive a nature we never had before, even the divine nature (II Pet. i, 4), before we can enter the kingdom of God. This God is ready to do for us, but He wants us to ask Him (Ezek. xxxvi., 26, 27, 37). What is worth having is surely worth asking for. 11. *“*Cast me not away from Thy pres- ence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” Moses prayed, *‘If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” And the Lord said, ‘My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest (Ex. xxxiii., ~14, 15). The strength and comfort of Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Jeremiah and all the ser- vants of God was His presence with them (Ex. iii., 12; Josh, i., 5; Judg. vi, 16; Jer. i, 8 19). And to us our Lord has said, “Lo, lam with you alway” (Math. xxviii, 20). He has promised never to leave us, and-has told us that the Spirit will abide in us (John xiv., 17), so that if we will we may rejoice in the abiding of the Father, Son and Spirit in us (John xiv., 17, 23). # 12. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy sal- vation, and wbphold me with Thy free spirit.” Salvation and the joy of salvation are two different things; the last we may lose, but not the first. Many have the first .who have not the last. Receiving Jesus, we have life and are children of God (John i, 12; iii., 16), but assurance and joy comes by resting on the infallible word of God. irre- spective of our feelings concerning the result of such acceptance of Christ (Rom. xv., 13; The Spirit works through His word and thus gives us fullness of joy (John xv., 11; I John i., 4). 13. “Then will T teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” This is the end of our salvation or restoration, that others may hear of Jesus. Jesus instructed Peter that after he was restored he should strengthen his brethren (Luke xxii., 82), Being saved, we should for- get entirely our own welfare, and, give our- selves as living sacrifices to make known His righteousness, show forth His praise, and thus hasten the tine when He shall appear in His glory to build up Zion. See verses 14, 15, 18, and compare Ps. cii., 16.—Lesson Helper. — er SHE TORE UP THE WILL, A Pretty Nebraska Girl Would Accept Neither a Lover Nor His Money. Liycory, Nes. April 23. — Some six months ago Arend Arends, a well-to do farmer, hanged himself because pretty Mary Van Hove, a neighbor’s daughter, did not return his love. Arends lefta will in which he bequeathed “his farm and possessions, | valued at $10,000, to Mary. To-day she came into court in response to a . summons but positively declined to file the will for probate, dramatically tearing up the docu. ‘ment before the astonished relatives, and renouncing her claims in favor of Arends mother, who lives in Reynolds county, Mo. But be had vir- | WHICH SHALL IT BE? A tidy little home for Betsy and me, With just enough room for one, two, three? Or a tumble-down hut with a broken gate, And a sad-eyed woman toiling early and Which shall it be For mine and me? A five cent glass of beer for me, Or a five cent loat for all of us three? Beer or baby—wine ar wife, : ‘Which do I hold more precious than life, Which shall it be For mine and me! Potatoes and salt with a crust of bread For the besv litile woman the Lord ever made, ‘While the rumseller’s wife fesds on turkey and wine : | Bought with my money—if I so incline, This shall it be For mine and me! Tatters and rags for my little one, My fair comely baby, my own darling son; ‘While the rumseller’s children go warm and well clad, Sa On my Saningh wrested from my bonny "This shall it be For mine and me ‘Well, man, do you think me a whole-eyed fool sy Blindly to serveas the runseller’s tool? Ah! How can I hesitate which to choose, When it’s all to gain—or all to lose For mine and me, For mine and me? DRUNKENNESS AND DISEASE. Drunkenness is indeed the cause of many fatal diseases—cersbral meningitis, conges- tion and softening of the brain, epilepsy, gastritia diseases of the liver, heart and idneys, and increased liability to all dis- eases, itself, however, drunkenness is not a disease known as. ‘‘inébriety” or by any other name intenled to make it less ous; but it is now, as it ever has been, the most debasing of all sins against both Divine and human laws, ani deserving the severest reprobation. lt should, therefore, be made proportionately the most odious and the most liable to punishment, as being the most effectual of all means for its pre- vention.—The Sanitarian. A REBUKE. Bishop Asbury was’ once the guest of a family who were very anxious to make his visit pleasant. They did everythingin their wer to show their hospitality, and make im feel at home. Af dinner a bottle of brandy was placed on the table, and he was invited to partake, but he declined. The lady blushed and said, ‘‘Bishop, I believe that brandy is good in its place.” *‘So do 1,” replied the bishop. *‘and if you have no objection, I will putit in its place.” So he arose and put it in the old-fashioned cupboard in the corner of the room, saying with emphasis, ‘That is the place, and there letit stay.” And there itdid stay, never to be brought on that table again. The dinner-tableis no place for the wine bottle or brandy bottle, for strong drink is hurtful for digestion. A well person does not need strong drink of any kind, and itis too dangerous to be used in sickness.—Youth’s Temperance Banner. EXHIBIT BY TEMPERANCE CHILDREK, At the great Columbian Exposition of 98 a building will be set apart for the use of the W. C. I. U., and in connection with it there will be a most unique exhibit by the temperance children of the whole world. The juvenile department is under the charge of Miss Anna A. Gordon, of Evanston, Il. : Cards 2x3 inches in size will be furnished to all juvenile temperance societies taroughont the world. Each child will write his or her autograph on ome, each country adopting its national color, or using white if pre- ferred. The United States will be repre- sented by red, white and blue. Canada has chosen crimson and yellow, the colors of the maple leaf, These cards will pe fastened into a chain, aniles long.and will festoon the headquarters of the W. C,. Td U depart ment, besides being draped round the world’s petition, which is fast assuming co- lossal proportions. SOBER MEN WANTED, About two months ago the employes of the Cleveland Rolling Milis Company upon going to their work saw the following no- tice posted on the gates and in all the mills; “Xow, and atter this date any employe who leaves his work or the yard during working hours, or is known to have entered or left a saloon, or to car beer or intoxicating liquors to the works, or is seen under the influence of liquor either coming to work, at work, or at any time during which he is supposed to be on duty, will be immediately discharged. W. B Chisholm.” When pay- day came and the men went to draw the money about half a dozen of them were informed that their services were no longer required. When they asked the reason they were told that they hud been seen going into the saloon during working hours. Cn enough, the sentiment among the working- men seems to be divided. Some say it is just right, as the work in which they are engaged is dangerous enough for men who are perfectly clear-headed. Others think the order dictatorial, and that it imposes on their “personal liberty,” rehashing the stale argument with which we are familiar, All right minded workingmen, and people gener- ally, will see that the proprietor has done a favor to those to whom he has furnished an added motive to lead sober lives.—Union Signal. . ! TEMPERANCE NEWS AND NOTES. : ‘The only foe England has to fear is drink,” said the late Prince Leopold. A royal commission has been appointed in Canada to inquire into the drink question. The decrease of revenue from spirits in Canada last year amounted to $1,600,000. Surgical operations are very successful in Japan, and the healing process is rapid, owing probably to the abstinence of the peo- ple from alcohol and their not being flesh eaters. There is a batallion of eighty boys in the Church of the Redeemer (congrezational), at Lakewood, Ill., every one of whom has taken the triple pledge against liquor, tobacco and profanity. Lady Somerset assisted recently in spilling some liquor which had been seized at Port- land, Me. ‘‘Here goes!” she said, as her neatiy-gloved hands upset a brown jug that the sheriff assigned to her. A successful competitor for the prize in a foot race made this graceful temperance speech 1n accepting it: ‘‘Gentlemen, I have won this cup by the use of my legs. I trust that I may never lose the use of my legs by the use of this cup.” ’ : In connection withthe British Woman’ | Temperance association there are four homes for inebriate women, through which upward of 350 patients have passed, many of whom are thoroughly reclaimed and most grateful for the help received. The London temperance hospital at its recent annual meeting heard reports which testify to its good management and beneficial work, Fifty per cant. of the patients were cured, and the death rate was about 63 per cent. Of the total number treated more than fifty per cent. were abstainers, A. Loyal Temperance Legion has be formed at the ke Cirlitian li ance Union coffee house, Minneapolis, It consists of the children who come ‘to the back door for the left-over food. These are given tickets which entitle them to some. thing each day and invite them into the hall to join the legion. HE total visible supply of cotton for the world is 4,265,181 bales, of which 881 bales are "American, against BS B184TS ad 1,532,078 bales respectively last year. Re- ssipis atall interior towns, 26,847 bales. Re- ntation 414 bales, Eth, BO0008S Dale, + Peles: Crop fn EASTER CAROL. Break, O glad morning, break thy dor; Night, with thy sceptre and da . gone! Tis morning, glad morning, should render - The homage now due to the cong ne | Go teli his disciples the Master is He has burst from the tomb wi and its chain: : He has freed him from death, he from its prison; He’s risen, he’s living, and ev reign! They in their sorrow the news lieving; Haste to the sepulchre empty and And there a sweet vision of angels They kuew that the night of th was done. Oh great was the power, the stre mighty, That broke from the grave and ¢ its sting . That opened weighty, : ; Oh praise ye his power as our Savio King! ; Down from high heaven an ang flying : And rom 'the dark sepulchre roll great stone, And he who so lafely hung bleedi dying Arose in his might as the conquerin Oh spread the glad tidings, go tell nation; Oh spread the glad tidings, go sp. abroad, ho Our Jesus has risen in robes of salva Yes, Jesus has risen, our Saviour God! —[Anna D.Walker, in American death’s gate SO mAassi TAVERNS SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS The following description of a: tavern, or groggery, is the seventh the confession ot the Waldenses an: genses, composed, at least, as far b year 1120 or nearly 800 years ago. Ii seen that strong drink holds its that the fruits thereof are as deadl stroying now as they were in ancie wx tavern is the fountuin of school of the devil; it works wond the place. It is the manner of God his power in the church, and to wor cles; that is to say, to give sightto to make the lame go, the dumb tos! deaf to hear; but the devil doth qt trary to all this in the tavern; fol drunkard goeth to a tavern, he gi rightly, but when he cometh forth h go at all, and he hath lost his sigh ing and his speech. The lectures ti read in this school of the devil are glu oathy, perjuries, Yings, and bl: and divers other villainies; for in gre quarrels, slanders, contention ers. LOOKING UNTO JES US. A lady had a dream, in which herself at the bottom of a deep it was, and immediately found he bottom of the pit. Again her e sight of the star, and -again she fel ascending. She had reached a cons height. Still desirous of an explas 80 strange a phenomenon, she eye downward, and fell to the bo! fearful violence.On recovering from of the shock, she bethought herself meaning of it all, and once again tu ere to the star, still shining so: above, and yet once again she fell borne upward. Steadily did she ki eve upon iis light, until at length sh herself out of the horrible pit, and safely planted on the solid ground a taught her the lesson that, in th danger aad trouble, deliverance | found, and found only in looking to [Dr. Guthrie. THE SABBATH QUESTION. It gives us great pleasure to note that while efforts are being made to 1 workingman of therest of the Sabb: United States, in Europe equally dete efforts are being made to recover t from the toils of labor. The follo which we cut from the “Christian at and minors from Sunday work, and mak the fiat of a minister of the governm necessary for any manufacturing oper. on the day of rest. Postal deliveries limited to one. Sunday evening : day morning newspapers are proh because of the Sun ay work necessary for their production. any shops are nc closed. = sa SS Belgium: A labor law has been passed diminish Sunday work in factories. Wi on state railways has been ce Denmark: A Sunday rest law has. passed. Shops gre closed at 9 a.m. day. Factories and workshops ma work between 9 a. m. and midnigh employes have at least alternate Sunda; Postal work is limi to one deli Tram-car work is considerably lessened. France; The work of the French for Sunday Rest, which was founded at International Paris Congress in 1889 spread with rapidity in many parts o country. The closing of shops bego more aud more common. Railway and parcels offices, have been closed at. m. or at noon, instead of at later hour Germany: A labor law protecting Lord’s day has been passed. The secon livery of letters on Sunday has been pressed throughout the whole empire traffic is limited. Shops are no largely in Berlin and other citics and and noné ma i \ is prohibited in mine pits, collieries, founderies, timber-yard yards and factories of all kinds. : Holland: One of the most influ newspapers has closed its offices on Sun in agresiont with the general movemer Sunday rest. Goods trains do not ru parcels and goods are delivered only e the morning. A law has been passéd ing rest for women and minors in fae and workshops. 5 : Hungary: A law has heen passed, ally the same as for Austria, both the rest longer; i. e., from 6 p. m. on day till midnight on Sunday. Tan Norway: The hitherto unbroken tramways has been reduced, and a proportion of men rest. Lubor in fs and workshops is greatly diminishe women and children are protected. ADMIRABLE WORK, Admirable work among inebriate is being done at the Brownsland Tem ‘Women, Peebleshire, unde auspices of the Scottish Christian Women who have fallen into hab temperance and who desire to refo are willing to enter such a home are at Brownsland for $1.75 a country where a poor creature has to like a slave to earn $1.50 salvation sh cheaper, ‘ i Assi itd THE work of installing the He grants in the Argentine Republi actively carried on. branch : to what is | Mauricie Colony, where the being establisheu, and 200 fa ready comfor:ably settled and the cultivation ot ‘the soil. or the “ C. I. Hood * 1 have b Hood’s Sars And I'know smell of my me, but this than a so the credit fo the last fe 8] 4 foe told sickness, ch I went to Ir mer month:
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers