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“ullY OF THE REDEEMED.
—p i
Ifthe Wall of Heaven is so Dazzlingly
Pertect How Much More so
What is Behind?
—————
Text: “The foundations of the wall of
the city were garnished with all manner of
precious stones.”—Revelation xxi., 19.
Shall I be frank and tell you what are my
designs on you to-day? They are to make
you homesick for heaven: to console you con-
cerning your departed Caristian friends by
giving you some idea of the brilliancy of the
scenes in which they now commingle; to
give all who love the Lord a more elevated
idea as to whera they are goin to pass the
most of the years of their existence, and to
set all the indifferent and neglected to quick
and immediate preparation, that they may
have it likewise.
Yea, itis to induce many of our young
people to study a volume of God that few
ever open, but without some acquaintance
with which itis impossible to understand
the Bible—[ mean the precious stones, their
crystalization, their powers of refraction,
their cleavage, their fracture, their Juster,
their phosphoresence, their transparency,
their infinity of color and shape, and what
they had to do with the welfare and doom
of families and the destinv of nations—aye,
the positive reve'ation they mae of God
Himself.
Mv text stands usin the presence of tho
most stupendous splendor of the universe.
and that is the wall of heaven, ani says of
its foundations that they are garnished with
all manner of precious stones. All the
ancient cities had walls for safety, and
heaven has a wall for everlasting safety.
You may say thata wall made up of all
manner of precious stones is figurative, but
you cannot understand the force and signifi-
cance of the figure unless ycu know some-
thing about the real structure and color and
value of the precious stones mentioned.
ow, I proposa this morming, so far as
the Lord may help me, to attempt to climb
not the wall of heaven, but the foundations
of the wall, and I ask you to join me in the
attempt to scale some of the height. We
shall only get part of the way up, but better
that than to stay down on the stupid level
where the most of us have all our lives been
standing. We begin clear down at the bot-
tom and where the wall begins.
The first layer of the foundation, reaching
all around ths city and for 1500 miles, is a
Jayer of jasper. Indeed there is more of
jasper in the wall of heaven than of any
other brilliant, because it not only composes
a part of the foundation, but makes un the
chief part of the superstructure. The jasper
is a congregation of many colors, Ibis
hrown, it is yellow, it is green, it is vermil-
ion, it is red, it is purple, it is black, and is
s0 striped with colors that much of it is
called ribbon jasper.
It is found in Siberia and Ezypt, but it is
rare in most lands and of great value. for it
je so hard the ordinary processes cannot
breakit off from the places where it has
been deposited. The workmen bore holes
into the rock of jasper, then driveinto these
holes sticks of dry birch wood, and then
saturate the sticks and keep them saturatad
until they swell enough to split the rock, and
the fragments are brought out and polished
and transported and cut into cameos and
put behind the glass doors of museums.
The portraits of Roman emperors were
cut into it. The finest intaztio ever seen is
in the Vatican museum, the head of Minerva
in jasper. = By divine arrangement jasper
adorned the breastplate of the high priest in
the ancient temple. But its most significant
position is where it glows and burns and
darkens and brightens and preaches from
the lowest stratum of the wall of heaven.
Glad am I that the very first row of stones
in the wall of heaven is jasper of many col-
ors, and if you like purple it is purple, and
if you like brown it is brown, and if you like
een it is green, and if you like ocher yel-
ow it 1s ocher yellow, and if you like ver-
million it is vermillion, and it you like
black it is black. It suzzests to ms that
heaven is a placa of all colors—colors of
opinion, colors of crzed, colors of skin, col-.
ors of taste.
But we must pass up in this inspection of
the foundations of the great wall of heaven,
and after leaving the jasper the next pre-
cious stone reached is sapphire, and it
sweeps around the city 1500 miles. All lepi-
daries agree in saying that’ the sapphire of
the Bible is what we now call lapis lazuli.
Job.speaks with emotion of ‘‘The place of
sapphires.” and God thought so much of this
precious stone that He put it in the breast-
plate of the high priest commanding, *The
second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire
and a diamond.”
jhe sapphire is a blue, but varies from
faintest bus to deepest ultramarine. It is
found a pebble in the rivers ot Ceylon. It
is elsewhere in compact masses. Persia and
Thibet and Burmab and New South Wales
and North Carolina yield exquisite speci-
mens. Its blue eye is seen in the valley of
the Rhine. After a burial of thousands of
years it has been brought to sight in Egyp-
tian monuments and Assyrian cylinders.
At Moscow and St. Petersburg ani Con-
stantinope I have seen great masses of this
sapphire, commonly called lapis lazali. The
closer you study its veins the more enchant-
ing, and I do not wonder that the sapphire
is called into the foundation of the wall of
heaven. It makes a strong stone for the
foundation, for it is the hardest of all min-
erals except the diamond.
Sapphire based on jasper, a blue sky ovar
a fiery sunset. St. Jobn points to it in Rev-
slation and says, ‘‘fhe second, sapphire,”
and this suggests to me that though our
earth and all its turniture of mountains and
seas and abuosDheres are ta collapse and
vanish we will throughout all eternity have
in some way kept the most beautiful of
earthly appearances, whether you take this
sapphire of the second layer as literal or
figurative. The deep blue of our skies and
the deep blue of our seas must not, will not,
be forgotten. If a thousand years after tho
world has gone to ashes you or 1 want to
recall how the earthly skies looked in a sum-
mer noon or the midocean in a calm, we
will have only to look at the second row of
the foundation of the wall of heaven.
Ob, I am so glad that St. John told us
about it! ‘I'he second, sapphire!” While
we are living in sight of that wall spirits
who have come from other worlds and who
never saw our earth will visit us, and we
will visit them, and some time we will bs in
conversation about this earth when it was
yet afloat and aswing, and we shall want to
tell them about how it looked at certain
times, and then it will be a great object
Jesson for all eternity, and we will say to
our visitor from some other world, as we
oint toward the wall of heaven, *‘It looked
ike that stratum of foundation next to the
lowest.” John, twenty-first chapter and
nineteenth versa, *‘The second sapphire.”
A step higher and "you come to chal-
cedony, another layer in the foundation of
the wall and the running 150) miles around
the heavenly city. Chalcedony! Trans-
lucent. A divine mixture of agates and
opals and cornelians. Striped with white
and gray. Dashed of pallor blushing into
red and darkenmg into purple. Ice'and and
the Hebrides hold forth beautiful specimeas
of chalcedony.
But now we must make a swilt ascent to
the top of the foundation wall, for we can-
not minutely examine all the layers, and so,
putting one foot on the chalcedony of which
we have been speaking, we spring to the
emerald, and we are one-third of tna way
to thetop of the foundetion, for the fourth
row is emerald. That, I would judge, is
God's favorite among gems, becauss it holds
what seems evident 1s His favorite color on
earth, the green, since that isthe color most
widely diffused across all the earth’s conti-
nents—the grass, the foliage, the everyday
dress of nature. The emerald! Kings use
it as a seal to stamp pronunciamentos. ‘I'he
rainbow around the throne of God is by
St. John compared to it.
thelr hammers! Emeralds havs had much
to do with the destiny of Mexico. Five of
them were presented by Cortez to his bride,
one of them cut into the shape of a rose, an-
other into the shape of a trumpet, another
into the shaveof a bell, with tongue of
peer], and this presentation aroused the jeal-
ously of the throne and causad the conse-
quent fall of Cortez. But the depths of the
sea were decorated with those emeralds, for
in a shipwreck they went down off the coast
of Barbary. Napoleon wore an emerald at
Austerlitz.
In the Kremin museum at Moscow there
are crowns and scepters and outspread mira-
cles of omerald. Ireland is called the
Emerald Isle not because of its verdure, but
because it was presented to Henry IIL of
England with an emerald ring. Nero had a
magnifying glass of emerald through which
he looked at the gladiatorial contests at
Rome. But here are 1500 miles of emerald
sweeping around the heavenly city in one
layer.
But upward still and you put your foot on
a stratum of sardonyx, white and red, a
seeming commingling of snow and fire, the
snow cooling the fire, the fire melting the
“Snow. :
Another climb and yon reach the sardius,
named after the city of Sardius. Another
climb and you reach the chrysolite. A
specimen of this, belonging to Epiohanus, in
the Fourth Century, was saidto be so
brilliant that whatever was put over to con-
ceal {5 was shone through. and the emperor
of China bas aspscimen that is described as
having such penetrating radiance that it
makes the night as bright as the day.
A bigher climb and you reach the
beryl. Two thousand years ago the Greeks
used this precious stone for engraving pur-
poses. It was accounted among the royal
treasures of Tyre. The hilt of Murat's
sword was adorned with it. It glows in the
imperial erown of Great Britain. Luther
thought the beryls of the heavenly wall was
turquoise. Kalisch thought it was chryso-
lite. Josephus thought it a golden colored
jewel. The wheels ot Ezskiel's vision flamed
with beryl and were arevolving fire,
The beryl appears in six sided prisms, and
is set; in seals and intaglios, in necklaces and
coronets. lt was the ioy of ancient jewelry.
1t ornamented the affluent with eardroos.
Charlemagne presented it to bis favorite,
Beautiful beryl! Exquisitely shapsd beryl!
Divinely colored beryi! 1t seems like con-
gealed color. It looks like frozzn fire.
But stop not here. Climb higher and you
come to topaz, 2 bewilderment of beauty
and named after an island of the Rad Sea.
Climb higher and I come to chrysop-
rasus, of greenish golden hus and hard as
flint.
Climb higher and you reach the jacinth,
named after the flower hyacinth ani of red-
dish blue. ’
Take one more step anil you reach the
top, not of the wall, but the top of the
foundation of the wall, and St. John cries
out, “*I'ne twelfth an amethyst!” This pre-
cious stone when found in Australia or In-
dia or Europe stands in columns and pyra-
mids, ¥or color it is a violet bloominz in
stone. For its play of light, for its deep
mysteries of color, for its unseen Egyptians,
in Etruscan, in Roman art it has been hon-
ored. The Greeks thought this stone & pre-
ventive of drunkenness. The Hebrews
thought it a source of pleasant dreams.
For all lovers of gems it is a subject of ad-
miration and suggestiveness. Yes, the
word amethyst means a prevention of
drunkenness. Long before the New Testa-
ment nade reference to the amethyst in the
wall of heaven the Persians thought that
cups made out of amethyst would hinder
any kind of liquor contained therein from
becoming intoxicating. But of all the ame-
thystine cups from which the ancients
drank not one had any such result of pre-
vention.
For thousands of years the world has been
looking in vain for such a preventiva ame-
taystine cup. Staggering Noah could not
find it. Convivial Ahasuerus driving Vashti
from the gates could not find it. Nabal
breaking the heart of beautiful Abigail
could not find it. Belshazzar, the kingly
reveler, on the night that tae Chaldeans
took Babylon could not find it. Not one of
the millions of inebriatss whose skulls pave
the continents and pave the depths of the
sea could find it. There is mo such cup.
Strong drink from hollowed amethyst im-
brutes the same as strong drink from pew-
ter mug. It is not the style of cup we drink
out of, but that which the cup contains,
which decides the helpful or damning result
of the beverage,
All around the world last night and to-
day, outo? cups costlier than amethyst, men
and women have been drinking their own
doom and the doom of their childran for this
life and thenext, Ab, it is tha amethystine
cups that do the wildest and worst slangh-
ter! Tne smash of the filthy goblets of the
rummeries would long age have taken place
by law, but the amethystine chaliccs pre-
vent—the chalices out of which lezisiatures,
congresses drink before and atter they make
the laws. Amethystine chalices have been
the triends of intoxication instead of its
foes. Over the fiery lips of the ametaystine
chalices is thrust the tongue of that which
biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an
adder.
Drunkenness is a combination of apoplexy
and dementia. The 402,000,00) victims of
opium come out to meet the 15,000,00) vic-
tims of alcohol, and the two agents take the
contract for tumbling the hu'nan race into
perdition, but whether they will sucezed in
fulfillinz the contract depends on the action
of the amethystine cups, the amethystine
demijohns, the amethystine ale pitcaers, the
amethystine flagons, the amethystine wine
cellars. Oh, Persians! Oh. Assyrians! Oh,
Greeks! Oh, Ezyptians! you were wrong
in thinking that a cup of amethyst would
prevent inebriation.
But standing on the top of this amethys-
tine layer of the foundation of the wall ot
heaven I bethink myseit of the mistake that
many of the ancient Hebrews made when
they thought that the amethyst was a pro-
ducer of pleasant dreams. Just wear a piece
of amethyst over your heart or put it under
your pillow, and you would have your dreams
filled with everything beautiful and entranc-
inz. No, no. The style of pillow will not
decide the character of the dream. The only
recipa for pleasant dreams is to do right and
think rizht when you are wide awake. Con-
ditions of physical diseases may give a good
man nightmare, but a man physically well,
if he benave himself aright, will «of be
troubled with bad dreams.
» Nebuchadnezzar, with eagle’s down under
his head and T'yrian purple over it, struggled
with a bad dream that male him shriek out
for the soothsayers and astrologers to come
and interpret it. Pharaoh, amid tha marble
palaces of Memphis, was confounded by a
dream in which lean cows ate up the fat
cows and the small ears of corn devoured
the seven large ears, and awiul famine was
prefigured. Pilate’s wife, amid clouds of
richest upholstery, had a startling dream,
becaus of which she sent a messaze in hot
haste to a courtroom to keep her husband
from enacting a judicial outrage. But
Jacob, at Bathel, with a pillow of mountain
rock, ‘had a blissful dream of the ladder
angel blossoming.
Bunyan, with his head on a hard plank of
Bedford's jail, saw the gates of the OCeles-
tial city. St. John, on the barrenest island
of the AU zean Sea, in his dream heard trum-
and anew heaven and a new earth. No
night vision of a saint, ant no amount of
amethystine cnarm can delectate the dream
of a miscreant.
But, some one will say, why have you
brought us to this amethyst, the top row ot
the foundation of the heavenly wall, if you
are not able to accapt the theory of ths an-
cient Greeks, who said that the amethyst
was a charm against intoxication, or if you
are not willing to accept the theory of the
ancient Hebrews that the amethyst was a
producer of pleasant creams? My answer is,
I have brought you to the top row, the
twelfth layer of the foundation of the heav-
enly wall of 1500 miles of circling amethyst,
to put you in a position where you can gota
new idea of heaven; to let you sea that
Conquerors have considered it the great-
est prize to capture. What ruthlessness |
when the soldiers af Pizarro pounded ir vith
after you have climbed up twelve strata
of glory you ara only at the base of fhe
eternal grandeur: to let you. wilh enchant-
pets and saw cavalry men on white horses |
amount of rough pillow can disturb the |
ment of sou’, look far down and look far
un and to force upon you the conclusion
that if all our climbing has only shown us
the foundations of this wall, what must the
wall itself be; and if thic is the outside of
heaven. what must ths inside be; and if all
this is figurative, what must the reality be;
Ob, this piled un magnificence of the heav-
enly wall! Oh, this eternity of decora-
tion! Ob, this opalescent, florescent,
prismatic miracle of architecture! What
enthronement of zl! eolors! A mingling of
the blue of skies, and the surf of seas, and
the green of meadows, and the upholstery of
autumnal forests, and the fire of August
sunsets. All the splendors of earth and
heaven dashed into thoss twelve rows of
foundation wall. All that, mark you, only
typical of the spiritual glories that roll over
heaven like the Atlantic and Pacific Ocz2ans
swing in one billow.
Do yeu not see that it was impossible
that you understand a hundredth part of the
sugaestiveness of that twenty-first chapter
of Ravelation without going into some of
the particulars of the wall of heaven and
dippinz up some of its dripoing colors, and
running your eye along some of its won-
drous ceystallizations, and examining some
of the frozan light in its turquoise, and
feeling with yorr own finger the hardness
of its sapphire, and shielding your eyes
against the shimmoring brillianca in its
beryl, and studying the 1500 miles of emer-
ald without a flaw? Yet all this only the
outside of heaven, ani tha poorest part of
the outside; not tne wall itself, but only the
foot of the wall, for my text says, ‘The
foundations oi the wall of the city were gar-
nished with all manuver of precious stones.”
Oh, get down your harp if you can play
one! Get down & palm branch if you can
reach one! Why, it makes us all feal like
cryieg out with James Montzomery:
When shall these eyes thv heaven built walls
And pearly gates beiold ?
Oh, my sou!! If my text shows us only
the ontside, what must theinside b:? While
riding last summer through the emperor’s
park near St. Petersburg, I was captivated
with graves, transplanted from all zones,
and the flower beds—miles this way aad
miles that way—incarpadined with bzauty,
and the fountains bounding in such revel
with the sunlight us nowhera elss is seen, I
said: *‘Thisis beautiful. I never saw any-
thing like this bafore.”
But when I entered the pataca and saw
the pictured walls, and the lonz line of stat-
uary, and aquariums afloat with all bright
scales, and aviaries a-chant;with bird voices,
and the inner doors of the palaces were
swung back by the chamberlain, and Isaw
the emperor and empress and princes and
princesses, and taey greeted me with a cor-
diality of old acquaintanceship, [ forget all
the groves and floral bewitcament I bad
seen outside before entrance. Aud now I
ask, it the outside of heaven attracts our
souls to-day, how much more will be the up-
lifting when we get 1nside and sce the King
in His beauty and all the princes and
princesses of the palaces of amethyst? ]
Are you not glad that we did not stop in
our ascent this morning until we got to the
top round of the foundation wail ot heaven,
the twelfth row, the amethyst! Perbaps the
ancient Hebrews were not, after all, so far
out of the way when they thcuxht toat the
touch of theamethyst gave pleasant dreams,
for the touch of it this hour givas ms a very
pleasant dream. Standing on this amethyst
iL dream a dream. 1 clos? my eyes and I see
it all. Wao are there. This is Heaven! Not
the outside, but the inside of heaven.
ith what warmth of welcomz our long
ago departed loved ones have kissed us. My!
How they have caangeli in looks' They
were so sick when they went away, and now
they are so well. Look! Yonder is the
placa of our Lord the King. Not kept a
moment outside we are usherei into the
throneroom. Stretching out His scarred
hand He says, ‘I havelovad thes with an
everlasting love,” and we respond, “Whom
have I in heaven but Thee?’
But, look! Yonder is the playground of
the children. Childrendo you want a throne.
A throne would not fit a child, There the
are on the playgrounds of heaven—the chii-
dren. Out of the sick cradle of earth they
came into this romping mirth of the eternal
playgrounds. 1 clap my hands to cheer”
them in the gles, Yonder are the palaces of
the martyrs, and before their doorway the
flowers, crimson as the bloody martyrdoms
through which they waded up into glory.
Yonder is Apostolic row, and the highest
turrets is ever the home of Paul. Here is
Wvangelist place. Yoader are the concert
nalls in which the musicians of eartn and
heaven are taking part—Handel with organ,
and David with harp, and Gabriel with
trumpet, and four and twenty elders with
voices.
And an angel of God says: ‘Where shall
I take you? Oa'what street of heaven
wouid you like to live? What celestial
habitation would you like to occupy?’ And
I answer: ‘Now that I have got inside the
wall made up of all manner of precious
stones I do not care waere you put me. Just
show me where my departed loved ones are.
I have seen the Lord, and next I want to
see them. .
«Rut here are those with whom I toiled in
the kingdom of God on earth. They are
trom my old parishes at Belleville and Syra-
cuse and Philadelphia and Brooklyn, ani
irom many places on both sides the sea
where I have be2n permitted to work with
‘them and for them. Give them the bast
places you cen find, I will help steady
them as they mouut the thrones. I will help
you burnish their coronets.
“Take these, my old friends, to as good
rooms as you can get for them in. the house
of $hany mansions, and with windows look-
ing out upon the palace of the great King.
As for myself, anywhere in heaven is good
enough for me. Halleluiah to the Lamb
that wasslain.” But 1 awake. In the ecstasy
of the momont my foot slipped from the
layer of amethyst, that so called producer
of dreams, and in the effort to catch myselt
the vision vanished. And, lo, it was buta
dream! =
Lunatics Do Not Shed Tears.
Oae of the most curious facts con-
nected with madness is the utter absence
of tears amid the insane. Whatever the
form of the madness, tears are conspicu-
ous by their absence, as much in the de-
pression of melancholy or excitement of
mania as in the utter apathy of dementia.
If a patient in a lunatic asylum be dis-
covered in tears it will be found that it
is one beginning to recover or an emo-
tional outbreak in an epileptic who is
scarcely truly insane; while actual in-
sane persons appear to have lost the
power of weeping, it is only returaing
reason which can once more unloosz the
| fountains of their tears.
| Even when a lunatic is telling one in
| tereia language how she had been de-
| prived of her children, or the outrages
| that have been perpetrated on herself,
her eye is never even moist. The ready
| gush of tears which accompanies the
| plaint of the same woman contrasts
| strangely with the dry-eved appeal of
the talkative lunatic. It would indeed
| seem that tears give relief to feelings
| which, when pent up, lead to madness.
| It is one of the privileges of reason to be
able to weep. Amid all the misery of
the insane they find no relief in tears.
Our boldest bridge jumpers were out.
done by'a “Sam” Patch of the Middle
Ages, the Austrian Knight Harras, who
| survived a leap from the top of a cliff to
the valley of the Zohogpan River, a ver-
tical distanee of 400 feet.
ir ————
| The Berlin Telephone exchange has
| 7000 wires in connection.
i
|
‘SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON FOR SUNDAY, FEB. 5
“Dedicating the Temple,” Ezra vi, 14-~
22. Golden Text: Psalm cxxii,
1. Commentary.
14. “And the elders of the Jews builde?,
and they prospered through tae orophesv-
ing of Haggaiithe prophet and Zechariah,
the son of Iddo.” Our last lesson in this
took was in the thiri chaoter, where we
read of the laying of the foundation of the
Lord's house and” of the joy of the people.
Then follows an account of how the adver-
saries hindered the work and caused it to
cease (iv., 4, 5, 24). In chapter v., 1, waare
introduced to the two prophets named in
this first verse of our lesson, and in the
rest of chapter v. and the next chapter
down to this verse-we are told of the suc-
vess of the work. Observe the secret of
their success in chapter v., 5, “Ihe eye ol
their God was upon the elders of the Jew:.”
Compare this with the encouraging words
of Hag. ii, 4, 5: ‘‘Be strong, be strong, be
strong and wors, for I am with you, saith
the Lord of Hosts. My Spirit remaineth
among you. Fear ye not.” x
15. ‘‘And {his house was finished.” The
God of Israel had commanded it and had
moved upon the hearts of these kings to
assist His people in the ‘work. (Previous
verse, last clause.) ‘‘He doeth according to
His will in the army >f heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can
stay His band, or say unto Him, What
doesth Thou” (Dan. iv., 35)? Any servant
of such a Master had no occasion ever to
fear or be cizcouraged, for the work is His,
and He cannot fail (Isa. xlii., 4; Math. xvi.,
18). Our place of rest is to reiaember that
“we are laborers together with God” (f Cor.
iii., 9), but He is toe employer.
16. **‘And the children of Israel, the
priests and the Levites, and the rest of the
children of the captivity, kept the dedica-
tion of this houses of God with joy.” The
tempie finished meant the presence of God in
their midst, and consequently peace and
prosperity and victory over all enemies.
*‘Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may
dwell among them” (Ex, xxv., 8), were God's
words to Moses when be was commanded to
build the tabernacle. ‘‘I have hailowed this
house which thou hast built to put My name
there forever, and Mine eyes and Mine heart
shall be there perpetually” (I Kings ix., 3),
were God’s words to Solomon on the dedica-
tion of the temple, and had Israel only
walked with God m humility and obedienca
she would have continued head among all
Nations, because ot the presence of the Lord,
until this day. “Tbe building of this temple
of Zerubbabel indicates ancther opportunity
to have it so, and they are full of joy.
17. “And for a sin offering for all [srael,
twelve he goats, according to the numoer oi
the trites of Israel.” Bullocks, rams and
lamts were the burnt offering, which also
included an accompanying meat offering,
but the goat was the sin offsring. Ses the
full statement repeated at least eight times
in Num. xxix. The sin offering, typifying
Christ bearing our sinus in His own body oa
the tree, was to be offered first, for before
we can worship God or do anything pleasing
in His sight we must obtain the forziveness
of sins through the merits of His one great:
sacrifice (Lev. xvii, 11; Heb. ix., 11, 12:
Acts xiii., 33, 39). ‘Ine burnt offerinz also
typifies the same great sacrifice of Christ,
but rather that aspect of it in whica we ses
Him asan offering and sacrifice to Goi for
a sweet smeliing savor (Eph. v., 2). Toe
meat offering is suggestive of His hoty and
spotless life. Being forgiven by His blood,
we are to present our bodies a living sacri-
fice, that Hemay live His life in us. On the
phrase ‘All Israe” see lI Chron. xxx., 1,
Rom, xi., 26; Ezzk. xxxvii., 22.
18. “And they set the priests in their di-
visions and the Lo:vites in their courses for
the service of Gol whichis at Jerusalem, as
it is written in the book ot Moses.” 'I'as Le-
vites were a gift for the Lord to do the ser-
vice for the tabernacle and temple. They
were chosen to stand before Him, to serve
Him, to mister unto Him and offer sacri-
fice (Num. xviii., 8; II Chron. xxix, 11).
T'be priests’ lips saould keep knowiedge, and
the people should seek the law at his mouth,
tor ne is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts
(Mal. ii. 7).
19. “And the children of the captivity
kept the passover upon the fourteenth day
ot the first month.” ‘By faith Moses kept
the passover and the sprinkling of blood,
lest He that destroyed the firstoorn should
touch them” (Heb. xi., 28). ‘I'hese “‘jons of
the transportation” (verse 16, margin) did
well to remember the dehiveranc> from
Egypt, but there is now drawing nigh a de-
hverance trom Russia and from all Nations
that shall far outdo the deliveranca at tae
institution of the passover (Jer. xxiii., 5-3).
Then shall we unierstand the words of the
Lord Jesus in reference to His: last passover,
~1 will not any more eat thereof uatil it bs
Intille in the kingdom of God (Luke xxii.,
20 ‘For the priests and the Loavites were
purified together, all of them were pure.”
There was a ceremonial purification necas-
sary to the keeping ot the passover, and in
the days of Hezekiah we read that they kept
it on the second instead of the first month
because the priests were not sufficiently
sanctified (II Chron. xxx., 2, 3; compara
Num. ix,, 10, 11), 1t we would enjoy Christ,
ov” Passover, who has been sacrificed for us,
«6 must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the tear of God oe. v., 7: LL Cor, vii.. 1}.
21, “All such as had separated themsaves
unto them frora the tilthiness of the heathen
of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel
jid eat.” It would seam that many of those
who had been living in the land when they
saw the temple builded and the worship of
the true God established joined themselves
to Israel, Soshall it be in the days that are
zoming, when men of all languages shall say
to the Jews, We will go with vou, for God
is with you (Z2ch. viii., 23). So it is now,
when Christ is seen in us and not self, people
will be drawn away from the follies and
flthiness of this present evil world to the re-
alities of a life of faith in the Son of God,
and God will be glorified in us (Gal. i., 24).
22, “And kept the feast of unleavened
oread seven days with joy, for the Lord had
made them joyful and turned the heart of
the king of Assyria untothem.” When Ha
giveth quietness, who then can make trou-
ble (Job xxxiv., 29)? It God be with us, who
can be against us (Rom. viii.,, 31)? The
king’s heart is in the hands of the Lord, as
the rivars of water; He turneth it whither-
soever He will (Prov. xxi. 1), If, as His
people, we are only willing and obedient, He
will make us eat the good of the land and
drink of the river of His pleasures (Isa. i., -
19; Ps. xxxvi., 8). Iois tha pleasure of the
Lord to have us full of joy (John xvi, 24;
xvii, 13), but it mzst be His joy, and that
was to do the will of God.—Lessoa Helper.
re
‘Foo Previous in His Jolhty.
When Ed Youse was acquitted of
the theft of a refrigerater in Court
the other morning he was so glad
that he jumped over two chairs.
Judge Endlich, whose dignity was
shocked at such an acrobatic perform-
ance, called Youse before the bar and
said: “Young man, I sentence you
to sixty gays’ imprisonment for con-
tempt of Court.” Youse's counte-
nance took on a woebegone expression
when be heard the words, and it had
not yet assumed its normal condition
when the Court adjourned. His joy-
ful manifestations wiil be made in a
more subdued style hereatter.—Read-
ing (Pa.) Telegram.
A FRIEND of ours has named his
horse “Nail,” because his wife cannot
drive him.—Roseleaf.
FAIR. WOMAN'S DOMINION.
—
COLD WEATHER WRAPS.
—— 5
A Princess-Shaped Mantle Costume
With Passementerie Trimming.
R~zception Costumes.
— ——
UCH a spell of cold
Sree asthat which
ve lately experienced
makes talk of cloaks
and wraps especially
timely. The initial
ill ustration shows a
princess-shaped man
tle costume of a ma-
terial which hassmall
diagonal threads run-
ning through a gray-
ish green cloth. The
passementerie trim-
ming is of round silk
cord with little knots
triangular in shape
in the middle, and
which form a sort of
open trellis work.
This robe has an urd
der lining, reaching
== to the feet,’on which
, is sewn the plastron,
rod oF 2 hich is alike back
RE and front. The lin-
ing closes in the middle with hooks and
syes, the plastron is sewn ou on one side
and fastened on the shoulder and under the
other armhole with hocks. This plastron is
made of material cut on the straight, and
zails in small gathers, aud is provided with
2 band of material to prevent it from stretch-
tng. The hooks should either be sewn fast
0 a strip of silk or to the lining" itself. In
oh
20 me
3
4
=
A)
oh J
LAV
en
TWO RECEPTION COSTUMES,
she latter case. the upper material must not
be sewn in with fhe lining. The back part
of the princess robe must be so bias at the
middle seam that the skirt falls into a bell
shape. Some extra material may be also
added to make more ample folds. Instead
of breast darts, protection seams are used
anderneath the bodice sc as not to be visible
on the outside. These seams must be sewn
into small gores and thoroughly ironed flat,
The front breadths are fustened with hooks
and eyes, and the plastron is also secured
to the rest cf the costume in the same man-
ner. The costume has a berthain the shape
»
A STRIKING COSTUMT.,
of a flounce, which is formed into epaulets
on the shoulders, and is trimmed with pas:
sementerie and fur, like the length of the
iront. ‘The fur shcuald be either dark or
very black in tone, Persian lamb or skunk
preferably. The skirt should be lined with
satin or silk, or even with flannel, if prefer-
red, as it is to be worn without any outer
garment. Irom about half a yard beneath
the waist it should be sewn together. The
sleeves are cut out of one material, and have
as usual two seams. They are lined and
slightly drawn in, so as to form a puff. This
puff must be draped on the lining and sewn
in under the cuffs in such a manner as to
give the impression that the wholc sleeve is
made in one. They are then trimmed with
fur and passementerie, in the manner indi-
cated,
The two illustrations depict costumes wore
at a recent reception and as they were drawn
from life, the attitudes are animated and
picturesque. Here is a guest taken just 23
she came in, her head tipped back in &bser-
vation and her band still holding up her
dress, showing a glimpse of a skirt of Zlmy
lace over white lawn. The bodice is shirred
very full at the neck and then drawn: tight
at the waist with a belt of black veivet all
covered with green jet nail beads ad pen-
dants. Around the bottom of the skirt are
two rows of astrakhan and the cape is of the
softest astrakhan in the world and the two
ruffles that make it are as full as if they
were made of cloth. The other guest hates
hav cahle and is afraid ache is en far nhaad iw
the fashions that no onc wiii know that
sable is 1eaily the thing and that astrakhan
isnot. 4
Another guest, she of the second picturs,
came still later, with a rush of apologies.
Her gown is a soft tan. Sheis a brown
blonde. The velvet bodice belt she wears
is matreuse green The buttons of her
bodice are peari. Her tiny hatis all perky
with black wings.
The picture shows a guest at a recent re-
ception. She had on for a wrap a wondes-
ful thing they call a capuchon in Paris, of
white velvet, with a flaring Henry II collar
beld in at the lewer edge by a band of sable.
The sable ran all down the long ends, too.
Her dress was shot silk, atl gray and silver,
the belt was silvery,the sleeves were very big
and the little wrap was made so as not to
interfere or hide them at all. The white and
the sable and the gray of silver made her
dark beauty seem very impressive.
WINDSOR CASTLE.
Ono of the Most Attractive Abodes of
British Royalty.
Windsor Castle is one of the most
picturesque places in England. It was
originally built by William the Con-
queror, who here established a hunting
seat. To Edward IIL. it owes much of
its magnificence and strength; and since
his time it has been a favorite abode of
English sovereigns. And what "a his-
tory its thirty generations of existence
can tell! Here the sagacious and
statesmanlike Henry Tudor, who recon-
ciled the rival houses of York and Lan-
caster, held high council with his court;
here his son and successor dallied with
his maids of honor, and after his scan-
dalous divorcement from Katherine of
Aragon, placed the crown on Arne Bo-
ley; here the “good Queen Bess” listened
lo the plays of Shakspeare and re-
ceived the encomiums of poets and
courtiers; here the pedantic James and
{he pious Charles asserted the divine
r'ght, and here the Protector sat in de-
liberation with the stern representatives
of the commonwealth.
Here, too, after the restoration,
romped the “merry manarch” with
beauty and wit; and from this palace
was driven forth the next King lo give
place to the great Stattholder. The
third George here resigned; and the
palace at last proved a prison to the in-
sane old 1uler. His granddaughter,
Victoria, makes Windsor her home; and
the Queen's court is a model of good
order, while her family exhibits the re- .
sults of wholesome training and worthy
example.
The palace contains many relics of
by-gone years. The armor and equip-
age of chivalry, the fashion of former
ages, the disentombed ruins of antigni-
ty, and the graves of Kings and Queens
in the royal chapel are here; and the
portraits of heroes, statesmen, writers
and civilians adorn the chambers or
decorate the galleries. The paintings
of some of the old mas ers hang in the
large saloons; and one rocm, called
‘the beauty room,” formerly contained
pictures ot Charles IL.’s coart. They
have, to her honor, be it said, been ban-
ished by Victoria. To some portions ot
the palace the public is admitted; and
obliging attendants point out the princi-
pal objects of interest.
The Oldest Person in the World.
s‘Probably the oldest person living
upon the earth is a member of the
tribe of Mayo or White Indians in-
habiting the Sierra Madre Mountains
in Mexico,” said Don Carlos Pietrie,
a resident of Durango. ‘*‘The party
in quesvion is a woman, and itis
known positively that she is more
than 135 years old. How much more
is purely problematical. She claims
to be 160, but that transcends be-
lief. What her original name was I
do not know, she having long ago
adopted that of Mary. She is a full
blood Mayo, has blue eyes and light
hair, and should you meet her any-
where but in the heart of the Sierra
Madras you would suppose her a
Swede. The Mayos very much re-
semble the Swedes, and have a tra.
dition that their ancestors came
from a land of snow and ice, far be-
yond the big water. Old Mary,’ as
she is called, is bent almost double.
Her skin has shriveled until it looks
like wrinkied parchment, and she has
19st the use of her hands and feet.
During the last year her eyesight,
hitherto remarkably good, has failed
her and her hearing has become im.
paired. She still possesses the full
usefot ner tongue. however, and isa
voluble talker. It was from her that
[ gleaned much of my knowledge
of the traditions of the Mayos, which
[ propose soon to publish. I have
secured an excellent portrait of old
Mary, together with copies of entries
in the booss of early Catholic mis-
sionaries, showing that she was of
marriageable age when the thirteen
American Colonies seceded from Great
pritain. ”’—Globe-Democrat.
O11 of Neroll,
By distillation with water, orange.
flowers afford an essential oil, the
essence or oil of neroli; and the water
from whick this is separated is sold
as orange-flower water. The oil re.
ceived its name from having been
used in the seventeenth century by
Anne Marie, wife of the Prince of
Nerola or Neroli, as a perfume for
her gloves. It possesses in a concen-
trated degree the fragrance of the
flowers, and is much used in parfumes
of various kinds. Orange-flower water
is used in pharmacy to flavor mix.
tures, ana sometimes in cooking.
A swegeT little 4-year-old added
this clause to her evening petition
the other night: “And please help
grandma not to talk so much when
the pies get burned.”—DBoston Teav-