IN LIFE'S TUNNEL. Borna by a Power resistless and unseen We know not wither, We look out through the gloom with troubled mien ; Tow eame we hither? Darkness before and after. Blank, dim walls On either side, Against which our dull vision beats and falls, Met and defied. Shrouded in mystery that leaves no room To guess aright, We rush, uncertain, to a certain doom— When lo —the light! —~Grace Denio Litchfleld, in the Century. THE LITTLE LOG CHURCH. { | | —_— OWN in the heart | of the mountains | is & summer re- sort. It isnotin the north nor of the south, but it 18 a cosmopolitan | little city of hotels. It sprung up in a season and will endure as long as the waters ! are limpid and the mountains grand. | Crowning the highest hill is the chief | hotel. The view from the veranda is magnificent. The lower hilltops, rugged and scarred, near by, seem to grow level in perspective, stretching away in a vast plain of darkest green to meet the blue sky in the distant horizon. The morning wind brings the odor of wild ros the evening wind is freighted with the spice of pines. The Chalmers, mother and daugh- ter, were guests of the chief hotel. “Itis exquisite,” said Miss Chalmers. *T am weary of society. I will do nothing but rest for the entire sum- wer.” Miss Chalmers rested four entire days. The fifth day was Sunday. “We must go to church,” said Mrs. Chalmers. “But there is no church. mamma; the minister is taking his vacation in the city while we take ours in the hills.” “J shall go to church,” declared the elder lady. ‘There is a lovely log church in the country. I went to a log church when I wasa little girl We will go to-day in a carriage.” So the Chalmerses went to church not to the little white church in the valley below them, but over miles and miles of gravelly ridge road, down a long, steep hill and into another and a larger valley, where there was a| pellucid stream, shaded with syea- mores and festooned with a bewilder- ing tanzle of vine. The country church was built of rough hevan logs and was not large. Mrs. Chalmers and her daughter found | that the house was crowded, and as! there was no usher obtained seats with | some difficulty. Miss Chalmers was on toe right of the centre aisle. She soon discoverad that the aisle separated the two sexes: that she, alone of all the women there, was seated among the men. This breach of local etiquette amused her at first. Miss Chalmers soon discovered that the younger boys were nudging each other with their elbows and laughing at her. Ths young men looked at her curiously ; the old men seriously; she began to feel nervous, and the feeling ! annoyed her more than the attention | she was receiving. Then she noticed | that the girls across the aisle were giggling and whispering maliciously; and, yes, actually pointing their fin- ha Hs » [HR of the pawpaw tree, there was a jug; and the liquor in the jug was the driv- er’'s dearest and most fatal enemy. There were three men in the wagon when it halted bereath the trees, a hundred yards below the church. While the horses ate the men drank. When the sermon was over Mrs. Chalmers and her daughter ate their luncheon. Afterward, while the Ila- dies plucked May apple blossoms and enjoyed the cool dampness which the river exhaled, the driver slept. He awoke often in a melancholy mood, but they did not notice it; and each time when he threw off his slumbers he resorted to the jug, which had somehow been left behind by the men in the wagon. Later in the afternoon the driver, whose depression had increased since | the sun sank, hitched up his horses, gers at her. How dared they! Her face beganto flame. _The young men looked sym- pathetic, now; she felt that their pity was an outrage. The preacher could no longer hide his annoyance, for no- | body heeded the sermon now, and everybody was intent upon that young | lady, who knew no better than to sit among men. Mrs. Chalmers, who had fortunately found a seat om the upper side, was! the only person in the house ignorant of her daughter's embarrassment. The long ride had wearied her. She was resting, as elderly persons some- times do. She listened earnestly at the sermon, without hearing a word; she gazed at the preacher and did not see him. : Miss Chalmers tried to call up her pride, but was helpless before the rid- icule, which constantly became more unmerciful. The benches on the other side all seemed to be full. escape but to leave the room. She had just decided to bolt ignominiously for | { { { 1 ! i She saw no | the door when there was a diversion in | her favor. ! Immediately in front of Miss Chal- mers sat a young man. He had aroused her interest, becanse he wore what she called a respectable coat, and because he had a fine head which he carried on his magnificent shonlders like & Roman hero, and because —well, there is no stronger word than be- cause. It can mean a great many in- expressible things. This young man arose, and the girl noticed, even in her unhappiness, that he was very tall, as most mountaineers are. He stepped across the aisle and | took a little girl in his arms, whisper- ing a word to the child’s mother before he returned to his seat. look at Miss Chalmers, but the woman He did not! smiled to her, silently pointing to the | vacantseat. was only too glad to accept the invita- tion. to be aware of it. He did not once The unhappy young lady | Her mother did not notice the | incident, nor did the young man seem | turn his head, and she found herself becoming curious about the eclor of his eyes. They must be gray. The driver from the chief hotel hal, not entered the chureh. As he lin- gered with his horses two men came by in a wagon. The friends of the driver. In the bed oi the wagon, shaded by seme branencs men were oll ge began the assent of The jug was left among blossoms. If was and the carri the long hill. the May apple empty. Half-way up the hill a wheel dropped into a deep gutter and the carriage | g came down with 2 lurch and a crash. It was a hopeless wreck. The driver looked at the broken wheel with indif- ference and the ladies were in conster- nation. “How {ar is il to town?” Chalmers. ‘‘Abont eight miles, I reckon.” ¢“Oh, dear, what ean we do?” “I dunnow,” said the driver, stu- pidly. almost be justified in saying that he did not care. “Well, driver,” said Miss Chalmers emphatically. “I know. You must go to town at once f riag It is now 3 o'clock, and you can be back by 6; we will wait.” The driver began to unloose the horses. He did not seem to be pressed for time. ‘‘You mus! hurry,’ a declared im- patiently. ‘‘And say, driver, if you are back by sunset you shall have $5 exira.” asked Miss or another ecar- ’ a) He shooiz off his apathy, or seemed to, and, mounted on one horse, led the other ranidly away. Tt was always pad to wait. In this case the two lonely women, oppressed by the strange and solitary surrouni- ings, found the siternoon almost in- terminnble. The Joshua of impnatis seemed to stay the sun at one spot or hours. Bix o’clock {inaliy eame; they were expectant. Half past six: they were anxious. At seven they were elsrmed. The sun loitered no more, but rolled swiitly over the oppusite mountain and drew the day with him. They were terrified. m 1 F040 Ro being in si oht. They remembe habitation on the road for miles. | f'rue, th2 lo tom below, ag church stood in the bot but the darkes had already gathered there. dared nof enter the profound obseu which enveloped the valley and which crept like a living thing uy the moun- tain side toward them. They clunz to each other 1i little children and wept. Lt sunset a $311 young man was rid- ing soberly along the wide roal which led to town. He stopped suidenly at the sight of two harnessed horses graz- | ing by the roadside. “I know tant team; what has hap-! penzd?” ‘Thera was no one to answer the question, but he looked aboub and dis- covered tha driver nnder the tric ‘Here, wretch!” ha ezcla “wakeup; tell me what is wrong Wale up, wake up... Where are the , ladies? But expostulation was in vain. The driver was a lump of elay—a log. The young man mounted his ho and galloped furiously back towar! loz chur He looked at each side of the road anxiously, but did not sincken his pace, and the horse was covered with foam when he reached | the broken carriage and dismounted ‘‘Ithank heaven you ars safe,” he cried. ‘Sab we are not safe; wa are lost, lost. Oh, merciful sir, pity us!” ex- claimed Mrs. Chalmers, h; calls. She thought the tall stranger was a | bricand. 5s Chalmers knew better. She reeog ing of security, almost of happines wept over her. ¢‘dush, mamma,” she said, softly; ere perfectly safe now. tieman will protect us; he has come to ) ntleman looke 1 histhanks for the confidence. It was dari alm: but she could see that his were yray. Sh thought the 1 but she was looking through her ened to our driver? coming?’ The 9 1 three questions in a breath. ‘“f um not e was riding to town and found your in a drunken sleep by the road- You will get no hal ir 241 raid there had be L hastened bac a hizh vol ‘is i nol serious? Oh, : dear, dear, what would you have?” “My uncle lives two miles dow river,” said the stranger. fit is Yon will come wi a the 3 nearest house. me Jor the a town.” Iq 1 ir VM? kind, sir, e will go with you and the ad lady rasy ride bead yon, if she “Dh, 7 wold muaca neler io wali walk two miles easy, the r horse is already vou From his manner one might | There was no house and no human | e! eyes to his face. ed the young man, and a feei- | his gen- | y were lumin- | ou employed at the hotel? | mployed at the hotel. TI} y ox d Mrs. Chalmers in| and to-nterrow you | said Miss tired. Indeed, I will walk,” said the young lady decidedly. The young man assisted tha mother into the saddle. The daughter clung lightly to his arm and the little pro- cession moved slowly down the long hill and into the starless depths of the bottom. They traveled carefully, for Mrs. Chalmers was not a good horse- woman. It was an hour before they reached the farmhouse. An hour! An hour is an epoch, an age, an eternity. Love, which never dies, is born, nourished and reaches maturity in an hour. Thers was a camp meetinr in progress at the log house in the valley. On the last Sunday of the meeting, which happened to bealso the last day of the Chalmerses’ visit in the moun- tains, a party from the chief hotel visited the revival. The party was composed of Mrs. Chalmers, Miss Chalmers and a tall young man with a serious, grand face. The latter had heen a guest at the hotel for only three weeks, or since the two ladies { had been abandoned on the mouniain side by their drunken driver. On the afternoon of this Sunday the two younger members of the party wers half way up the long hill which lends from the valley to the ridges. They were standing silently side by side looking down into the valley. There was a great white tent, a tab- i ernacle, indeed, near the log house, {and a score of smaller white tents about the large one. Through the trees the people could be seen moving about like pigmies. “It is a veauntiful and peacelul scene,” said Miss Chalmers, soitly. The young man was silent and she presently continued, with some hesita- tion: ‘I have never thanked you—1 | hardly know how—for your kindness that first day in the church when} made such an embarrassing mistake.” ‘‘It was nothing; do not think “But Ido think of it; it was a great - 4 ; Geal to me, and Iwant you to remom- | | i { | ber---you know we are going away to- | | i | morrow---1 want yon to remember that I appreciate it. | almost as bad as when you again—" My predicament was it was that night L y| “I beg you,” he broke in, “nol to { mention those things again.” | She was silent. He turned to her i suddenly, abruptly, almest roughly, | end asked: | “Are you rich?” | She trembled a litile, but did not | i | am surprised that youn asked that question,” she said gently; “Is is unworthy of you; it is painful to me.” “Porgive me,” he said, humbly. “Oh, my dear, Ilove you, and I am poor. Your beanty and your good- { ness make you o long way above me, and I have hoped that youn were not | rich. But ladoreyou. I want you | to earry that memory away in your | heart. 1 adore you. Some time I will come and ask you to marry me. You will have known me longer; my prospects will be brighter. I will come and take you by the hand like this, my dear. I will say: ‘Ilove you leerly ; I have loved wou since that irst day in the mounteins. I will love | vom forever. Willi you be my wile?’ When 1 ask you that question, when my soul waits for an answer, what will you say to me, dear?” She was palid; she dare noi look at him. | © “Is thers no grain of hopes for me? | Oh, love, will you tell me what your | answer will be on that day?” | With a supreme effor: she raised her | | > ( i She tried to speuk; sae was speechless; but her lips formed 2 single word: * ” oe * * * | Dear reader, she was rich. She was rich and proud, and the next day she returned to her magnificent home in the city. And two years afterward, when a tall young man came and asked azain that question, when his soul waited for an answer, what do you think she said? ies.” | She was only a summer girl; she met this poor youth on a summer hol- iday, but she loved him forever, and i are now very happy.—Chicago A Steam (Carriage for Road U C. L. Simonds, of Liynn, has made a | steam carriage for hisown use that will The carriage ghs only 400 pounds and can carry | two persons at a time. If has the ap= pearance of an ordinary carriage in mt, except there are no provisions ade for a horse. The wheels are of in number. make ten miles an hour. 1 | wei le make and are four in The hind wheels are forty-three inches land the front wheels are thirty-six i inches, with rubber tires. The boiler | and engine sets just in the rear of the seat and gives the carriage the appear- ance of a fire engine, The steam gen- tes in what is called a porcupine ' hoiler, which weighs 100 pounds. The steam is meade by naphtha flames from three jets. The naphtha s kept in a cylinder, enough to last » seven hours, and there is a water tank tha’ will hold ten gallons. Theres lis a pump that is automatic in action | directly conneetzd with the engine. | The stesring part consists of a crank | sel on the footboard, so that the can steer and attend to the | encine at the same time. The body ‘ the carrinze rests on a cradle and It is easy ridinz, and y | 1 +1 three springs. aliowance has been male > every movemens, The shafts are of steel, and ean stand all of 1000 pounds. Mr. | Simonds has given the steam carriage i a trial already, and it has proved a | success. {§ started off at a ten-mile gait; there was no noise, smoke or | tromble whatever. —Springficld Repub- 1iCda. TO REINFORCE FAITH. REV. DR. TALMAGE TELLS HOW ItMayBeDone. Belief isFasilyDestroyed By a Plain Way of Bombarding lverything That is Sacred. ei *What a pity he is go'nz there I” sald my frien’, a most distinguished general nf the army, waen he was told that the reason for oy not heing present on a celebrated day in Brooklyn was that on that day I had sailed for the Holy Land. “Why do you say that?’ inquire i some one, My military friend re- piied, “Oh, he will be disillusioned when he gets amidst the squalor and commonplace scenes of Palestine, and his faith will be shaken in Christianity, for that is often the result.” The great general misjudged the case, I went to th? Holy Land for the ons pur- ros2 of having my faith strengthened, and that wes the result which came of it. In all dur journeyin~, in all our readin, ir. all our associations, in all our plans, augmentation rather than the depletion of our faith should be our ehief desire. It is easy enouzh to have our faith destroyal. I can give you a for its obliteration. Read infidel have lonz and frequent conversations ties, atteni the lectures of those antagonistic to relizion, give full swing to some bad habit, and your faith will be so completely gons that you will laugh at the idea that vou ever had anv. If you want to ruin your faith, you ean do it more easily than you can doanything elss, After believing the Bible all my life I can sse a plain way by whieh, in six weeks, I could enlist my voice and pen and heart ani head and entire nature in the bombariment of the Seriptures and the ch «seh and all I nowhold sacrad, That itis easy to banish soon and forever all respect for the Bible I prove by the fact that so many have done it. They were not particularly brainy nor had special foree of will, but they so thorouzhly accom- plished the overthrow of their faith that they have no more idea that the Bible is true, or that Christianity amounts to anything, than they have in tae truthoftne ‘‘ Arabian Nights’ Fntertainments” or the existence of Don Quixote’s ‘‘windmills.” They have destroyed their faith so thoroughly that they never will have a return of it. Fifty revivals of religion may sweep over the city, the town, the neighborhood where they live, and they will feel nothing but a silent or expressed disgust. There ars per- sons in this house to-day who 20 years ago gave up their faith, and they will nevor re- sume it. The black and deep toned bell of doom hangs over their head, and I take the hammer of that bell, and I strike it three times with all my might, and it sounds, woe! woe! woe! But my wish, and the wisn of most of you, is the prayer expressed by the disciples of Jesus Christ in the words of my text, ‘*Lord, increase our faith.” The first mode of accomplishing this is to study the Bible itself. I do not believe there is an infldel now alive who has read the Bible throuzh. But asso important a docu- ment needs to be read at least twice through in order that it may be thorouzhly under- stood, and read in course, I now orfer $100 reward to any inildel who has read the Bible through twic? andread it incourse. But I cannot take such a man’s own word for it, for there is no foundation for integrity ex- cept the Bible, and the man who reject« the source oftruth how can I accept his truth- fulness? So I must have another witness in the ease before I.give the reward. I must have the testimony of some one who has seen him read it all through twice. Infidels fish in this Bible for incoherencies and contradic- tions and absurdities, and if you find their Bible you will see interlineations in the book of Jonah and some of the chapters of that unfortunate prophet nearly worn out by much use, and some parts of II Samuel or I Kings you will find dim with tinger marks, hut the pages which contain the Ten Command- ments, and the Psalms of David, and the ser- mon on the mount, and the hook of John the Evangelist, will not have a single lead pencil stroke in the margin, nor any flager marks showing frequent perusal. The father of one of the Presidents of the United States was a pronounced infidel. I knew it when many years ago I accepted his invitation to spend the night in his home. Just bofore retiring at night he said in a jocose way, ‘‘l suppose you are accustomed . to read the Bible before goinz to bed, and here is my Bible from which to read.” He then told me what portions he would like to have me read, and he only asked for those portions on which he could easily be face- tious. You know you can make fun about any- thing. I suppose you couldtakethe last let- ter your father or mother ever wrote and find something in the grammar or the spelling or the tremor of the penmanship about which to be derisively eritical. The internal evidence of the truthfulness ot the Bible is so mighty that no one man out of the 1,600,000,- 000 of the world’s present population or the vaster millions of the past ever read the Bible in course, and read it prayerfully and cerefully, but was led to believe it. John Murray, the famous book publisher of Edinburgh, and the intimate friend of Southey, Coleridge, Walter Scott, Canning and Washington Irving, bought of Moore, the poet, the ‘‘Memoirs of Lord Byron,” and they were to be published after Byron's death. Dut they were not fit to be pub- lished, although Murray had paid for them £10,000. That was a solemn conclave when eight of the prominent literary people of those times assembled in Albemarle street after Byron's death to decide what should be done with the ‘Memoirs,”” which were charged and surcharged with defamations and indelicacies. The ‘‘Memoirs” were read and pondered, and the decision came that they must be burned, and not until the last word of those ‘““Memoirs’ went to ashes did the literary company separate. But suppose, now, all the best spirits ¢f all ages were assembled to decide the fate of the Bible, which is the last will and testa- ment of our Heavenly Father, and these memoirs of our Lord Jesus, what would be the verdict? Shall they burn, or shall they live? The unanimous verdict of all is, *‘Let them live, though all else burn,” Then put together on the other hand all the debauchees and profligates and assassins of the ages, and their unanimous verdict concerning the Bible would be. ‘Let it burn.” Mind you, I do not say that all infidels are immortal, but I do say that all the scrape- graces and scoundrels of the universe agree with them about the Bible. Let me vote with those who believe in the Holy Scripture. Men believe other things with half the evidence required to believe the Bible. The dis- tinguished Abner Kneeland rejected the Scripture and then put all his money into an enterprise for the recovery of that hocus pocus ‘Captain Kidd's treasures,” Kneeland’s 1aith for doing so being founded on a man’s statement that he could tell where those treasures were buried from the looks ofa glass or water dipped from the Hudson River. The internal evidence of the authenticity of the Scriptures is so exact and so vivid that no man, honest and sane, can thoroughly and continuously and prayerfully read them without entering their discipleship. So I put that internal evidence paramount. How are you led to believe in a letter you re- ceived from husband or wife or child or friend? You know the handwriting. You know the style. You recognize the senti- ment. When the letter comes, you do not summon the postmaster who stamped it,and the postmaster who received it, and the let- i ter carrier who brought it to your door to prove that it is a genuine letter. The internal evidence settles it, and by the same process you can forever settle the fact that the Bible is the handwriting and communication of the infinite God. Furthermore, as I have already intimated, we may increase our faith by the testimony of others. Perhaps we of lesser brain may have been overcome by superstition or cajoled into an acceptance of a hollow pre- | Y tension, So I will this mornint turn this hcunse into a courtroom and summon wit- nesses, and you shall be the jury, and I now impanel you for that purpose, and I will put upon the witness stand men whom all the world acknowledge to be strongintellectually and whose evidence in any other courtroom would be incontrovertible. I will not ezii to the witness stand any minister of the Gospel, for he might be prejudiced. There are two ways of taking an oath ina courtroom. One is by putting the lipsto the Bible and the other is by holding up the right hand toward heaven. Now. as in this case it is the Bible that is on trial, w2 will not ask the witness to put ths book to his lips, for that would imply that the sanctity and divinity of the book is settled, and that would be begging the question. SoIshall ask each witness to lift his hand toward heaven in affirmation. Salmon P. Chase, chief justice of the su- preme court of the United States appointed by President Lincoln, will take the witness stand. “‘Chief Justice Chass, upon your oath, please state what you havatosay ahout the book commonly called the Bible.” he witness replies + “There came atime in my life when I doubted the divinity of the Serip- tures, and I resolved, as a lawyer and judge, I would try.the book as I wouldtryanything in the courtroom, taking evidence for and against. It was a long and serious and pro- found study, and using the same principles of evidence in this religious matter as I al- ways do in secular matters I have come to the decision that the Bible is a supernatural book, that it has come from Goi. and that the only safety for the human race is to fol- low its teachings.” “Judge, that will do. Go back again to your pillow of dust on the banks of the Ohio.” Next I put uoon the witness stani a Pras’- dent of the Unitel States—John Quincey Adams. President Adams, what have you to say about the Bible and Christianity?” The President replies. “I have for many years made it a practic8 to real through the Bible ones a year. My custom is to read four or flve chapters every morning immediately after arising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time anl seems to me the most suitahle manner of beginning the day, In what light sosver we regsrl the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to his- tory or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowiedge and virtue.” Next I put upon the witness stand Sir Isanc Newton, the author of the *‘Principia’” and the greatest natural philosopher the world has ever seen. ‘‘sir Isane, what have you to say concerning the Bible?” The philosopher's reply is, ‘We account the Seriptures of God to bs the most sublime philosophy.” Next I put upon the witness stand the en- chantment of letters, Sir Walter Seott, anl when Task him what he thinks of the placa that our great book ought to take amonz other books he replies, aere is but one book, and that is the Bible.” Next I put upon the stand the most famous geologist of all time, Hugh Miller, an elder of Dr. Guthrie's Presbyterian church in Ea- inhurgh, and Faraday and Kepler, and they all testi.y to the same thing. They ail say the Bible is from God, and that the mightiest influence for good that ever touched our world is Christianity. ‘‘Chancellor Kent, what do you think of the Bible?” Answer: ‘No other book ever addressed itself so authoritatively and so pathetically ro the judgment and moral sansa of mankind.” “Edmund Burke, what do you think of the Bible!" Answer ‘I have read the Bible morning, noon anl night, and have ever since been the happler and the better man for such reading.” Next I put upon the stand William E. Glad- stons, the head of the English government, and I hear him saying what he said to me in January of 1890, when in reply to his tele- gram, “Pray coms to Hawarden to-morrow,” I visited him. Then and there I asked him as to whether ju the passage of years his faith in the Holy Scriptures and Christianity was on the increase or decreass, and he turnad upon me with an emphasis and enthusiasm suchas no one who has not conversed with him can fully appreciate and expressed by voice and gesture and illumined countenance his ever inersas.ng taith in God and the Bible and Christianity as the only hope of our ruined world. ‘*I'hat is all, Mr. Gladstone, we will take of your time now, for, from the reports of what is going on in England just now, I think you are very busy.” The sulphurous graves of Sodom and Gomorrah have been identified. Tha re- mains of the tower of Babel have been found. Assyrian documents lifted from the sand and Behistun inscription hundreds of fect high up on the rosk echo and re-echo the truth of Bible history. The signs of the time indicate that almost every fact ot the Bible from lid to lid will find its corrobora- tion in ancient city disentombed, or ancient wall cleared from the dust of ages, orancient document unrolled by archaeologist. Before the world rolls on as far inte +he twentieth century as it has already rolled into the nineteenth an infidel will be a man who does not believe his own senses, andthe volumes now critical and denunciatory of the Bible, if not entirely devastated by the book-worms, will be taken down from the shelf as curiosities of ignorance or idiocy. All success to the pickaxes and crowbars and powder blasting otf thoss apostles of archeo- logical exploration. I like the ringing de- flance of the old Huguenots to the assailants of ‘Christianity : “Pound away, you rebels! Your hammers break, but the anvil of God’s word stands.” How wonderful the old book hangs to- gether. It is a library made up of 66 books and written by at least 39 authors. It is a supernatural thing that tney have stuzz to- gether. Take the writings of any other 39 authors, or any 10 authors, or any 5 authors, and put them together, and how long would they stay together? Looks of ‘‘elegant ex- tracts” compiled from many authors are proverbially short lived. I never knew one such book which, to wusy the publisher's phrase, ‘“had life in it” for five years, Why is it that the Bible, made up of the writings of at least 39 autbors, has kept to- gether for a long line of <enturies when the natural tendency wovid have been to fly apart like loose shests ot paper when a gust ot wind blows upon them? It is because God stuck them together and keeps them to- gether. But for that Joshua would have vandered off in one direction, and Paul into another, and Ezekiel into another, and Ha- bakkuk into another, and the 89 authors in- to 39 directions. Put the writings of Shakespeare and Ten- nyson and Longfellow, or any part ofthem, together. How long would they stay to- gether? No book bindery could keep them together, But the cannon of the Scripture is loaded now with the same ammunition with which prophet and apostle loaded it. Bring me all the Bibles of the earth into one pile, and blindfold me so that I cannot tell the differences between day and night, and put into mv hand any one of all that Alpine mountain of sacred books, and put my finger on the last page of Genesis and let me know it, and I can tell you what is on the next page —namely, the first chapter of Exodus; or while thus blindfolded put my finger on the last chapter of Matthew and let me know it, and I will tell you what is on the next page —namely, the first chapter of Mark. In the pile of 500,000,000 Bibles there will be no exception. In other words, the book gives me confidence by its supernatural adhesion of writing to writing. Even the stoutest ship sometimes shifts its cargo, and that is what made our peril the greater in the ship Greece of the National line when the cyclone struck us off the coast of Newfoundland, and the cargo of iron had shifted as the ship swung from larboard to starboard, and from starboard to larboard. But, thanks be to God, this old Bible ship, though it has been in thousands of years of tempest, has kept its eargo of gold and pre- cious stones compact and sure, and in all the centuries nothing about it has shifted. There they stand, shoulder to shoulder, David and Solomon and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Eze- kiel and Daniel and Hosea and Joel and Amos and Obadiah and Jonah and Micah and Nahum and Habbakkuk and Zephaniah and Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi and Mat- | thew and Mark and Luke and Johnand Paul and Peter, all ther~. an1 with a certainty of beinz there until the heavens and the earth the creation of which is described in the firsl book of the Bible, shall have collapsed, nn¢ the white horss of the conqueror, described in the last book ofthe Bible, shall paw the dust in universal demolition. By that tre mendous fact my faith is re-enforced. The discussion is abroad as to who wrots thoss book= of the Bible called the Penta teuch, whether Moses or Hilkiah, or Ezra or Samuel, or Jeremiah, or another group o ancients, None of them wrote it. God wrote the Pentatench, and in this day of stenographv and typewriting that ought not to be a diffienit thinz to understand. The great merchants and lawyers, anl editors and business men of our towns and cities dietate nearly all their letters; they only sign them after thev ars dictated. The prophet and evangelist and apostle wera Jahovah's stenographers or typewriters, They put down only what Go. dictated ; he signed it afterward. He has been writing his nara» upon it all through the vicissitudes ol centuries. But I come to the heizht of my subjent when I say the way to re-enforce our faith is to pray for it. So the discinles in my text got their abounding faith. “Lorl, increases oar faith.” Soms ons suzgests, **Do you really think that prayer amounts to any- thing?” I mizht as well ask you, is taere a line of telegrapiic poles from New York to Washington, is thers a lins of telegraphia wires from’ Manchester to Lonilon, {rom Cologne to Berlin? All the psople wio have sent and raceivel messages on thoss lines know of their existenzs. 85 thers are mili- ions of souls who hav: basen in constant eoms- munieation with ths capital of the universe, with the throne o! the Almighty, with the great Gol Himsaslf, for years and years anl years, There has not besn 2 day when supplie- tions did not flash up and blessines did not flash down. Will some igno- ramus, who has never razeiv24 a telegram or sent one, coms and tell us that thers is no su~h thing as telsgraphic communication? Will some one wio has nevar offerad a prayet that was heard and answerel coms anti tell us that thers is nothing in prayer? It may not coma as we expect if, but as sure as an honest prayer goes up a merciful answer will come down. During the blizzard of four or flva years azo, you know that many of the telegrapa wires were prostratad, and I telezraphed to Chicago by way ol Liverpoo!, and the answer after awinile came rounl by another wide circuit, and so the prayer we offer may coms back in a way we never imagined, ani if wa ask to have our faith increased, although it may come by a widely different process than that which wa expeetel, our confidence will surely be augmented. Oh, put it in every prayer yoa ever maks between your next breath and your last gasp, “Lord, increase our faith” —faith in Christ as our personal ransom from present enilt and eternal catastrophe ; faith in the omnipo- tent Holy Ghost ; faithin the Bible, thetruest volume ever dictated or written or printed orreal: faith in adverss providences, har- monized for our best welfara; faith in a judgment day that will set all things right which have for ages been wrong, Increass our faith, not by a fragile ad- dition, but by an infinitude of recuperation. Let us do as we saw it dona in the country wiaile we were yet in our teens, at the old farmhouse after a longs drought, ani the well had been driel, ani the cattle moaned with thirst at the bars, anl the meadow broot had esasel to run, and the grass withered, and ths corn was shrivalel up, and one day there was a growl of thunder, and then a congregation of clouls on the sky, and then a startiing flash, ani then a drenching rain, and father ani mother put barrels under every spout at tas corners of ths house and set pails and buckets and tubs and pans anl pitchers to catch as much as they couid of the shower. Forin many of our souls there has been a lonz arought of confidences and in many no faith at all. Let us sot out all our atfections, all our hopes, all our contemplations, all our prayers, to cateh a mighty shower. ‘‘Lord, increase our faith.” I like the way that the minister's widow did in Elisha's time, when, after the family being very un'ortunate, her two sons wera about to ve sold for debt, and she had noth. ing in the houss but a pot of oil, and at Elisha’s direction shes borrowed from her neighbors all the vessels she could borrow, and then began to pour out the oil into those vessals and kept on pouring until they were all full, and she became an oil merchant with more assets than liabilities, and when she cried, “Bring me yst a vesss!,” the answer came, ‘“Thers is not a vesssl more.” So let us take what oil of faith we have and use it until the supply shall be miraculously multi. plied. Bring on your empty vessels, and by the power ofthe Lord God of Elisha they shall be filled until they ean hold no mors of jubilant, all inspiring and triumphant faith, What a frightiul time wa had a.few day ago down on the coast of Long Island, where I have been stoppinz. That archangel of tempest which, with its awful wings, swept the A*iantie coast from Florida to Newfound: land did not spare our region, A few miles away, at Southampton, I saw the bodies of four men whom the storm had slain and the sea had cast up, As I stood there among the dead bodies I said to myself, and I said aloud. “These men represent homes. What will mother and father and wife and children say when they know this?” Some of the victims were unknown. Only the first name of two oi them was jound out —~Charleyand William. Iwonderedthenand I wonder now if they will remain unknown and if some kindred far away may be waiting for their coming and never hear of the rough way of their going. I saw also one of the three who had come in alive, but more dead than alive. The ship had becoms helpless six miles out, and as one wave swept tha deck and went down on the furnaces till they hissed and went out the cry was, “Oh, my God, we are lost!” Then the crew put on life preservers, one of the sailors saying to the other, “We will meet again on the shore, and, if not, well, we must alt go some time.” Of the twenty-three men who put on the life preservers, only three lived to reach the beach. Bat what a scene it was as the good and kind people of Southampton, led on by Dr. Thomas, the great and good surgeon of New Yori, stood watching the sailors strug- gling in the breakers. ‘*‘Are you still alive?” shouted Dr. Thomas to one of them out in the breakers, and he signaled yes and then went into unconsciousness. Who should do the most for the poor fellows and how to resuscitate them were the questions that ran up and down the beach at Southampton. How the men and women on the shorestood wringing their hands, impatiently waiting for the sufferers to come within reach, and then they were lifted up and carried indoors and waited on with as much kindness and wrapped as warmly as though they had been the princes of the earth. ‘‘Are they alive?” ‘Are they breathing?” “Do you think hey will live?” “What can we do for them?" were the rapid and intense questions asked, and so much money was sent for the cloth~ ing and equipment of the unfortunates that Dr. Thomas had to makea proclamation that no more money was needed. In other words all that day it was resuscitation. ? And this is the appropriate word for us this morning as we stand and look of u non this awful sea of doubt and unbelisf on which hundreds are this moment being wrecked Some of them wera launched by Christian parentage on smooth seas and with promi for prosperous voyage, but a Voltaire eyclona struck them on one side, and a Tom Pains cyclone struck them on the other side, and a bad habit cycione struck them on all sides and they have foundered far away from snore, far away from God, and they hava gone down or are washed ashore with no spiritual life left in them. But, thank God, there ars many hers to. day With enough faith left to en-ours 73 as in the effort at their resuscitation. All han 3 to the beach! With a confidenze in (30 lt tar takes no denial, let us lay holl olta=zn! Fetch them out of the breakers! Brin; 0 - pel warmth and gospel stimu.as ant vo | life to their freczing souls! Luoswseiia... of Resuscitation ! 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers