Spain’s diplomats seem to be hop-
ing for an unforseen mine explosion
under the peace negotiations.
The value of American manufac-
turers sold abroad last year was $288, -
871,499, an increase of 100 per cent.
over the figures for 1888.
The returns show that in the war
with Spain twelve men were killed in
the navy—not quite one-twenty-sec-
ond of the killel on the
Maine in a single instant of peace.
number
According to returns published by
the British board of trade, the im-
ports of American pig iron into Great
Britain during the first six months of
1898 aggregated 30,231 tons, valued
at $332,155, and of American steel,
12,832 valued at
unwrought, tons,
$325,980:
Maine is again to enter the list of
copper-mining states.. The deposits,
numerous aad valuable,
which are
were worked more than twenty-five
years ago, but a sudden in
the price of copper made them un-
decline
profitable; improved and cheapened
method of production is the cause of
resumption of work.
A San Francisco court has just de-
cided that couples wedded at sea are
not legally married. This ruling
brings consternation to many families
Some months ago a ro-
mantic pair hired a tug and steamed
out on the Pacific to be united in the
holy bonds. The idea caught the
fancy of young people, and since then
there have been forty or fifty mar-
riages of that sort off the Golden
in that city.
Tate.
Here are some of the conclusions
that English experts have arrived at
concerning the naval features of the
war: Fast battleships are everything;
have big batteries aboard; teach the
men to shoot well; as for personnel,
the Anglo-Saxon can beat anything
that These
cover the ground pretty well. though
it might be well to mention the im-
portance of personal heroism,says the
floats. specifications
Boston Herald.
The only significance in the small
the
United States last year is that pretty
increase in railway mileage in
nearly every available section of the
by
The railway mileage will of
country is now fully accessible
railroad.
course continue to increase in the fu-
ture, but not at such a rate as in the
past.
been made in engine power and car-
With improvements that have
rying capacity of cars, moreover, the
present lines are able to accommo-
date more traffic. This
fewer railroad lines are likely to go
means that
into the hands of receivers hereafter
and at the same time that demands of
trafiic will be met.
The prane industry in California
has had a remarkable growth in the
In 1888 there were about
11,000 acres of bearing prune trees,
last decade.
and about 6000 acres more of young
orchards. Between 1890 and 1894
about 40,000 acres of prune orchards
were planted. Since then the growth
has proceeded in lesser degree, but
the total bearing area is now estimat-
ed at 55,000 acres, with 10,000 more
to come into bearing within the next
The in
lands, trees, irrigation systems, agri-
year or two. investment
cultural tools, awd packing houses is
estimated at $25,000,000. This year’s
production of green fruit will amount
to about 84,000 tons, and growers an-
ticipate a crop of 100,000 tons within
a few years. Of this year’s yield,
about one-fifth will be shipped east as
green fruit; the
dried, making, with the water evapo-
rated,about 24,000 tons.
remainder will be
A writer in the Scientific American
of
He
says: ‘‘Any one who has traveled to
and fro a few times can but notice the
paucity of lifeboats and the fact that
the davit room is not all utilized. The
examination of fifteen photographs,
representing as many liners, showed an
average of seven boats on each side;
one ship only showing an interrupted
line of ten large boats on each side.
What does this average of fourteen
boats to the ship represent? The fact
that only those on the lee side can be
seems to have taken careful note
the lifeboats on ocean steamers.
used in rough weather reduces the
total to seven; two must be consid-
ered as sacrificed, smashed or “ap-
sized during launching. Five are left,
with a capacity of about 140 persons
Life-
boats? If they are lifeboats, why do
they fill and sink with such rapidity?
—Iless than the shiv’s crew.
What use ave rafts and life presery-
of the
Elbe and the Bourgogue?”’ Thase are
ers in such calamities as that
alarming statements, and they vro
idently
kuowledze of his topic.
Ay
made by someboly with
REF TALNAGES SUNDAY SERMON.
A GOSPEL MESSAGE.
Subject: “Enough Better Than Too Much"
—Certain Superfluities, Both Physical
and Mental, Are a Hindrance Rather
Than a Help In Life.
Text: “A man of great stature, whose
fingers and toes were four and twenty, six
on each hand, and six on each foot; and he
also was the son of a giant. But when he
defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea,
David's brother, slew him.”—I Chron. xX.,
6,1.
Malformation photographed, and for
what reason? Did not this passage slip in
by mistake into the sacred Scriptures, as
sometimes a paragraph utterly obnoxious
to the editor gets into his newspaper dur-
ing his absence? Is not this Scriptural er-
rata? No, no; there is nothing haphazard
about the Bible. This passage of Scripture
was as certainly intended to be put in the
Bible as the verse, ‘‘In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth,” or,
“God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son.”
And I select it for my text to-day because
it is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning. By the people of God the Philis-
tines had been conquered, with the excep-
tion of a few giants. The race of giants is
mostly extinct, I am glad to say. There is
no use for giants now except to enlarge the
income of museums. But there were many
of them in olden times. Goliath was, ac-
cording to the Bible, eleven feet four and a
half inches high. Or, if you doubt this,
the famcus Pliny, declares that at Crete,
by an earthquake, a monument was broken
open, discovering the remains of a giant
forty-six cubits long, or sixty-nine feet
high. So, whether you take sacred or pro-
fane history, you must come to the conclu-
sion that there were in those times cases of
human altitude monstrous and appalling.
Dpmsd had smashed the skull of one of
these giants, but there were other giants
that the Davidean wars had not yet sub-
dued, and one of them stands in my text.
He was not only of Alpine stature, but had
a surplus of digits. To the ordinary fingers
was annexed an additional finger, and the
foot had also a superfluous addendum.
He had twenty-four terminations to hands
and feet, where others have twenty. It was
not the only instance of the kind, Taver-
nier, the learned writer, says that the Em-
peror of Java had a son endowed with the
same number of extremities. Volecatius,
the poet, had six fingers on each hand.
Maupertuis, in his celebrated letters,speaks
of two families near Berlin similarly
equipped of hand and foot. All of which I
can believe,for I have seen two cases of the
same physical superabundance. But this
glant of the text is in battle, and as David,
the stgipling warrior, had despatched one
giant, the nephew of David slays this mon-
ster of my text, and there he lies after the
battle in Gath, a dead giant. His stature
did not save him, and his superfluous ap-
pendices of hand and foot did not save him.
The probability was that in the battle his
sixth finger on his hand made him clumsy
in the use of his weapon, and his sixth toe
crippled his gait. Behold the prostrate
and malformed giant of the text: ‘A man
of great stature, whose fingers and toes
were four and twenty, six on each hand
and six on each foot; and he also was the
son of a giant. But when he defied Israel,
Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David’s
brother, slew him.”
Behold how superfluities are a hin-
drance rather than a help! In all the bat-
tle at Gath that day there was not a man
with ordinary hand and ordinary foot and
ordinary stature that was not better off
than this physical curiosity of my text. A
dwarf on the right side is stronger than a
giant on the wrong side, and all the body
and mind and estate and opportunity that
you cannot use for God and the better-
ment of the world is a sixth finger and a
sixth toe, and a terrible hindrance. The
most of the good done in the world, and
the most of those who win the battle for
the right are ordinary people. Count the
fingers of their right hand, and they have
just five—no more and no less. One Doc-
tor Duff among missionaries, but three
thousand missionaries that would tell you
they have only common endowment. One
Florence Nightingale to nurse the sick in
conspicuous places, but ten thousand
women who are just as good nurses,
though never heard of. The “Swamp
Angel” was a big gun that during the Civil
War made a big noise, but muskets of ordi-
nary calibre and shells of: ordinary heft
did the execution. President Tyler and
and his Cabinet go down the Potomac one
day to experiment with the ¢Peace-
maker,” a great iron gun that was to
aflright with its thunder foreign navies.
The gunner touches it off, and it explodes,
and leaves Cabinet Ministers dead on the
deck, while at that time, all up and down
our coast, were cannon of ordinary bore,
able to be the defense of the nation, and
ready at the first touch to waken to duty.
The curse of the world is big guns. After
the politicians, who have made all the
noise, go home hoarse trom angry discus-
sion on the evening of the first Monday in
November, the next day the people, with
the silent ballots, will settle everything,
and gettle it right, a million of the white
slips of paper they drop making about as
much noise as the fall of an apple-blossom.
Clear back in the country to-day there
are mothers in plain aprons, and shoes
fashioned on a rough last by a shoemaker
at the end of the lane, rocking babies that
are to be the Martin Luthers and the Fara-
days and the Edisons and the Bismarcks
and the Gladstones and the Washingtons
and ‘the George Whiteflelds of the future.
The longer I live the more I like common
folks. They do the world’s work, bearing
the world’s burdens, weeping the world’s
sympathies, carrying the worlid’s consola-
tion. Among lawyers we see rise up a
tufus Choate, or a William Wirt, or a Sam-
uel L. Southard, but society would go to
pieces to-morrow if there were not thou-
‘sands of common lawyers to see that men
and women get their rights. A Valentine
Mott or a Willard Parker rises up eminent
in the medical profession; but what an un-
limited sweep would pneumonia and diph-
theria and scarlet fever have in the world
if it were not for ten thousand common
doctors! The old physician in his gig,
driving up the lane of the farmhouse, or
riding on horseback, his medicines in the
saddle-bags, arriving on the ninth day of
the fever, and coming in to take hold of the
with anxiety, and looking on and waiting
for his decision in regard to the patient,
and hearing him say, “Thank God, I have
mastered the case, he is getting well!” ex-
cites in me an admiration quite equal to
the mention of the names of the great
metropolitan doctors of the past or the il-
lustrious living men of the present.
Yet what do we see in all departments?
People not satisfled with ordinary spheres
of work and ordinary duties. Instead of
trying to see what they can do with a hand
of five fingers, they want six. Instead ‘of
usual endowment of twenty manual and
pedal addenda, they want twenty-four. A
rtain amount of money for livelihood,
“ud for the supply of those whom we leave
behind us after we have departed this life,
is important, for we have the best authority
for saying, *‘He that provideth not for his
own, and especially those of his own house-
hold, is worse than an infidel; but the
large and fabulous sums for which many
struggie, if obtained, would be a hindrance
rather than an advantage.
The anxieties and annoyances of those
whose estates have become plethoric can
only he told by those who possess them. It
will be a good thing when, through your
industry and prosperity, you can own the
house in which you live. But suppose you
own fifty houses, and you have all those
rents to colleet, and all those . tenants to
please. Suppose you have branched out in
business successes until in almost every di-
rection you have investments. The fire
bell rings at night, you rush upstair to ioek
pulse of the patient, while the family, pale
i out of the window, to see if it is any ot
your mills, Epidemic of crime comes, and
there are embezzlements and absconding
in all directions. and you wonder whether
any of your bookkepers will prove re-
creant. A panic strikes the financial world,
and you are like a hen under a sky full of
hawks, and trying with anxious cluck to
got your overgrown chickens safely under
wing. After a certain stage of success hs
been reached, you have to trust so many
important things to others that you are apt
to P- the prey of others, and you are
swindled and defrauded, and the anxiety
you had on your brow when you were earn-
ing your first thousand dollars is not equal
to the anxiety on your brow now that you
have won your three hundred thousand.
Disraeli says that a king of Poland
abdicated his throne and joined the people,
and became a porter to carry burdens. And
some one asked him why he did so, and he
replied: “Upon my honor, gentlemen, the
load which IL cast off was by far heavier
than the one you see me carry. The weighti-
est is but a straw when compared to that
weight under which I labored. I have
slept more in four nights than I have dur-
ing all my reign. I begin to live and to be
a king myself. Elect whom you choose.
As for me, I am so well it would be madness
to return to court.”
“Well,” says somebody, “such overloaded
persons ought to be pitied, for their worri-
ments are real and their insomnia and their
nervous prostration are genuine.” I reply
that they could get rid of the bothersome
surplus by giving it away. If a man has
more houses than he can carry without
vexation, let him drop a few of them. If
his estate is so great he cannot manage it
without getting nervous dyspepsia from
having too much, let him divide with those
who have nervous dyspepsia because they
cannot get enough. No! they guard their
sixth finger with more care than they did
the original five. They go limping with
what they call gout and know not that,
like the giant of my text, they are lamed
by a superfluous toe. A few of them by
charities bleed themselves of this financial
obesity and monetary plethora, but many
of them hang on to the hindering super-
pelled to give the money up anyhow, in
their last will and testament they gener-
ously give some of it to the Lord, expect-
ing, no doubt, that He will feel very much
obliged to them. Thank God that once in
a while we have a Peter Cooper, who, own-
ing an interest in the iron works at Tren-
ton, said to Mr. Lester: ‘‘I do not feel quite
easy about the amount we are making.
Working under one of our patents, we have
a monopoly. which seems to me something
wrong. Everybody has to come to us for
it, and we are making money too fast.”
So they reduced the price, and this while
our philanthropist was building Cooper In-
stitute. which mothers a hundred institutes
of kindness and mercy all over the land.
But the world had to wait five thousand
eight hundred years for Peter Cooper!
I am glad for benevolent institutions
that get a legacy from mén who during
their life were as stingy as death, but who
in their last will and testament bestowed
money on hospitals and missionary socie-
ties; but for such testators I have no re-
spect. They would have taken every cent
of it with them if they could, and bought
up half of heaven and iet if out at ruinous
rent,”or loaned the money to celestial elit
zens at two per cent. a month, and got a
“corner” on harps and frympets. They
lived in this world fifty and sixty years in
the presence of appalling suffering and
want, and made no efforts for their relief.
The charities of such people are in the
“Paulopost future” tense, they are going
to do them. The probability is that if such
a one in his last will by a donation to
benevolent societies tries to atone for his
life-time close-filstedness, the heirs-at-law
willtry to break the will by proving that
the old man was senile or crazy, and the
expense of the litigation will about leave
in the lawyer’s hands what was meant for
the Bible Society. O ye over-weighted, sue-
cessful business men, whether this sermon
reach you ear or your eyes, let me say that
if you are prostrated with anxieties aBout
keeping or investing these tremendous
fortunes, I can tell you how you can do
spirits raised than by drinking gallons of
bad tasting water at Saratoga, Homburg,
Carlsbad: Give to God, humanity and the
Bible ten per cent. of your income and it
will make a new man of you, and from
restless walking of the floor you shall have
eight hours’ sleep, without thes help of
bromide of potassium, and from no appe-
tite you will hardly be able to await your
regular meals, and your wan cheek will fill
up, and when you die the blessings of those
who but for you would have perished will
bloom all over your grave. <
Perhaps some of you will take this ad-
vice, Dut the most of you will not. And
you will try to cure your swollen hand by
getting on it more fingers, and your rheu-
matic foot by getting on it more toes, and
there will be a sigh of relief when you are
gone out of the world; and when over your
remains the minister recites the words:
‘“‘Blesged are the doad who die in the Lord,”
persons who have keen appreciation of the
ludicrous will hardly be able to keep their
faces straight. But whether in that direc-
tion my words do good or not, I am anx-
ious that all who have only ordinary equip-
ment be thankful for what they have and
rightly employ it. I think you all have,
figuratively as well as literally, fingers
enough. Do not long for hindering super-
fluitics. Standing in the presence of this
fallen giant of my text, and in this post-
mortem examination of him, let us learn
how much better off we are with just the
usual hand, the usual foot. You have
thanked God for a thousand things, but I
warrant you never thanked Him for those
two implements of work'and locomotion,
that no one but the Infinite and Omnipotent’
God could have ever planned or made—the
hand and the foot.
that mechanic who in a battle, or through
machinery, has lost them knows anything
adequately about their value, and only the
Christiah scientist can ‘have any apprecia-
tion of what divine masterpieces they are.
Sir Charles Bell was so impressed with
the wondrous construction of the human
hand that when the Earl of Bridgewater
gave forty thousand doliars for essays on
eight books were written, Sir Charles Bell
wrote his entire book on the wisdom and
goodness of God as displayed in the human
hand. The twenty-seven bones in the
hand and wrist with cartilages and liga-
ments and phalanges of the flngers all
make just ready to knit, to sew, to build
up, to pull down, to weave, to write, to
plow, to pound, to wheel, to battle, to give
friendly salutation. Thet®ps of its fingers
are so many telegraph offices by reason of
their sensitiveness of touch. The bridges,
the tunnels, the cities of the whole earth
are the victories of the hand. The hands
are not dumb, but often speak as distinctly
as the lips. With our hands we invite, we
repel, we invoke, we entreat, we wring
them in grief, or clap them in joy, or
spread them abroad in benediction. The
malformation of the giant's hand in the text
glorifies the usual hand. Fashioned of God
more exquisitely and wondrously than
any human mechanism that was ever con-
trived, I charge you to use it for God and
the lirting of the world out of its moral
predicament: Employ it in the sublime
work of Gospel handshaking. You can see
the hand is just made for that. Four fingers
just set right to touch your neighbor's hand
on ore side, and your thumb set so as to
clench it on the other side. By all its bones
and joints and muscles and cartilages and
ligaments the voice of Nature joins with
the voice of God commanding you toshake
hands. The custom is as old as the Bible,
anvhow. Jehu said toJehonadab: “Is thine
heart right as my heart is with thine heart?
If it be, give me thine hand.” When hands
join in Christian salutation a Gospel elec-
tricity thrills across the palm from heartto
heart, and from the shoulder of one to the
shoulder of the other.
A Big Shrinkage in Common Stock.
Itisreported that there has been a shrinks
age of over $5,000,000 in the value of Ameri-
can LTohacce Company’s common stocks
fluity till death; and then, as they are com--
more to get your health back and your |
{
the wisdom and goodness of God, and!
|
Only that soldier or |
(ETON: STATE NEHS CONDESED
A HAPPY FATHER
Rejoice in Being the Heai of a Family of Tweaty
Five Childrex.
Mrs. Samuel Swartwood, wile of a
raiiroad brakeman, residing at Moun-
tain Top, Luzerne County, gave birth
to her twenty-fifth child last week, Of
the large number of children born, only
two sets were twins. Three of the chil-
dien died. The rest are in good health.
The father says he is the happiest man
on earth with his large family.
The following pensions were issued
last week;
Robert Miller, Beech Creek, $6;
Josiah Baldwin (dead), Somerset, $2 to
$12; Daniel J. Kepfer, New Franklin,
$8; Thomas Barki:, Ildred, M:Kean,
$10 to $12; Jeremiah Blue, Williamsport,
$6 to $8; W. Richards, Riddleshurg,
Bedford, $6 to $12; Samuel! E. Fulmer,
Bennett, $6; William Wilson Leathem,
Burgettstown, - $6; Franklin Berwick,
Reynoldton, $8; Jacob J. Jackson, dead,
Indiana, $6 to $8; George Burroughs,
TL.arimer station, Westmoreland, §€; to
$8; Benson F. Sadler, Burnside, $6 to
$8; Rebert W. Campbell, Academy
Corners, Tioga, $14 to $17; Olive Mec-
Munn, Seneca, Venango, $8; Mary A.
Godd, Morris, Tioga, $8: Hannah C. L.
Feather, Sandy Lake, $12; Frank M.
Weidner, Rochester, Beaver, $8; Geo.
D.: Crandal, Blossburg, Tioga, $6;
Jacob Muhler, Allegheny, $6: W. B.
Linhart, Turtle Creek. $6 to $8; Robert
Easton, Soldiers’ home, Erie, $5 to $8;
Akrazha Madden, Water street, Hunt-
ingdon, $6 to $8; Abraham H. Decker,
Tioga, $8 to $10; Abraham H. Decker,
Scmerset, $24 to $30; James Miller,
Huntingdon, $6 to $8; Hannah M.
Dinimy, Emporium, $8; Ellen Wissel,
Glenfield, $8; Mary C. Pierce, Flora,
Irdiana, $8; Susanna H. Hoover, Dun-
canville, Blair, $8; John H. Pierce,
Utica, Venango, $6; George W. Ramsey,
Manorstown, Westmoreland, $6; John
E. Campbell, Knobsville, Fulton, $6;
Andrew J. Reese, Plummer, Venango,
$8 to $10; Aaron Young, Bedford, $8 to
$12; Isaac B. Decker, Towanda; $12 to
$14; Matthew C. Burkholder, Ligonier,
$16 to $17; Samuel D. Wickoff, Blanch-
ard, Center, 86 to $8; Thomas Rash,
Needmore, Fulton, $12 to $17; Richard
M. Frew, Corry, $8 to $10; Daniel
Genter, father, Roaring Springs, Blair,
$12,
The treasury of St. Peter's Methodist
Church, at Reading, has been replen-
ishd by a novel scheme, devised by the
Ladies’ Aid Scciety. The women got
up a ‘weight sccial,” and every person
attending was asked to pay one-half
cent a pound for his or her bodily
weight. Some of the heavy members,
Lad to contribute over $1, while the
lightest girl, weighing only 50 pounds,
ot off for 25 cents. By this means $86
was raised.
Mary E. Mobley secured a verdict at
Uniontown for $1,479 50 against the ad-
ministrators of the estate of her uncle,
William W. Miller, of ILuzerne town-
ship. The plaintiff served 22 years in
Miller's house, but he died without
making a will, Some cf the heirs paid
her $1,400 of her claim of $2000, and she
won her suit for the balance.
While shooting chickens recently at
Hazelton, Fred Pfanstil fired a shot
with a small rifle which missed the
rowl for which it was intended, and,
hitting the: iron. hoop of a barrel,
glanced off and struck his brother,
John Pfanstil, aged 21, directly over
the eye. The bullet penetrated the
young man’s brain.
Joseph Eastlick, the proprietor of a
feed store at Meadville, has been ar-
rested charged with being an accom-
plice of John Wright, who is said to
have stolen a horse and buggy from J.
1. Jaker, a Greenville liveryman.
Eastlick confessed that he had traded
a watch and $5 for the rig and then
sold it.
The valuable jewelry found by the
police on the person of Joseph Menser,
arrested on Tramps Island, near
Greenville, has been identified as the
property of Miss M. P. Mimm and An-
na Ileiter, of Oil City, stolen on the af-
ternoon of September 14. Menser will
be taken to Oil City for trial.
United States Deputy Marshal
Roe, of Altoona, and a secret service
man-a few days ago arrested E. IL.
McClintock at Coalport, and Mr. and
Mrs. Elmer Kough, at Falls Timber,
near Altoona, on the charge of having
in their possession and passing coun-
terfeit money.
Tax Collector John H. Barge, of Con-
riellsville, was arrested on oath of his
bondsmen, Robert Norris, John D.
Frisbee and William We¢ihe, and waiv-
ed a hearing for trial at court on the
charge of fraudulently using money to
the extent of $5,000. I. W. Rutter went
bail for Barge in the sum of $2,500.
As Joseph Magesse was leaving the
Portland Church at Easton with his
bride, Mary Strause, of Portland, he
was arrested, charged with bigamy, on
complaint of wife No. 1. His bride was
overcome at the unhappy turn of af-
fairs, and wept bitterly when he was
marched offsto the lockup.
Willian Myers, aged 13, ran away
from, the Jumonsville orphan asylum
Monday and boarded a freight train.
He fell from the train at Dunbar, and
rolled into’ a creek, where he lay all
night. He is now in the City Hospital
at Connellsviile.
Henry T. Sampszl, of Centerville,
Sryder county, while working around
a circular saw while it was in motion,
was caught by the saw and cut in two
a few days ago. He was 36 vears old
and one of the associate judges of the
county.
A box filled with dynamite is said to
have been found concealed under the
Old Meadow mill at Scottdale, and it
is thought that two suspicious-looking
men seen in the neighborhood had in-
tended blowing up the plant.
On the suit of Charles Given, of
Beaver Falls, Lewis Graham, sheriff of
Beaver county, has been arrested
charged with charging illegal fees to
tke amount of $102.58 in the foreclosure
of a mortgage.
William Baker, a miner, and James
Donovan, a brakeman, were instantly
killed at Lilly, Cambria County, the
other evening by the overturning of a
car on which they were riding to work.
James Murray, a burglar, who es-
caped from jail at Wellsboro, wrote a
letter to the Sheriff, thanking him for
kindnesses, and saying that he was on
his way to Porto Rico.
A Beaver Falls cat belonging to A.
C. Meyers, ergaged in mortal combat
with a four foot snake. The snake got
the worst of it and was getting away
when Killed by a policeman.
John
News has been received at Bradford
that Harry Bodine, of Company C,
Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers,
died in the hospital at Ponce, Puerto
Rico, September 13.
Miss Challie Ross, aged years, of
New Alexandria, attempted suicide a
few days ago by cutting her throat
with a razor. She will recover. She
was despondent through iilness.
George Chafers, a prominent
chant tailor of Corry,
committed suicide by hanging him
while temporarily insane over busin
troubles. +
obert Shaffer, Grove City, Pa., was
making an excavation for a building
when the bank caved in. His head was
not covered and his cries brought as-
sistance.
23
mer-
aged 48 vears,
a1 f
ess
THE SABBATH-SCHODL LESSON
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMENTS
’ FOR OCTOBER 09.
Lesson Text: “Jehosaphat’s Good Reign,”
IX Chronicles xvili., 1-10—Golden Text;
Proverbs iil, 6—Commentary by the
Rev. D. M. Stearns.
1. ““And Jehosaphat, his son, reigned in
his stead and strengthened himself against
Israel.” Israel, orthe ten tribes, had proved
themselves to be the enemies of god, and
to stand with God means to stand against
His enemies (Jas. iv.,4). How great the
contrast in chapter xviii., 1, where we seo
Jehosaphat joining afllnity with Ahab, the
king of Israel, and thus necessitating the
rebuke of the Lord in chapter xix., 2,
‘‘Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love
them thlit hate the Lord?” To be for God
at all times and under all circumstances is
a rare thing and is seen perfectly only in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. ‘And he placed forces in all the fenced
cities of Judah.” Every king was king for
the Lord (II Chron. ix., 8), and hisstrength
was to be in the Lord and not in horses and
chariots (Deut. xvii, 16). When we put
sur trust in things visible, we are apt to
cease to see and rely upon God (Jer. xvii.,
5). This is a constant temptation and a
snare.- The Lord is often proving us as He
did Philip, and we, like Philip, venture to
suggest to Him how it might be done, but
all the while He Himself knows what He
will do (John vi., 5-7). When we obediently
and trustfully, under God’s guidance,make
ordinary provision, all as well. The diffi-
culty is when we cease to see God.
3. ‘And the Lord was'with Jehosaphat.”
This is the secret of all blessing. The Lord
was with Joseph (Gen. xxxix., 2, 8, 21, 23),
The Lord was with David (II Sam. v., 10).
His comfort to Moses, Joshua, Gideon and
Jeremiah was the assurance that He was
with them (Ex. iii., 12; Josh. i., 5; Judg. vi.,
16; Jer. i., 8). So when the Lord Jesus sent
His followers into all the world the greatest
encouragement He could give thew was
His assurance: “All power is given .nto
Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, there-
fore, and lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the age” (Math. xxviii.,
18-20).
4, **He sought to the Lord God of his
father and walked in His commandments.”
It is written of Zacharias and Elizabeth
that they were both righteous before God,
walking in all the commandments and or-
dinances of the Lord blameless (Luke i.,
6). God bad said to Israel that if they
would obey His voice and keep His cove-
nant,they would be a peculiar treasure unto
Him above all people (Ex. xix,, 5), and in
Titus ii., 14 (R. V.), it is written that He
gave Himself for us to redeem us from all
iniquity and purify unto Himself a people
for His own possession, zealous of good
works. Teall TR Rae
5. ‘‘Therefore the jLord established the
kingdom in his hand.” Joshua was told
that jf he would observe to
C serve peek ’
to all the law, his way woul $4 Prosper-
ous and he would have good sucéess (Joshua
i.,7,8)." InII Chron. xx., 20, Jehosaphat
is Fang saying to the people, ‘‘Believe i
i Loa Yor God, so shall ye he estab-
shed; Z iil. 9, 13 the obras,
aol AL EAR, v8 Sal fist
be establi hed. dod wi a fife word
is the only 8stablishment, fof All alse shall
be shaken. Wherefore y Riecelving aking-
dom which cannot be shaken let us hgve
grace whereby we may serve God agcgept-
ably with reverence and godly fear, for odr
God is a consuming fire (Heb. xii., 28, 29).
6. ‘‘And his heart was lifted up in the
ways of the Lord.” The margin says that
he was encouraged in the ways of the Lord;
those yho seek to walk in the way of the
Lord shall not lack encouragement to con-
tinue therein. There will he many a hand-
ful dropped for us on purpose to lead usin
His way (Ruth ii., 16). They that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings as eagles
(Isa. x1.. 81). The way of the Lord was so
attractive and enjoyable that the way ot
the world and the devil became distasteful
and the high places and groves wore taken
away. We cannot walk with God unless
we humble ourselves so to do and make up
our minds to be agreed with Him (Mic: vi.,
; Amos iif., 3).
7. **Also in the third year of his reign he
sent to his princes to teach in the cities of
Judah.” What a suggestive foreshadow-
ing of the time when ‘A king shall reign in
righteousness aud princes shall rule in
judgment, and. the work of righteousness
shall be peace, and the effect of righteous-
ness, quietness and assurance forever”
(Isa. xxxii., 1, 17). There cannot be any-
thing more important than that men should
know the Lord and His ways, and when
kings and princes take up this as their
mission, the kingdom will either have come
or be very near. Just: now our Govern-
ment has given $50,000,000 for defense, for
the purchase or manufacture of warships
or war material, but was it ever heard that
any Government ever gave’ even $1,000,000
to make known the living God?
8. ‘“And with them Levites and priests.”
The priest’s lips should keep knowledgo,
and they should seek the law at his mouth,
for he is the messenger of the Lord of
Hosts (Mal. ii., 7). Their calling is simply
set forth in II Chron. xxix., 11, in these
words, “My song, be not now negligent,
for the Lord hath chosen you to stand be
fore Him to serve Him and that ye should
minister unto Him and burn incense.”
Priests, prophets and kings were to recog-
nize God alone as their Master and live
only unto Him.
9. “And they taught in Judah and had
the book of the law of the Lord with them
and went about throughout all the cities
of Judah and taught the people.” There is
nothing on earth so heavenly as the Word
of God. Iris all ‘“true from the beginning’
and ‘forever settled in heaven’ (Ps. exix.,
80,160). We are to receive it meekly, hold
it fast, rightly divide it and hold it forth,
for it is an engrafted word, a faitbfual
word, a word of truth and a word of life
(Jas. i., 21; Titus 1., 9; II Tim. ii., 15, Phil.
.i., 16). - If all ministers and teachers
taught only the Word of God and honored
it as the Word of God, how much more
would be accomplished for God! But when
those who profess to be its friends dishonor
and even get aside many portions of it what
shall we say? Just this, “Forever, O Lord,
Thy word is settled in heaven.”
10. “And the fear of the Lord fell upon
allthe kingdoms of the lands that were
round about Judah.” There was no war.
Other nations brought presents and tri-
bute, and Jehosaphat waxed great exceed.
ingly (verses 11, 32 The remaining verses
of the chapter tell that his army was 1,160,-
000, but the very next chapter tells of his
downfall. Uzzianh was marvelously helped
till he was strong, but his strength was his
weakness and the cause of his fall (IL
Chron. xxvi., 15, 16). Our only strength is
in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might.—Lesson Helper.
“If ye w
His Bvrong Point Was Flour.
At the recent general election in
Sydney, New South Wales, flour was
the favorite missile of the Sydney
crowds, and Mr. Reid, the Premier,
was the favorite target: He deftly
turned this popular preference into a
political argument for his side of the
campaign. After three bags of tlour
had exploded on various parts of his
body at a huge open-air meeting he
exclaimed: ‘See how plentiful flour is
under my regime. Anyone can afford
to throw it about. This is a new de-
parture {in politics - here. Hitherto
flour could not be spared for this
particular purpose.”
Nearly a million persons make their
living in this country by the electric
industries.
Mexico has had 55 Presidents sinca
1821. Of these 16 have died violent
deaths.
en
CENERAL SHAFTER'S JOKE,
How He Gave an Exhibition of His Une
erring Marksmanship.
Colonel Thomas H. Barry, adjutanx
general to Major-General Otis, before
leaving for Manila told a good story of
Major-General Shafter’s shooting in
the days when he was a colonel on the
Mexican border. A day before he
took ship for the Philippines Barry,
with Brigadier-General Hughes and a
Chronicle representative, discussing
Shafter’s gallantry before Santiago,
said: 7
“I was Shafter’s aide three years
ago when we both were brouzing
under the hottest sun that shines in
these states. Shafter was known as
the best shot not only in his regiment,
but in the whole country about. One
day an officer from another regiment,
not acquainted with Shafter’s ability
in this line, visited the post aud soon
made it apparent to us that he es-
teemed himself about as expert a
marksman as ever pulled a trigger.
We secretly laughed at his opinion of
himself, and whispered to each other,
“Just wait till Pecos Bill gets after
him.’
“Well, his time came. One morn-
ing Shafter and I started ont to ride.
forty miles or more to another post,
and the visitor asked to be allowed to
accompany us. We trotted along
easily until about noon, when we
halted to eat our luncheon, which we
packed with us. At that time oflicers
carried short carbines on such ser-
vice, and I had one strapped to my
saddle. The conversation drifted from
the topography of the country to
marksmanship, and the officer—call
him Smith-—said: ‘Say, colonel, have
you got any shots in your regiment?’
‘Shafter smiled and replied: ‘Have
I? Why, I’ve got some men that can
disoount the sharpshooter’'s you read
about. Officers, too. I'm not much
myself, but when you get back to the
fort I'll tell a few of the good ones to
show you a thing or two.’
“Just then an antelope sprang up a
quarter of a mile away, and all seeing
it at the same moment reached fyr
their carbines. Shafter was quickest,
and in a second adjusted the sights to
600 feet and blazed away. Down
came Mr. Antelope,and when we rode
up to where he lay we found a bullet
hole over his heart,
‘Smith examined the wound, looked
over the carbine, and then muttered,
half aside, ‘Not bad. Yon say vou're
not in it with other officers in vour
regiment, colonel?
*¢ No,’ said Shafter, ‘I'm
of myself alongside of them.’
“A couple of hours later another
antelope appeared, but farther away.
Smith fidzeted a moment and then
said eagerly, ‘Colonel, may I go after
him?’
ft ‘Pshaw, You wouldn't chase
bi on horseback at that distance,’
exclaimed Shafter, seizing the weapon
and levelling it as he spoke. ‘I'll put
lead in his head.’
“He fired and we saw the animal
bound away. Smith was gleeful.
‘A little hich, colonel,” he shouted as
we callopetl on. teaching the place
where the came had been, we were
on a high rising piece of ground, and,
looking down fifty feet, Shafter pointed
to a dark ob ect and said guie ly, I
guess I got the head.’
‘Sure enongh, the an-elope
lying dead, with a bullet hole
his left ear. Smith
gusted as any nian I ever saw,
* ‘And the officers are better?
queried.
““Shafter’s eves twinkled.
B.ith,’ he replied, with assumed
sternness, ‘I want you to say nothing
of this at the post. [onght to have
nt him in the eye, and [feel ashamed
of my poor aim.’
“Smith, who had no sense of hwmmor,
was. da nfonnled. = For after
he spread the fame of Colonel Shafter
as a marksman far and wide.” San
Francisco Chronicle.
ashamed
was
{hrough
dis-
looked as
he
‘Liient.
Voirs
A Railvoad’s Thoushtfulness,
Commuters on the Delaware, Lacka-
wanna ‘& Western railroad in New
Jersey are inclined ‘to challenge a
new regulation which has just been en-
forced on the gromnd that smacks
of paternalism. = As each brakeman
calls a station, as, for
ensack, he does it
“Hackensack! Bon't
b-u-n-d-l-e-s.” Occasional pass
find these calls very amusing
eacit station is announced thev erin at
the brakeman, who doesn’t eu: the
new regulation, and then look around
to see the commuters pick up their
bundles. Undoubtedly this new regn-
lation was suggested by the number
of bundles which commuters left Dhe-
hind them in the cars and then both-
ered the railroal company to look up
for them. ‘I object to this regula-
tion,” said one of the commuters. “If
the railroads are going into this busi-
ness, the first thing we will know the
brakeman will call out: ‘Hackensack?
Have you forgotten to mail yor wife's
letter?’ or perhaps it will be ‘Mont-
clair! Remember to stop at the butch-
er’'s.” I invited a fiiend to come out
and spend the night with me a short
time ago, and he began to laugh when
the first station was announced. As
station after station was reached and
the brakeman sung out monotonously
at each: ‘Don’t forget your bundles,’
his merriment increased. He would
talk about nothing else at dinner, and
when he said good night to he
added: ‘Don’t forget your bundles.’
1’s kind of the railroad, of
but I don’t like 1t.”’
instance, Hack-
in this fashion:
f-o-r-g-e:t your
ngers
and as
av
us
course,
Vesuvins’ Output of Lava.
Lava streams that have flowe lout of
Vesuvius during the last three vears
have deposited 105,000,000 cubic wme-
tres of lava on the sides of the moun-
tain. A cone of lava 330 feet high
has been formed, out of whieh fresh
streams are flowing. Tue valleys on
either side of the obs rvatory peak
have been completely filled up.