es, Th rican. yk [ know k such OW.” ry end married ia Rec- vin » end me 13 ut I've ’—Des est this safety, protect pme!”’— in, that inkerly vord; I e after le folly But it’s 0 ming« olly.”— dG t friend A map Pp. n is § couple has re. ittees.” e Mrs, beauti- haven't 1s only it Free 1id buy end in 1g man, ious as use.” — G. y wed cely ard 1k; ang priate.” hat did incott’s .chelors pmate,” n in so Henry; | a tear he al- dle for § ny . says Harper's Bazar. VERITABLE COATS OF MAIL. © Of course only a French woman fwould venture to wear anything so en- tirely novel, but from across the water . comes the information that blouses entirely woven of chain are established as actual facts. Chain work has gained ground for a long time past, serving for hand bags, purses and girdles. Lat- | terly medallions of this sort have been noticed, and now we hear of the real coat of chain armor, made of cut steel, beautifully polished. So light and deli- cate is its workmanship that the coat is not burdensome because of weight, and its effect, as may be imagined, is quite dazzling. The claim has not been made for it that it serves any i practical purpose.—Detroit Free Press. Hy ‘A BUSY PHILANTHROPIST. i- Few people have done more to pro- i mote Irish industries than Lady Aber- . deen, who, when in residence many years ago at the Viceregal Lodge, gave a garden party at which all those in- f vited were asked to wear as far as pos- | sible costumes made from material of Irish manufacture. Lady Aberdeen has many interests, and is noted for i her philanthropy and decided views on the betterment of the working class, i says Woman's Life, f too, speaks well on the public plat- She is literary, form, and is president of several wom- | en’s associations, yet she is, above all, a lover of the domestic life, and has a * touch of kind homeliness which ap- | peals to those with whom she comes in . contact, | THE VOCATION OF THE WIFE. Now the occupation of being a wife, including presumptively, as it, does, the pecupation of being a mother, is one of extremely comprehensive scope.. Some svomen who seem not to have had very much education do very well at it, and some women who have been profusely educated make pretty bad work of it, It is a calling in which health goes for more than ac- complishments, that phase of wisdom which we call “gumption” for more than learning, instinct for much, and character for most of all. But you can not overeducate a girl for the occupa- tion of being a wife. You may keep her too long at her pooks and out of what we call “so- ciety;” you may teach her to value un- duly things of minor importance; you may misdirect and miseducate her in various ways, but you can’t educate ber to think so wisely on so many sub- jects that she will be above that busi- mess. : Nobody is really so superior as to be too good to marry. Plenty of women are too good to marry this or that or the other individual man; too many women, perhaps, in these days, are ed- ucated beyond the point of being satis- fied with any man who is likely to want to marry them, but the woman who seems “too” good for human na- ture’s daily food” hasn’t been overedu- cated. The trouble with her is that she doesn’t know enough. She is not over- developed, but stunted. Education is the development of ability, and a wife —and, e¥en more, a mother—can’t have her abilities too much developed. Her place is a seat of power, and all the knowledge that she can command will find a field for its employment, GOOD ADVICE FOR A WIFE. Nothing is more unfortunate or more detrimental to her happiness and peace of mind than for a young and inexper- jenced woman to start married life : with the firm conviction that she is going to manage everything connected with her new home—including her hus- band — according to her own special ideas. It is generally such women who are conceited enough to think that they are quite competent to train up a husband in the way he should go, and . it comes as a great shock to them when they find that he prefers to go in quite a contrary direction. A woman who starts out on her mat- rimonial career with the idea of man- aging her husband will, in nine cases out of ten, come to the conclusion in less than six months that marriage, as avell as her idea, is a failure. A man will be master of his own home, and the woman who is truly mistress of her household never fails to set her husband upon a pedestal, and to insist that all in the house shall honor him as lord and master. There are many women who think it is right that they should resent the most tri- fling infringement of what they con- sider is due to them from their hus- bands, and will say or do the most ex- travagant things in order to assert themselves, as they think. As a mat- ter of fact, they only succeed in mak- ing themselves look ridiculous, and will often cause a husband to resolve that if his wife will not try to harmonize tier wishes with his own, matters shall be carried out in the manner he thinks fit. Don’t stand on your dignity with gour husband, and insist on setting forth what you consider your rights. Deference to a husband is the drop of oil which keeps the wheels of domestic life running smoothly. Make up your be patient, and prac- mind that you v ti art of f« two or th ¥ years of married life, while you are getting used to each other. That is the it passed in safety it is generally 1y plain sailing afterward. — New ork Journal. + if DRAWING ROOMS. How different is the drawing room now from that of a generation ago— even of half a generation! Writers in the women’s newspapers in England are commenting on the fact with keen appreciation of the change, and in this country it is even more in evidence than across the sea. The wax fruits, the woolen antima- cassars of the last generation passed away with the stuffed birds and the wealth of artificial orange blossoms under glass cases long ago. The pres- ent generation has almost forgotten them. It does remember better the chenille monkeys that used to climb over the gas fixtures on the walls, the yards upon yards of art muslin that used to be turned over chairs and flower pots, and the sofas that came in when the horsehair period expired. And it re- .grets them and the array of Japanese plates on the wall even less, That period of eccentricity in decor- ation has passed. “The modern drawing room,” said a man interested in the development of domestic art the other day, “is, under proper auspices, now a picture of re- fined simplicity, an epitome of art and a real haven of rest. “The furnishers and decorators have combined with housewives of more de- veloped tastes and better ideas than their predecessors to make it so. They have borrowed from the past all the best ideas it had, and they have added them to the conveniences of the pres- ent. “Take the taste in wall coverings. Crudely colored, gaudy papers, display- ing impossible flowers and grotesque semi-conventional designs, have been abandoned in favor of self-colored papers, striped ones showing variants of one color, silken hangings, tapes- tries and stenciled sackcloth arranged in panels after the old method. “Then the carpets. Where beautiful rugs, the highest development of the weaver’s art, have not replaced them, we have velvet pile, with a border re- peating the main color in many tones. “And for chair coverings we have kept the Old World chintz, redolent of an age when women wore white, lav- ender or cinnamon, pale blue and sim- ple pink, and dressed their hair in ringlets. “And never has there been a day in which cultivated women have been more keenly alive to the beauty of good wood than they are now. They collect satinwood, walnut, oak and mahogany, and will not suffer an inch of table- cloth to hide the exquisite sheen of their favorite pieces of furniture. °° “Taking the drawing room as indi- cating the artistic sense of the period, surely we have every reason to be proud of the progress of art in the home.”—Boston Post. + Benzoin should be used sparingly on the complexion. Used too freely it will cause the outer cuticle to fluff away in tiny particles, and then the surface be- comes rough. A pleasant mouth wash is made by combining one tablespoonful of pure borax, one pint of distilled water, one ounce of liquid myrrh and five drops of thymol. Put one tablespoonful in a glass of water and use three times a day. For enlarged pores, after washing the face with warm water and drying it, massage with the well-beaten white of an egg, to which one-half dram of powdered alum and one-quarter dram of rose water have been added. Put this on at night, rubbing it well into the flesh. In the morning wash off. Moth patches are almost invariably the result of liver or kidney trouble. The victim of these unsightly blem- ishes should eat plenty of apples and oranges and should drink quantities of buttermilk. An ointment to be applied every night is: One ounce of benzoint- ed lard, one ounce of white precipitate, one ounce of subnitrate of- bismuth, o! Combinations of the water blues and greens are happy, but it is useless to attempt description of the colorings. There are innumerable new silks. One called the Sappho, having about the quality of soft taffeta, but a satiny finish and coming only in plain colors, is a decided favorite. Ermine tails dangling from lace or passementerie ornaments are a trim- ming detail often used, and fur cabo- chons or huge buttons are another nov- elty used in connection with passemen- terie cords, etc. Among the faney varieties are chif- fon and panne velvets whose warp is printed in Pompadour boquets or flow- er garlands, the coloring of the flowers being softly blurred by the pile, which is preferably in white. Reception gowns, which used to be invisibly closed by hooks and eyes, now often show a line of buttons, provided these are handsome encugh to look well with the material used for a gown to be worn by artificial light. Among heavier silks a rich armure weave makes strong claim for favor. A rich gros grain almost as pliable as fine cloth is used for whole costumes, e as much as heavy cord are to the fc i and particularly satisfactory in separ- ate blouses. New with bengglines critica! period of “farried life, and if fu oon — AN ELOQUENT BISCOURS A SERMON FOR SUNDAY o shes sie, WE COURSE BY .1HE REV. DR. J. ASCOM SHAW. An Interesting Lesson Drawn From the Text “ Run With Patience’ ’—Keep Jesus as a Pattern Before You in the Race of Life. PriscETON, N. J.—The Rev. Dr. John Balcom Shaw, pastor of the West End Presbyterian Church, Manhattan, preached Sunday morning before the students of Princeton University. He took his text from Hebrews xii:1: “Run with patience.” Dr. Shaw said: There is a vast difference between walk- ing with patience and runnin with pa- tience. Both are hard, incalculably hard, but they are hard in very different ways, and call for graces which are exact op- posites. ~~ Walking with patience re- quires the grace of repression or Tresig- nation. The spirit leaps ahead but the body must needs lag ehind. We want to run, but we have to walk, and a slow ace when one feels .he might make Poe and ought to make haste is might- ily aggravating. : Walking with patience is one of the young man’s struggles. He wants to get on and up, with quick speed, but cir- cumstances are hordes him back. He has a mother to support, he works for an un- appreciative firm, he lacks the proper 1n- fluence, he has no friends at court, he can command no capital. Therefore, he must stay a clerk when he deserves the superinténdency. He must go to business when he would prefer a profession. Creep- ing when you are eager to be leaplng— can you imagine a greater tax upon pa- tience than that? Walking with patience is poverty’s prob- lem. To suffer want when others no more deserving than you are in affluence, and be resigned to it, it is the hardest possible task, That is the bottom cause of all our labor agitation—impatience under lim- itations. Walking with patience is misfortune’s mission. To be held back by reverses, dis- abled by sickness, retarded by circum- stances, felled by a great sorrow, so that we must walk instead of run—these are among the most difficult experiences of life, and are these not experiences that come to all? Who of us, the most pros- erous and fortunate, those whose track as the fewest up grades upon it—even the young college man with his own pe- culiar problems to solve and struggle to meet—who of us does not find frequent need to cry out with face turned upward? I want the love that all things sweetly ear, Whate’er my Father's hand may choose to send. I want the love that patiently endures The wrongs that come from earthly foe or friend. ! Some great soul who had evidently taken a full course in the school of suf- fering and won the full ignation, has most apti expressed the souls nee ditions in these words: The night is dark, but God, my God, Is here and in command; : And sure am I, when morning breaks, I shall be at the land. ‘And since I know the darkness is To Him as sunniest day, T’ll cast the anchor—patience—out, And wish—but wait for day. God help us to learn how to walk witn patience! But what about running with patience? Does it not call for quite another school- ne of ourselves, just as running on the athletic field demands a training peculiar to itself? Even a fast walker is.not nec- essarily a good runner. The requirement in this case is active rather than negative. Here is needed not the grace of repression, as i. the other case, but of cultivation, of application or concentration rather than of resignation. In walking with patience, the weights and the brakes both must be applied in order to hold the spirit back and keep it apace with the body. But to run with patience. the weights need to be Jaid aside and the brakes removed that the in- ner mdy keep abreast with the outward, that our ambitions, our hopes, cur aims, may fly forward toward the goal, “nor,” as the line of the old hymn runs, ‘tire amid the heavenly road.” The very pace of the runner is itself the foe of patience. It callsy seemingly, for impetuousity, and the more impetu- ous the runner, we are accustomed to think, the better. Its certain effect is to heat the blood and fire the nerves. Behold the athlete with every muscle taught, every line of his face hard set, his eye intense and eager, the applauding crowd urging him on! How can he be poiseful an gelf-controlled? Indeed, patience would ‘seem impossible, and impatience the very rice of the prize. And yet every ath- etic man before me knows this is the talk of a novice. If there is anything the run- ner needs. it is self-control, ‘to be able “to keep his head,” as we say, to com- mand his nerves, to hold his strength in check at the first and le’ it out toward the finish, to keep from being unnerved by the shouts of the crowd, to be equal to any unforeseen turn the race may take or any condition before unreckoned with that might appear. And does it not always turn out that a running match is at bot- tom chiefly a question of self-command— muscle, wind, nerve, mind, yes, and heart —and the winner ever found to be the one who has run the race with the greatest patience? oung men, this is a running age, and a country where, whether you will or not, vou. must adopt the quickest pace. “Step lively,” the car conductor's inelegant com- mand, is characteristically American, though it may usually happen in this case to be spoken by a foreigner, All Ameri- cans are proverbially in a hurry. Even our kindergarten tots have caught the step, and from childhood on it gets gradually faster and faster, until, when a young man reaches maturity, he is on a dead run. Life these days 1s a veritable rush for ex- istence. To run, then is an easy thing—it is the most natural thing in the world to us, we have been bred to it; it is instinct, but to run with Pitienes, to keep the soul calm when the body becomes heated and over- taxed, so that the spiritual does not lag behind the material life, and we grow fe- verish, sordid, impetuous—ah! this is quite another thing. Such a difficult task is it that, amid id clamor and tumult of our modern life, it is the rarest thing to find men with tranquil temperaments, stead- fast, patient, reposeful. Under the strain and pressure of the times we get irascible, restless, nervous, narrow and shallow of soul. Solitude has no longer any conge- niality for us, and, as Dr. Samuel Johnson declared years ago, “When a man cannot bear his own company, does not like to be alone, there is something wrong.” It would seem as if Wordsworth were ar- raigning our age and not his own, which was so phlegmatic and meditative as com- pared with this, when he wrote down his memorable lines: “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we see in nature that is our; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” Aversive to solitude, and over-enamored of society, hard driven by materialistic gain and greed, tearing ahead for a prize that our nervous clutch may crush so soon as it is once in the hand, we outrun our re- ligious duty, the claims of our inner nature are left away behind, and we go dashing madly ahead, like a runaway engine, into spiritual, if not moral, ruin. , young men, is the feverisl yon te enter. I to, vou are bound to it > s11- preme question 1s, Wil run it with and beautifully under such coa- con : 6 diploma .of res- | tience or, as the great majority. are seek ing tg do, impetuously, wildly, without setf- and thetefore cast io ® “What is the secret of such patience?" yout :ask of me; eagerly, earnestly, in your upturnec faces? Let our author answer, oad: unto Jesus? is the sole remedy he suggests. “Let us lay - aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily be- set ‘us, a let us rum with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, ehduted the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” “#7 ooking unto Jesus” may mean at least three things: Looking unto Him as the final goal; looking unto Him as the one only ‘emancipator, and looking unto Him asa perfect model or pattern. I believe the author of this epistle means all this ereLe 7 = 1." Jesus the supreme goal of our lives— our highest purpose, our commanding as- piration, out to whom all our energies run and upon whom all our ambitions and ac- tivities terminate. “Lord, let me not te too content, With life in trifling service spent, Make me aspire. When days with petty cares are filled, Let me with holy thoughts be thrilled, Of scmething higher.” This must be our constant prayer, if we are to run the hurried and hurrying race of modern life. and preserve our equipoise through it all; and that ‘‘something igh- er’ to which we must aspire is the service of Christ. Let a man begin to live his life in devotion to Him, for His sake and unto His honor, turning all the intensity and en: terprise of his strenuous existence toward that as his goal, and his life will speedily lose its feverish heat and grow calm and steadfast and serene. He :.eed not slacken his pace a bit. If that be its goal, he may continue to run and on to its close he will remain patient despite his enviroLing con- ditions. He may make haste to get rich, to acquire leadership, to attain success, te exalt Jesus Christ instead of self, if the un- seen be his chief aim and aspitation, and the material but a means thereunto, he will go through life patient-proof, and the din and fever of the age will never get into his soul. “For this is peace—to lose the lonely note Of self in love’s celestial-ordered strains. And this is joy—to find one’s self again In Him whose harmonies forever float ‘Through all the spheres of song, beiow, above, For God is music, even as God is love Oh! this is what our hard-headed busi- ness men need, this is what our nervous, self-centered society women need, this is the great need of our ambiticus and eager youth, to make Jesus Christ, His glory and service the sobering, absorbing, controlling ambition of their lives. Is this not the first great look our author commends to us —Ilooking unto Jesus, as our supreme pur- pose? And what is the second? Second—Looking unto Jesus for power in our lives, as our great emancipator from the bondage of this materialistic age. “Have you ever thought, my friend, As you daily toil and plod In the noisy paths of men, How still are the ways of God? ” “Have you ever paused in the din Of traffic’s insistent cry, To think: of the calm in the cloud, Of the peace in your glimpse of the sky? “Go out in the quiet fields, That quietly yield you meat, And let them rebuke your noise, Whose patience is still and sweet.” Jesus Christ alone can bring the quiet- ness of the fields and the calmness of the cloud into our being. To Him we turn, as to its first great source, would we have the same atmosphere blowing through our souls. You know Mme. Guyon’s deiinition of ye “The silence of a soul absorbed in God.” And Tennyson's, if possible, was even better: “Prayer is like opening a sluice between the great ocean and our lit- tle channels, when the great sea gathers it- self together and flows in at full time.” If you and I would run with patience, we, too, must let this tide flow into our lives, and that can never be until we live in close touch with Jesus Christ, seek His help at every turn, draw upon Him for our strength and depend upon His grace for sustaining and transforming power. Henry Drummond once said: “Five minutes in the morning alone with Christ will change for us the whole day.” What then would all the minutes of all the days in union with Him do for us? “Have you and I to-day Stood silent as with Christ, apart from joy, or fray Of life, to see His face; To look, if but a moment, in’its grace, And grow, by brief companionship, more rue, More nerved to lead, to dare, to do For Him at any cost? Have we to-day Found time, in thought, our hand to lay In His, and thus compare His will with ours, and wear The impress of His wish? Be sure Such contact will endure Throughout the ‘day; will help us walk erect. > Through storm and flood; detect Within the hidden life sin’s dross, its stain; Revive a thought of love for Him again; Steady the steps which waver; heip ns see The footpath meant for you, and me.” _ Forever true it is that those who run life’s race patiently are pre-eminently men of prayer. Third—What is the third lock? Iook- ing unto Jesus as a pattern for our lives. There is something ott this pattern pe- culiar to itself. Expressed in a word, it has the perspective of eternity. Christ lived His life not to gratify a fleeting, temporal, selfish sense. like avarice, fame, success, pleasure, but to fulfill a God-given mission, to reach up to a divine standard, and -work out an eternal equation. Put to- gether three heart utterances of His and the full petisen will be before you: “I do always the things that please Him’ '—duty to His Father, His will ever yielding itself to the will of God. “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly”’—duty to men and complete dedication of Himself to the ful- fillment of that duty. ‘I must work the works of Him that sent Me”’—duty to Him- self as “the sent of God’ whose one pas- sion was to make His life justify its high purpose. As some one has phrased it: “On one great mission bent, He sped for God, forever unencumbered Of earthly clogs whereby our souls are numbered, In glory excellent.” Keep this pattern before you. my fellow runners, consult it the first thing in the morning, turning to it often through the day, and let it be the last thing you look upon at night ere your eyes forget to see, and you will be too serious to be otherwise than calm of soul; too much in earnest to lose your poise, too set upon linking every moment of time with eternity and work- ing out the answer of your life to God to let temporal aim command you or sordid things enslave you. Then the weights shall be lifted off the inner and laid hard down upon the outward life, and you will con- tinue to run—perhaps, your pace may quicken—Ilife will be a prompt, an earnest, eager, intense race, but you will run ic clean down to the end with patience. This is the trinal secret I bring you: Christ the purpose of our lives. Christ the power in our lives! Christ the pattern for our lives! Shows Himself a Beast. We believe there is truth in the old saying: “In vino veritas.” Wiae, when enough of it is taken, lifts off the cover. A man not oniy tells the truth when he is drunk, but he shows his secret disposi- tion. If he is a beast, he shows himself beastly. If he is at heart cruel and re- vengeful, he may becor a murderer. If he 1s lustful, he become ious. Stron ates t 1 a + | . THE SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON. INTERNATIONAL LESSON CCMMENTS FOR JANUARY 24. Subject: Jesus Rejectea ar Nazareth. ¥ nke iv., 16-30—-Golden Text, Jobn i., 11 Memory Verses, 18, 19—=Commentay on the Day’s Lesson, I. Jesus preaching in Nazareth (vs. 16- 21). 16. ‘‘Came to Nazareth.” This wasa trying visit. His own people were in no mood to receive Him, but Jesus very prop- erly opens Hns public work in Galilee at His own home. “His custom was.” This is a good example for us. There are many evidences that Jesus had fixed religious habits. “Synagogue.” The synagogues were not in use until after the Babylonish captivity. They could only be erected where ten men in easy circumstances (called “men of ease”) could be found to attend them. The people sat with their faces toward the temple; there were “chief seats” for the elders, and the women sat by themselves. “Sabbath day.” e should, on the Sabbath day, always avoid work, conversation and reading unfit for the Lord’s day, and give ourselves to spir- itual exercises.. This was His custom. He needed the means of grace surely we do. “Stood up.” They stood up to read the Scriptures, but sat down to teach. The whole congregation stood during the read- ing. . “REsaias.”” Greek form of Isaiah. “Opened the book.” The roll. The Scrip- tures were written on parchment, with two rollers, so that as they were read one was rolled on and the other rolled off. The portion selected was Isaiah 61: 1, 2. 1 “Qpirit—is upon Me.” This was given Him as His baptism. ‘“Hath anoint- ed Me.” I have been set apart ior this very purpose. This is the first great quali- fication of a true preacher. “The Gospel.” Good news concerning Himself, His mis- sion and the deliverance He brings. “The broken hearted.” Those overwhelmed with sorrow for their sins or sufferings. “The captives.” The gospel comes as a great moral emancipation proclamation to those in bondage to sin, evil habits or the devil. “The blind.” The spiritually blind. The light of the world has appeared—one who is able to unseal blind minds as well as blind eves. “Bruised.” As the great physician He comes to heal those who are broken and crushed because of sins com: mitted. ‘The “wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores” may now be “closed” and “bound up” and healed. Note the jifference between theprophetsand Christ: They proclaimed liberty, He sets at lib- erty. 10. “Acceptable year of the Lord.” A reference to the vear of jubilee. Lev. 25: 3.17. This was the year when, 1. Debts ind obligations were released. 2, All He- brew servants were set free. 3. Each re- sumed possession of his inheritance. This was a type of gospel times. The genuine jubilee vear goes beyond the gospel pic- ture. The liberty proclaimed is soul lib- erty. 90. “Closad the book.” Rolled up the roll. “To the minister.” The ruler of the synagogue or his servant. “Sat down.” See on verse 16. This indicated that He was through reading and was now about to teach. “Eyes—fastened on Him.” Many things contributed to arrest their at- tention: 1. The report of His teachings ind mighty works which had preceded Him. 2. The remarkable character of the words He had read. 3. His manner and pearing. 4: The fact that they knew Him 30 well. 5. The unction of the Holy Spirit apon Him. 91. “Fulfilled in your ears.” He saw their condition and He knew that He sould save them. He is prophet, physi ian, Redeemer, deliverer. They are poor -aptives, blind and bruised. He stands be- fore them with the calm consciousness of power “to grapple with and overcome all their miseries.” HH. The discussion (vs. 2227). 22. “Bare Him witness.” “Gave signs of ap- probation.” ‘Gracious words.” This pas: sage and John 7: 46, give us some idea eof the majesty and sweetness which _charac- ‘erized our Lord's utterances. “Joseph’s Son.” How can it be possible that the son Jf this obscure family—a carpenter who 1as made furniture for our houses a man without education, without rank or office —that He should be the Messiah, the King >f the Jews? 93. “Ye—say.” Jesus shows that He knows their thoughts. “Proverb.” Or parable; denoting any kind of figurative liscourse. “Physician, heal Thyself.” That 3, they would ask why He did not perform miracles in Nazareth—at home, instead of it Capernaum. Jesus had, -only a few months before, healed a nobleman’s son at Capernaum (John 4: 46-54), and this was probably only one exam le of many. “Po also here.” Let us see Your power. The best modern equivalent is, “Charity begins at home;” do something here. Work a miracle and prove to us that You sre the Messiah. 24. “In His own coun- try.” No prophet is received in his own sountry as he is elsewhere. It is very diffi- -ult for any people to believe in the great- ness or power of one who has grown up among them. This is the reason He gives tor declining to work miracles in Naza- reth. Their unbelief hindered Him. He would not display His power merely to gratify curiosity. 95. “I tell you.” He now proceeds to show how Elijah and Elisha, twor of their greatest prophets, had gone to the Gen- files with their blessings, and that by di- vine direction, while many in Israel were suffering unnoticed. “In the days of Elias.” See 1 Kings 17: 1-9. “The heaven was shut up.” There were two rainy sea- sens, called the early and latter rains. “The first fell in October, the latter in April. The first prepared the ground for the seed, the latter, ripened the harvest. As both of these were withheld, conse- uently there was a great famine.” 26. Save unto Sarepta.” Greek form of Zare- phath. Elijah was not sent to the widows of Israel, but to a widow of Zarephath—a village on the Mediterranean coast. 97. “Eliseus.” Greek form for Elisha. The meaning of these two verses is, Go dispenses His benefits when. where and to whom He pleases. No person can com: plain, because no person deserves any good from His hand. Jesus might justly do the same in the displays of His grace. Thus He showed that His blessings. were in- tended for Gentiles as well as Jews. ¢«Naaman.” See 2 Kings 5: 1-14. III. The rejection _ (vs. 28-30). 28. When their race prejudices were struck thev at once “were filled with wrath.” r rejudice is stronger than reason. They could not give countenance to a preacher who even inferred that the Gentiles whom they hated so bitterly. could be blessed. 29." “Brow of the hill.” Nazareth spreads itself out upon the eastern face of a moun- tain, where there is a perpendicular wall of rock from forty to fifty feet high. 30. *Passing through.” His escape from them was no doubt miraculous. They desired to kee a miracle and here they had one. ee eee Her Cure For the Drink Habit. After a year’s absence John Wilt . a well-to-do German farmer, suddenly re- appeared at Hayton, Wis., and ended the mystery which attended his disappearance. He declares he has been kept a prisoner in his own home by his wife, who adopted this method as a last recourse to cure him of the craving for drink. He says he "5 entirely cured. : eet Consumption of Whisky. EPWORTH LEAGUE HEETING TOPICS. JANUARY 24. If Christ Should Come %o Our Town. {John 4. 28-30, 39-42.) Should hes come, he would find occa- sion for grief! Material splendors did not blind Fim to the real city. » The people were to his clear eye the town. Behind all the glories of tem- ple and palace he saw Priest, Phar- isee, Scribe, Sadducee, Herodian, many of them rotting with spiritual leprosy, and the fickle, fanatical mob ready to shriek “Crucify him!” Over their moral and spiritual ruin, over their impending woe he wergt. Should he visit our town what to him would be, in themselves, cur mag- nificence of temple and palace, our civic halls, our luxuries gleaned from a globe, our expanding commerce, our huge factories, bursting warehouse, piled up gold, even our libraries, art galleries, schools? Wiculd he not, now as then, look through them all to the men? Looking at them, the real town, he would find much at which to weep: In municipal life, rottenness, the peo- ple too cften asleep while grafters heap up plunder and destroy for gain the bodies and souls of men; great vices winked at or protected by law; law itself often defied and spit upon with impunity and trampled under foot by those sworn to enforce it. In bus- iness life, selfishness, strife, oppres- sion, greed, lying, fraud. In social life, heartlessness, frivolity, empti- ness, frequent impurity, slavery to the painted harlot Pleasure, and to the blind god Fashion; the gambling hell, the brothel, the saloon, unmolest- ed, drive the youth by platoons to the pit. In family life, frequent divorce, hate instead of love, jangling instead of joy, family discipline relaxed, thé family altar in ruins. In church life, mercantilism, formalism, phariseeism, hollow profession, religionists not a few with the lip saying, “Lord, Lord,” but ready for a consideration to be- tray of crucify the Son of God afresh. But, he would have also cause for gladness. He would see that nine- teen centuries of his Gospel have not been in vain. Looking at the world of business and industry, he would find cause for gladness. Slavery has gone. Honest labor is respected. A thousand evils that made men groan in Christ's day have vanished. The spirit of strife is gradually giving way to the Gospel of p2ace. In the social world, over against the frivolity, emptiness, impurity of the smart set, Christ would see a whole- some social life of multitudes such as his world never dreamed of. Great charities, in his name, are blessing thousands, both of those who receive and those who give. Institutions of every sort are aiding to refine and sanctify the sccial intercourse of men. CHRISTIAN ENDERYOR T0PIGS. JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH. “What If Christ Came to Our Town?" John 4:28.30; 39-42. Scripture Verses—Josh. 1:9; Isa. 43: 2; Matt. 1:23; John 1:1-14-18; 1 Johm 1:3; Ps. 16:8; Isa, 63:8, 9; Heb. 13:5, 8; 1 Jobn 3:24. Lesson Thoughts. If all the politicians and all the in- dividuals of our town could realize that Christ knows “all that ever they did,” would he be a welcome guest? Would you be glad to see him? Christ is in cur town; we recognize in churches, schcols, hospitals, ben2v- olent institutions, the influence of his dwelling here. Christ tarries only where he is in- vited to stay, and never refuses to ac- cept a sincere invitation. Selections. Mr. McNutt, the “dinner-pail evan- gelist,” says that whenever he hears it said of a man that he has died “and gone to meet his God,” he wonders where the man has been all his life, and where God has been, that they have nct been meeting every day! It is the tendency of this age to think much about what we shall do for Christ, and too little about Christ's presence in our hearts. But if he abides in us, the works will follow inevitably. Our hearts are like a dark, unhealthy rcom, and we go about with disinfectants, thinking to make it sweet and pure before we dare open the windows and the shutters. Let in the light and the fresh air, and they will sweeten the rcom as nothing else can ever sweeten it. O our Father, we are with Thee when we know it not! Make us clean, make us strong, that all our life may speak to Thee, and answer back Thy love. Why cannot wa slip cur hands into His each day, walk trustingly over that day’s appcinted path, thorny or flowery, crooked or straight, knowing that evening will bring us sleep, peace and home? Never a trial that He is not there, Never a burden that He doth not hean Never a sorrow that He doth not share, Moment by mement I'm under His care. Prayer—Q thou ever- present Jesus, unto whom all hearts are open and alk desires are known, help us to realize thy gracious presence with us. Tarry with us, in our town, to Teprove wrong-doing and to encourage ° right- eousness and charity. Rule in our in- dividual lives, we beseech thee, and make us happy to be with thee and do thy holy will. Amen. The original cost of the Suez canal was $95,000,000. Its depth was for many years maintained at 25 feet. In 1895 it was dredged to a depth of 31 feet, 108 feet wide at the bottom, and 120 feet at the surface. This brought its cost to a little more than $100,000,- Its net profits average 10 per cent 000. a year.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers