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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1895-7-26, Page 2TOO LATE TO RECALL. 11EV-, 15 R. TALMAGE, Oa! WRONGS THAT CANNOT BE RIGHTED. R18 Opinion of etite Unpardonable Sine" Note) ossible To -day to commit It—some Irrevocable Mistakes Itnumerated--The Signal Gun of the Gospel. New York July 15.—Ia his serpion for yesterday Rev. Dr. 'Talmage, who is still in the west on his annual summer tour, chose a subject whith bas been a fruitful theme a theological disputation . for centuries past—viz., The Unpardon- able Sin." The text selected were: "All manner of sin and blaspheiny shall be fergiven unto men, but the blasphemy agaiust the Holy Ghoet shall not be for- given unto mein And whosoever speak- eth a word against the SOD of elan. it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy ("boat it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 'world, neither in the world to come"— Matthew xii, 31, 32. "He found no place of repentauce, though he sought it ettrefully with tears" —Hebrews xii, 17. As sometimes you gather the whole family around the evening stand to hear some book read, so now we gather—a great Christian family group to study ths text, and now may one and the same lamp cast its glow on all the circle! You see from the first passage that I read that there is a sin against the Holy Ghost for whieh a man is never pardoned. Once having committed it, he is bound hand and foot for the dungeons of de- spair. Sermons may be preached to him, songs may be sung to him, prayers may be offered in his behalf, but all to no pur- pose. Be is a captive for this world and a captive for the world that is to come. Do you suppose that there is any one here who has connnitted that sin? All sins are against the Holy Ghost, but my text speaks of one especially. It is very deer to my own mind that the sin against the Holy Ghost was the ascribing of the works of the Spirit to the agency of the devil in the time of the apostles. Indeed the Bible distinctly tells us that. In other words, if a man had sight given to him. or if another was raised from the dead, and some one standing there should say "This man got his sight by satanic power. The Holy Spirit did not do this. Beelzebub accomplishea it," or, "This man raised from the dead was raised by satanic influence" the man who said that dropped down uuder the curse of the text and had committed the fatal sin against the Holy Ghost. Now, I do not think it is possible in this day to commit that sin. I think it ' was pessible only in apostolic times. But it is a very terrible thing ever to say anything against the Holy Ghost, and it Is a marked fact that our race has been marvelously kept back from that profan- ity. You hear a man swear by the name of the Eternal God and by the name of Jesus Christ, but you never heard a man swear by the name of the Holy Ghost There are those here to -day who fear they are guilty of the unpardonable sin. Have you such anxiety? Then I have to tell you positively that you have not com- mitted that sin, because the very anxiety is a result of the movement of the graci- ous Spirit, and your anxiety is proof posi- tive, as certainly as anything that can be demonstrated in mathematics, that you have not committed the sin that I have been speaking of. I can look off upon this audience and feel that there is salvation for all. It is not like when they put out with those lifeboats fromthe Loch Earn for the Ville du Havre. They knew teere was not room for all the passengers, but they were going to do as well as they could. But to -day we man the lifeboat of the gospel, and cry out over the sea, "Room for all I" Ob, that the Lord Jesus Christ would this hour, bring you all out of the flood of sin and plant you on the deck of the glorious old gospel oraft! But while I have said I do not think it Is possible for us to commit the particular sin spoken cf in the first text, I have by reason of the second text to call your at- tention to the fact that there are sins which, though they may be pardoned, are in some respects irrevocable, and you can find no place for repentance, though you seek it carefully with teers. Esau had a birthright eiven him. In olden times it meant not' only temporal but spiritual blessing. One day Esau took his birth- right and traded it off for something to eat. Oh, the folly I But let us not be too severe upon him, for some of us have committed the same folly. After he had made the trade, he wanted to get it back. Just as though to -morrow you should take all your notes and bonds and gov- eminent securities and should go into a restaurant and in a fit of recklessness and hunger throw all those securities on the counter and ask for a plate of food, making that exchange. This was the one Esau made. He sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and he was very sorry about it afterward, but "he found no place for repentance though he sought it carefully with tears." There is an impression in almost every man's mind that somewhere in the future there will be a chance when he can cor- rect all his mistakes. Live as we may, if we only repent in time God will forgive as and then all will be as well as though we had never committed sin. My dis- course shall come in collesion with that theory. I shall show you, my friends, as God will help me, that there is such a thing as ensuccessful repentance; that there are things done wrong that always stay wrong, and for them you may seek some place of repentance and seek it care- • fully, but never find it Belonging to this class of irrevocable mistakes is the folly of a misspent youth. We may took back to our college days and think how we neglected chemistry, or geology, or botany, or mathematics, We may be sorry about it all our days. Can we ever get the discipline or the advan- tage that we would have had had we at- tended to those duties in early life? A man wakes up at 40 years of age and finds that his youth has been westecl, and he strives ao get back his early acivan. teens. Does he get them back—the clays a boyhood, the dareiti college, the days inmer his father's roof? "Oh," he says, "if I could only gat those times beak ape how I would improve them I" My brer her, you will never get them back, Thee are gone, gone I You may be sorra. • about it and God may forgivmso that you lime, at last teeth heaven, Mit you will net or get over thine of the mishaps that bat e mete to your soul as a result of your reeneet of early duty. You may try to inlet: It ; you cannot undo it. When you bee a Loser arm abd a boy's eye and a boy's 'heart you ought to have attended to the I. '.11. A man says, at 60 years of do With I °mild get over these habits te,' ibdolence." When did yen get them P A120 or e5 yeate of age, Yoe can. not shake them off. Tbey wt11 hang to you to the day ot year death, If a young man through a long course of evil eon- duot undermines his physical health and then repents of it in after life, the Lord man pardoe him, but that does not bring baok good physiottl condition, I said to a minister of the gospel one Sabbath, at the elose of the service, "Where are you preaching now?" "Oh," he says "I am not preitehing. I am suffering from the physical effects of early sin. 1 oan't preaeh new; I am sick " A consecrated man he now is, and he inourns bitterly •over early sins, but that does not arrest their buthly effeets. , Tile simple fact is, that men and wo- men often take 20 years of their life to build up influencethat require all the • rest of their life to break, down, Talk about a Mall beginning life . ween he is 21 years of age ; talk about a woman begin- ning life wht xi she is 18 years of age ! Alt, ! lu nun y respects that is the time they close life, In nine cases (int of ten all the questious of eternity are decided before that. Talk about a majority of mon getting their fortunes bettveon 80 and 40 ! Thor get ar lose fortunes between 10 and 20 When yon tell me that a man is just beginning life, I tell you that he is just closing it. The next 50 years will not be of as much iuiportance to him as the first e.0. Now, why do I say this? Is it for the annoyance of those who have ouly a bale- ful retrospection? You know that is not my way. I say it for the benefit of young men and women. I want them to under- stand that eternity is wrapped up in this hour; that the sins of youth we never get over; that you are now fashioning the mold in which your great future is to run; that a minute. instead of being 60 seconds long, is made up of everlasting ages. You see what dignity and import- ance this gives to the life of all our young folks. Why. in the light of this subject, life is not something to be frit- tered away, not something to be smirked about, not something to be danced out, but something to be weighed in the bal- ances of eternity. Oh, young man, the sin of yesterday, the sin of tomorrow, will reach over 10,000 years—aye, over the great and unending eternity. , You may, after a while, say "I am very sorry. Now I have got to be 30 or 40 years of age, and I do wish I had never eommitted those sins." What does that amount to? God may pardon you, but undo those things you never will, you never can. In this same category of irrevocable mietakes I put all parental neglect. We begin the education of our children too late. By the time they get to be 10 or 15 we wake up to our mistakes and try to eradicate this bad habit and change that, but it is too late. That parent who omits in the first ten years of the child's life to make an eternal impression for Christ never makes it. The child will probably go on with all the disadvantage which might have been avoided by parental faithful- ness. Now you see what a mistake that father or mother melees who puts off to late in life adherence to Christ Here is a man who at 50 years of age says to yeti: "I must be a Christaiu" and /le yields his heart to God and sits in, the place of prayer to -day a Christain None of us can doubt it. He goes borne and he says "Here at 50 years of age I have given my heart to the Saviour. Now I mast estab- lish a family altar." What? Where are your children now? One in Boston; an- other in Cincinnati; another in New Orleans, and you my brother at your fiftieth year going to establish your fam- ily altar? Very well; better late than never but alas, alas, that you did not do it 25 years ago I When I was in Chamouni Switzerland I saw in the window of one of the shops a picture that impressed my mind very much. It was a picture of an accident that occurred on the side of one of the Swiss mountains. A company of travel- ers, with guides, went hp some very steep places—places which but few travel- ers attempted to go up. They were, as all travelers are there, fastened together with cords at the waise so that if one slipped, the rope would hold him—the rope fastened to the others. Passing along the most dangerous point, one of the guides slipped, and they all started down the precipice, but after awhile one more muscular than the rest struck his heels into the ice and stopped, but the rope broke and down hundreds and thousands of feet the rest went. And so I see whole families bound to- gether by ties of affection and in ruai3y cases walking on slippery places of world- liness and sin. The father knows it, and they are bound all together. After awhile they begin to slide down steeper and steeper, and the father becomes alarmed, and he stops, planting his feet on the "Rock of Ages." He stops, but the rope breaks, and those who were once tied fast to him by moral and spiritual influences go over the precipice. Oh, there is such a thing as coming to Christ soon enough to save ourselves, but not soon enough to save others ! How many parents wake up in the latter part of life to find out the mistake f The parent says, "I have been too leni- ent," or "I have been too severe in the discipline of my children. If I had the little ones around MO again, how differ- ent I would do I" 'You will never have them around again. The work is done, the bent to the character is given, the eternity is decided. I say this to the young parents—those who are 25 or 30 or 35 years of age—have the family altar to- night. How dc; you suppose that father felt as he leaned over the couch of his dying child and the expiring son said to him "Father, you have been very good to me. You have given me a line educa- tion, and yotl have placed me in a fine social position; you have done everything for me in a worldly sense; but, father, you never told me how to die. Now I am flying and I am afraid. In this category of irrevocable mistakes I place, also, the unkindnesses done the departed. When I was a boy, iny mother used to say to me sometimes, "Do Witt, you will be sorry for that when I am gone." And I remember just how she looked, sitting there, with cap and spec- tacles, and the old Bible in her lap, and she never said a true:. thing than that, for I have often beee sorry since. While we have our friends with tis, we Say un- guarded things that wound the feelings of those to whom we ought to giv thing but kteidness, Perhaps the parent, without inquiring into the matter, boxes the child's ears. The little one, who hag fallen in the street, conies in covered with dust, and, as though the first disas- ter were not enough, she whips it. After awhile the ehild is taken, ar the parent' Is taken, or the oonmanion is tak- en, and those who aro loft say, "Oh, if we could only' get back those utikind words, those unkind deeds ; if. wo ootild °lily recall them 1" But you ceitnot get them back. Yoe inight bow down °vet the grave of that laved one and cry arid toy and cry—the White lips wand inake no answer, The stars Shan be plucked out of thole sookets, but these luillienees shall pot be torn away. The world shall • die, Inet there are some wrongs immortal. The moral of whieli is, take care of your friends while you bee° them. Spare the soolding ; bo ec000mical of the satire; shut up in a dark cave, from which they shall never swarm forth, all the words that bave a sting in them. You will wish you had some day—very soon you will—perhaps to -morrow. Oh, yes. While with a firm hand you administer parental • diseipline, also administer it very gently, lest some day there be a little slab iu the cemetery, and on it thiseled "Out Wil- lie" or "Our Charlie," awl though you bow down prone in the grave and seek a place of repentance and seek it carefully with tears you cannot find it, There is another sin that I plus in the class of irrevocable mistakes, and tbat is lost opportunities of getting good, I never come to 1'. Saturday night but I can see during that week that I have missed opportunities of getting good. r never COMO to a birthday but I can see that I have wasted many chances of getting bet- ter. I never go home ou Sabbath from the discussion of a religious theme with - 0111 feeling that I might have done it in a more successful way. How is it with you? If you take a certain number of bushels of Wheat ad scatter there over a certain number of acres of lance you ex- pect a harvest in proportion to the amount of seed nattered. And Task you now, Have the sheaves of the moral and spiritual harvest corresponded with ad- vantages given? How has it been with you? You may make resolutions fcr the future, but past opportunities 'are gone. In the lonmprocession of future years all those past moments will march, but the arcbangel's trumpet that wakes the dead will not wake up for you one of those privileges. Esau has sold his birthright, and there is not enough wealth in the treasure houses of heaven to buy it back again. What does tnet mean? It means that • if you are goinifto get any advantage out of this Sabbath day, you will have to get it before the hand wheels around on the clock to 12 to -night. It means that every moment of our life has two wings, and that it does not fly, like the hawk, in circles, but in a straight line from etern- ity to eternity. It means that though other chariots may break down, or drag heavily, this one never drops the brake and never ceases, to run. It means that while at other feasts the c up may be pass- ed to us and we may reject it, and yet after awhile take it, the oupbearers to this feast never give us but one cbanoe at the thence, and, rejecting that, we shall "find no place for repentance, though we seek it carefully with tears." There is one more elites of sins that I put in this category of irrevocable sins and that is lost opportunities of useful- ness. Your business partner is a proud man. In ordinary circumstances. say to him, • "Believe in Christ," and he will say, "You mind your business and I'll mind mine." But there has been afflic- tion in the household. His heart is tender. He is looking around for sym- pathy and solace. Now is your time. Speak, speak, or forever hold your peace. There is a time in farm life when you plant the corn and when you sow the seed. Let that go by, and the farmer .will wring his hands while other bus- bandmen are gathering in the sheaves. You are in a religious meeting, and there is an opportuoiey for you to speak a word for Christ. You say, "I must do it." Your cheek fluthes with embarrassment. You rise half way, but you cower before men whose breath is in their nostrils, and you sag back, and the opportunity is gone and all eternity will feel the effect of your silence. Try to get back that opportunity! You cannot find it. You might as well try to find the fleece that Gideon watched, or take in your hand the dew that came clown on the locks of the Bethlehem shepherds, or to find the plume of the first robin that went across paradise. It is gone; it is gone forever. When an opportunity forpersonal re- pentance or of doing good passes away you may hunt for it; you cannot find it. You may fish for it; it will not take the hook. You may dig for it ; you cannot bring it up. Remember that there are wrongs and sins that can never be cor- rected; that our privileges fly not in circles, but in a staight line; that the lightnings have not as swift feet as our privileges when they are gone, and let an oppotunity of salvation go by es an inch, the one hundredth part of an inch, the thousandth part of an inch, the mil- lionth part of an inch, and no man ca,n overtake it. Fire -winged seraphim can not come up with it. The eternal Geed Himself cannot catch it "e 1 stand before those who have a glori- ous birthight Esau's was not so rich as yours. Sell it once, and you sell it forever. I remember the story of the lad on the Arctic some years ago—the lad Stewart Holland, A vessel crashed into the Arctic in the time of a fog, and it was found "that the ship must go down. Some of the passengers got off in the lifeboats, some got off on rafts, but 300 went to the bottom. During all these hours of calam- ity. Stewat Holland stood at the signal gun, and it sounded across the sea, boom, boom The helmsman forsook his place, the engineer was gone and some fainted and some prayed and some blasphemed, and the powder was gone, and they could no more set off the signal gun. The lad broke in the magazine and brought out more powder and agftin the gun boomed over the sea. Oh, my friends, tossed on the rough seas of life, some have taken the warning. have gone off in the life- boat and they are safe, but others aro not making any attempt to escape. So I stand at this signal gun of the gospel, sounding the alarm. Beware beware! "Now is the accepted tine); now is the day of salvaion." Hear it that your soul may live FOR LESS THAN $1. Young men who are in despair over the selection of presents for their fair friends should cut this out for reference. The list is made up of trifles suitable for girls and young women and each can be had for less than $1: Silver calendar frame, silver handled blotter. silver spindle for bookkeeper or typewriter. Silver initial stamp, box of sealing wax and little silver eandlostick for sealing her letters to you. Silver shawl strap. Ivory shoe horn with silver deoorations. Denney little picture for her room. Pretty glass vase. Silver or locieher score keeper, if she plays cards. Sneer pocket comb, , Picttire frames of any kind. Stationery. Good perfumee. Sliver hat pins. Books. Bee -bon dieh and spoon. WAGES THE WORLD OVER. Extern= Vtra:italtilicatialtverotnotsietoauten.trY to • It is popularly supposed that the iln- mutable law Of supply muldemend oper- ating through a country makes the wave for the same labor uniform in every part of 11, 88 a dearth of labor in any one place oannot be of long duration while mon are employed elsewhere, A recent simple- montary bulletin of the manufaotures of the 'United States, however, Shows this general view to be false, , In Colorado the aTorago yearly earnings of au employe of a manufaeturing company was $720; in Montana, $722; in Nevada, $718, and in Wyoming,1768. In the States where col- ored labor is ebunclailt the total average earnings aro muoli loss. In Alabama the average is $376; in Mississippi, $310, la North Carolina, $216; Georgia, $307, and in South Carolina, $267. InNew York the average is 1580 ; in Pennsylvania, 1492; in Ohio, $479, and in Massachusetts, $404. When it is considered to what extent female and child labor enter into the fac- tory operations in New York the figures aro surprisingly high. The total wages paid in New York manufacturing enter- prises ainount in ordinary years to $500,- 000,000. England stands at tho head in Europe as the best market for labor. Scotland and Franco aro a little bebind her Then there is a heavy drop until Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium are reached; the scale goes still lower in Gam -limy, where the rate is the same as in Ireland. Spain, Sweden,Russia and Italy follow here in the order given. Accord- ing to the table of Boclio, an Italian an- thority, glass-blowers are the best paid mechanics in Italy, and papermakers the poorest, The rate of wages in Italy, low as it is now, was still lower twenty-five years ago. In England the increase of wages has been about twenty per cent. In twenty -live years. A French bricklayer now gets fifty per cent. more wages than was paid for his work in France forty years ago. Tricking a Crab. In Africa there exists a certain member of the crab genus commonly known as the groat tree crab, says an exolia,nge. This peculiar shell -fish has an offensive trick of crawling up the cocoanut trees, biting off the cocoanuts and then oreeping down again backward. The theory is that the nuts are shatter- ed by the fall and the great tree crab is thus enabled to enjoy a hearty meal. Now, the natives who inhabit the regions infested by this ill -conditioned crab are well aware that the lower portion of the crab's anatomy is soft and sensitive and they believe that the "bivalve" was thus constructed in &der that he might know when he had reached the ground and when, consequently, be might with safety release his grasp of the trunk. So what they do in order to stop his depredations, which often ruin the cocoa- nut crops, is this: While the orab is en- gaged in nipping off the °ocean -tits they climb half wita up the trees and there drive a row of long nails right around the tree, allowing an inch or so of the nails to project. The crab has no knowledge of dims, er nor yet 05 1110 fitness of nine's. As he de- scends, the sensitive part ofhis body sud- denly touches the nails. Thinking he has reached the ground he naturally lets go. Instantly he falls backward and crackg. his own shell on the ground. OCEAli LINERS. The Regularity of Speed With Which They Make the Passage. The records of the foreign mail bureau of the post office department show that, as an ordinary thing. the ocean packets are as regular in their departures and ar- rivals as railroad trains, and, considering the distance they travel, more so. The S00000 of navigation has been reduced to such accuarcy that they may be expeeted almost on the hour. Take, for example the Campania, of the Cunard line. In 1893 she made eight trips and her average voyage was 5 days, 20 hours and 18 minutes. In 1891 she made ten trips and her average was 5 days, 20 hours and 17 minutes, only one minnte less in 1891 than in 1898 in a voyage of 2,770 miles in all sorts of wind and weath- er. Nor is this exceptional. The Teutonic. of the White Star Line, made twelve trips in 1893 on an average time of 6 days, 4 hours and 8 minutes. In 1894 she made eleven trips, and her aver- age was just a trifle slower -6 days, 4 hours and 17 minutes. . The Etruria is a little more irregular. Her average in 1893 was 6 days, 6 hours and 47 minutes. In 1891 it was 6 days, 7 hours and 28 minutes. The Havel, of the North German Lloyd Company, made ten trips in 1893, with an average of 7 clays, 7 hours and 38 min- utes, for a distance of 3,080 miles, from the Needles to Fire Island. In 1894 she • made nine trips, with an average of 7 days, 7 hours and 24 minutes. The Fuerst Bismarck, of the Hamburg line, made nine trips in 1893. Her aver- age for the year for a voyage of 3,080 miles was 7 days and 16 minutes. In 1894 she made six trips, and her average was 7 days and 54 minutes. The Columbia mede nine trips in 1898, with an average time of 6 days, 22 hours and 12 minutes. In 1894 she made six trips, with an average of 6 days, 22 hours and 8 minutes. The New York, of tho American line though not tho fastest, has the best record for regularity of any of tits Atlantic fleet. Her average time has not varied for years. And she can be expected almost on the minute every voyage. She has crossed the At antic more times and. has carried rnana more passengers than any other steamer of her age and has been more regular about it The New York made fourteen trips, west bound, in 1898, with an average thne of 6 days, 21 hours and 31 minutes. In 1894a1m made fifteen trips, with an average of 6 clays, 21 hours and 46 minntes. Her sailing distance was 2,770 miles. In 1893 she made thirteen trips, east bound, with an average a 6 days 21 hours and 80 minutes, whieh eves just one minute faster than her west -bound time of that year. In 1804 she made fifteen trips with an average time of 6 days, 20 hours and 24 minutes. Thus, in crossing the ocean Afty-seven times in both direotions, at all seasons of the year, her wideet variation for two gees was only 1 hear and 21 minutes, The 01 Cityeef Chester, also of the American line, is anothee steady boat, her average being 0 days, 15 hoers and 11 minutes in 11108,and 9 days 15 hours and 08 minutes in 1804. A Paying lewdness. Siteamleigh I Itou look quite prosperous. What are you 'Working at these days?" Sketonleigh—"Getting hp sensation for isieW 'York preachers," PROMISES. • Premises are softly spoken. Where ee15-interest calls, FU as quickly are they broken. When misfortune falls: Take the fulsome promise purelY • As a vane that plays— • Yet the promisor will surely Keep it—if it pays. MASSAGE FOR BLACK EYES. Bettor Than Paint sr Beefsteak for 'Oblit- analog Evidence of ristio Encounters. Those who make a businees of oblitera- ting evidence of fistic encounters in the shape of black eyes by painting the dam- aged optics no longer enjoy a monopoly of such business. This I was told by a pugi- listic) acquain twice whose 'experience en- titles him to be regarded es an authority OU the subject, • "Massege treatment of the region af- fected," he said, "will beat paint and raw beefsteak all hollow. Bet it should be ap- plied immediately after the injury is re- ceived in order to prove thoroughly effi- cacious. It does not require an expert to do it. All that is necessary is to move the fingers rapidly and firmly over the bruised surface, end to keep it up until the last vestige of discoloration has disap- peared The explanation is easy. Where the blow has been received the blood becomes congested. It is the clots of blood showing through the transparent skin that procruces the black effect. The pressure of the fingers gradually loosens the clotted blood, which passes off info the general current of circulation, and fresh and properly colored blood takes its place, However, as a rule, the professional "pug" does not bother hireself about ac- celerating the disappearance of a black eye. It is a sign which proclaims the fact Watt its proprietor has recently filled an engagement, and as such he is an object of envy to his less fortunate brethren. It Is the man about town, whose overindul- gence occasionally causes him to forget Shat discretion is the better part of valor, who is apt to profit most by the knowledge that massage, promptly applied, will re- move the signs of moarnieg from an eye that has been in violent contact with some other fellow's fist, and thus obviate the necessity of inventing a story to account for it, which, however ingenious, will be sneered at by sceptical and incredulous acquaintances, some of whom may have "been there themselves." Langtry's Great Stage Kim Mrs. Langtry is once more in this coma. try, and the theater -going public will have an opportunity to ascertain if she has pat- ented any new improvements on "the Langtry kiss," which double discounted anything of the kind ever before attempted on the"American stage. As Lady Clancarty her husband escapes :TOM his pursuers *rough an open window into her room. She stands with her back to the audience clear down the stage near the footlights. Her husband looks at her for a moment and then rushes wildly into her arms, somewhat after the manner of "the tough girl" in Harrigan's "O'Reilly and tbe Four Hundred." They both swing around and expose their profiles te the audience. Then they hold each other at arm's length. Then her bosom heaves and he pants. Her head falls upon her breast, in- clining backward. Then an apparently genuine vermilion flush suffuses her face. Then he looks down at her and she looks up at him. Next comes a perceptible pres- sure around the waist that would do cre- dit to a patent hay press. Then he abru,pt- ly places his lips to hers, and she grabs him round the head. There is a toft gurg lingsound like 'water escaping from ( kitchen sink, the mouth being worn larai and open. Then they are, as it were, glued togetle er. Then all is still. Women in the audi- ence become nervous. Bald-headed men are paralyzed. Men about town have their watches out, timing them. One sec- ond, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven—and then there is an explosion, as if the bung had been blown out of a beer barrel. It is all over. —Texas Siftings. rewsome The photographed band of a friend set under glass as a paper weight makes rather an interesting souvenir. But the Prince of Wales has appropriated to this purpose the grisly token of a mummied hand of one of the daughters of the Phar- aohs. Let us hoe a fashion so royally in- stituted may not find followers in this age .of the worship of grewsome realism, or we 'shall see the lover sighing like a furnace over some genuipe relic of this kind, be- queathed to him by his departed fair; and the widower cherishing among the papers .upon his desk a touch that in life was lest; welcome there. None of these suggestions :compare, however, with the actual experi- ence we had in visiting in London a few months ago the house of a gentleman wbo 'had spent many years of his life in expior- ing many lands, and had lined his halls with curios of travel. Upon a shield of maroon velvet was a group of odd speci- mens, among them a carved 'tvooden knife and fork and a human thigh bone. "That," said our friend, with perfect seri- ousness, "is all that is left of a capital fel- low I knew—a missionary in one of the South Sea Islands, who would trust to eh e conversion of the natives, and remained among them. After I came away they at him with that very knife and fork. The things were sent to me by a rescuing party, who unfortunately arrived too late.' —New York Herald. Sample of modern Gallantry. This incident illustrates the sort Of gal- lantry that is most prevalent in this de- generate age: As a Knox County man and his wife were passing the school- house, a flying snowball hit the wife of his bosom in the neck. He was enraged, and justly, and turning to the schoolboys shaking his fist in anger'he cried: "it's lucky for you, you rascals, that you didn't hit mel"—Bangor News. The irony of Fate. Mr. Whymper, the famous mountain- elimber, was engaged reeeutly to deliver e lecture at Birkenhead on his m ounta,ineef, iug experiences, and in ascending the stair- case leading to the platform he missed his footing and fell to the bottom, fracturing his collar bone. According to Power, a foreign °helmet has devised a seneitive paint which is yen low at °January temperatures, but turns bright red on reaching one of two hundred and twenty degrees. It is suggested that this paint may be 'used advantageously to indicate heat from friction in ma- thinery. Ono part Of the wedding gummy among the Babylonians was very signife tent. The priest took a thread from the garment of the bride, and another Isom the garment of the bridegroom, end tied them into a knot which he gave to the brule. This Is probably the origin of the I modern saying about tying the knot in re- gard to niarriage.—Jewish Messenger, GENIUS AND MADNESS. Moliere was subject 10 convulsions. Schopenhauer was always gloomy and pessimistic. Ben Jenson and 1'14 Lee were almost slaves to Alcohol. Paganini, the violinist, often fell into a cataleptic state. Schiller was a victim of feinting fits and convulsions, George Eliot had frequent attacks of nervous prostratiou. Chatterton was undoubtedly insane when he took his own life. .Shelley is said. to have had visions in which Ito devoutly believed, 13obh Kepler and Cavitr died of different berms of brain disease, Johanna Southcote was ti, cataleptic of the same variety as ,Toan of .Arc. Ignatius Loyola had visions which he seems to have regarded as inspired. The brilliant Southey finally sank into a state of mental stupor, in which he died. Lord Clive's melancholy finally ended in madness, and he died by his own hand. Socrates imagined that he had a familiar spirit or guardian angel that conversed with him. WELL-KNOWN ,OREIGNERS. Alexancler Dumas has been fined twice for keeping a vicious dog at his home he Paris. M. Derma the aeronaut, who first open- ed communication between Paris and the holoistspiicitaeit.vorld in 1870, is dying in a Paris Multafa Bey, formerly private physician te the sultan of Morocco, is said to derive an income of $100,000 a year from his pro- fession. Countess Alesio'of Turin, Italy,. who celebrated her onehundredth birthday re- cently, accompanied her husband through all the hardthips of the Moscow campaign while she was a bride of eighteen. The Archduke Rainer, of Austria, has a collection of 10,000 Egyptian papyrus docu- ments dating back from B.C. 1200. The collection contains commercial letters, contracts , tax records, wills, tailors' bills, novels and even love letters. Bismarck said eo a correspondent who visited him at Varzin a couple of weeks ago: "I shall never enter public life of any kind again. I ain out of the harness forever." As he is verging upon the age of fourscore this is not particularly sur- prising. GOVERNMENT RAILROADS. South Austria owns her own railway system. The little country of Hesse owns two hundred and twenty-six miles of rail- road. The government of Portugal owns about half the railroads in the country. The Netherlands own nearly one thou- sand miles of railroads, all in the best of condition. There are six hundred and three miles of railway belonging to the Japanese govern- ment. A large per cent of the railways of Italy are owned by the government and leased to corporations. Victoria, Australia, owns all the rail- roads itt the colony, two thousand three hundred and. forty-one miles. New South Wales owns two thousand one hundred and eighty-two miles of rail- way, and New Zealand in. 1892 owned six htmdred and seventy-two miles. THE ORIENT. According to the examination just made by order of the Greek patriarch, the Borneo - tine edifices of Constantinople have not suffered severely by the earthquake. As fasters the sect of jains, in India'is far ahead of all rivals. Fasts of frona thirty to forty days are very common, and once a year they are said to abstain from food for seventy-five days. Nearly every Japanese paper has a "prison editor." For infraction of the publication laws somebody must go to jail, and so the prison editor's chief duty is to expiate the newspaper's offense by lan- guishing in a cell. On a territory about the area of Montana Japan supports forty million people in comparative comfort. Reckoning our own area at twenty-four times that of Japan, this country at that rate would support nine hundred and sixty million people. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.1 Europe has only about eight per cent. of the Sunday' school attendance of the world. The Sanday school membership of Ger- many has increased over eighty per cent. In the last twenty years. There are 22,060,000 persons, teachers and scholars, enrolled in the Protestant Sunday schools of the world. There are 25,099 Sunday schools, 81,950 teachers, and 1,635 scholars in the different continental nations of Europe. In 1374 there were in Germany 1,218 Protestant Sunday schools, with 86,418 teachers and scholars, in 1893 there were 5,900 schools and 781,769 teachers and scholars. IN AND AROUND ENGLAND. The announcement was lately made by the paymaster general of the supreme court of England that the total amount of dormant funds lying in chancery is $6,- 000,000. The Fastnet lighthouse, the spot on the Irish coast best known to Canadians is said to be in a dangerous condition, as the iron fastenings of the tower have become corroded. "Window gazing" is a profession In Lon- don. .A. couple of stylishly dressed ladies pause before the window of a merchant, remain about five minutes and audibly praise the goods displayed inside, Then they pass on to another store on their long list of patrons. PAINTING AND ARTISTS. Rosa Bonheur is over seventy year% of age, and no5 finding her easel sufficient to occupy her time and consume ber energy, she has taken up with photography as an additional work. Miss.Dhanbai Fardonjer Banajee, aged eighteen years, of Bouibay, is the first wo- man to go from India to Parie for art study. She has succeeded in having one of her pictures hung in the Paris salon. After many repaintings and cateraticmie Alma Taderna has finished his magaum opus, a picture of ancient noire in festiv- al, which has alteady been bought by a. dealer in Berlin for °tie hundred thonsand marks. Xt is called "Spring," and con- tains more than one hundred figures of celebrants and Spectators, a procession in honor of the gods of flowers and fertility., moving along toward the temple.