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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1896-1-30, Page 7A PRACTICAL SERMON "SAY SO" THE SUBJECT OF DR. TALMAGE'S DISCOURSE. The Eminent Divine Believes in Outspoken Religion --Nothing ' Can Stand Before Prayer—Let the Redeemed Show Their Colors --Personal Testimony. Washington, Jan. 19.—Rev. Dr. Tal- mage never produced a more practical and suggestive sermon than this of to- day. We believe it will stir Christendom. His subjuot was "Say So," and the text selected was Psalms evil, 2. "Let the re- deemed of the Lord say so." An overture, an antiphon, a doxology 1s this chapter, and in my text David calls for an outspoken religion and requests all who have been rescued and blessed no longer to hide the splendid facts, but to recite them, publish them and as far as possible, let all the world know about it. ' 'Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." There is a sinful reticence which has been almost canonized. The people aro quite as outspoken as they ought to be on all subjects of politics and are fluent and voluble on the Venezuelan question and bi-meta ism and tariffs, high and low fa and remodeled, and female suffrage and you have to skilfully watch your chance 1f you want to put into the active con- versation a modest suggestion of your own, but on the subject of divine good- ness, religions experience and eternal blessedness they are not only silent, but boastful of their reticence. Now if you have been redeemed of the Lord why do you not say so? If you have in your heart the pearl of great price, worth more than the Kohinoor among Victorian jewels 'why not let others see it? If you got off the wreck in the breaker, why not tell of the crew and the stout lifeboat that i safely landed you? If from the fourth story you are rescued in time of conflag- ration why not tell of the fireman and the ladder down which he carried you. If you have a mansion in heaven awaiting you, why not show the deed to those who may by the same process get an emerald castle on the same boulevard? By the last two words of my text avoid calls upon all of us who have received any mercy at the hand of God to stop imper- sonating the asylums for the damn, and in the presence of men, women, angels, devils and all the world, "say so." In these January days thousands of ministers and private Christians are wondering about the best ways of starting a revival of religion, I canteli you a way of starting a revival, continental, hemispheric and worldwide. Yon'say a revival starts in heaven. Well, it starts ,in heaven just as a prosperous harvest starts In heaven, The sun must. shine, :and the rains must descend, but unless ,you plow and sow and cultivate the earth you will not raise a bushel of wheat or a peek of corn between now and the end qt the world. How, then, shall a universal revival start? By all Christian people telling the story of thalr own conversion. Let ten men and women get up next week in your prayer meeting, and, not In a conventional.or canting or doleful way, but in the same tone they employ in �5 the family or place of business, toll how they o. ossed the line, and the revival will begin then and there if the prayer meet- ing has not been so dull as to drive out all except those concerning whom it was foreordained from all eternity that they should be there. There are so many differ. ens ways of being converted that we want to h :ar of all kinds, so that our own case may be helped, It always puts me back to hear only one kind of experience, such as a man gives when he tells of his Pauline conversion—how he was knocked senseless, and then had a vision and beard voices, and after a certain number of days of horror got up and shouted for joy. All that discourages me, for I was never knocked senseless, and I never had such a sudden burst of religious rapture that I lost my equilibrium. But after a while a Christian ince got up in some meeting and told us how he was brought up by a devout parentaige and had always bean thoughtful about religious things and gradually the peace of the gospel Dame into his soul like the dawn of the morning—no perceptible difference be- tween moment, and moment—but after awhile all perturbation settled down into a hope that had consoled and strengthen- ed him during all the vicissitudes of a lifetime I said: "That is exhilarating: that was my experience." And so I was strengthened. In another prayer meeting a man got up and told us how he once hated God, and went through all the round of iniq- uity until we were all on nettles lest he .should go too much into the particulars, but one day he was by some religious power hurled 'flat, and then got up a 'Christian, and had ever since been going around with a Baxter bible with large flaps u: der his arm, a floating evangelist. Well, under this story many are not help- ed at all for they know they never hated God and they were never dissolute. But after awhile some Christian woman arises .and says: I have nothing extraordinary to tell, Yet I think the cares of life, the anxieties about my children, and two graves opened in our family plot made me feel the need of God, and weak and helpless and heartbroken I'flung myself upon his mercy, and I feel what the bible calls the''peaue of God which passeth all understanding,' and I ask your prayers that I may live nearer to the Christ who has done so much for me," I declare that before that woman got through we were all crying, not bitter tears, but tears of joyful emotion. and in three days in that neighborhood all the ice had gone out of the river in a springtime freshet of salva- tion. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say -I have but little interest in what people say about religion as an abstraction, but I have illimitable interest in what people say about what they have personally felt of religion. It was an expression of his own gratitude ,for personal salvation which led Charles Wesley, after a season •of great despondency about his soul and Christ had spoken pardon; to write that immortal hymn: ;Ir Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing My great,Rodesmer's praose! What a record for all time and eternity was,made by Gellacius, the play actor, in the theater at Heliopolis. A burlesque of Christ.lanity'wits pint' upon the stage. In derision of time ordinance of .baptism a bathtub, filled with water,; was put upon • the stage anti another actor, in aivfal bblasphemy,cdippedGtallttciue„ pronoun- -Meg over hint the words, "I baptize thee in the name of time father, of the Son, and of the Holy .Ghost."-. But coining forth from the burlesqued baptism he looked changed amid lie cried out to the audience, '"I am a Christian. I will the as a Christian.” Though be was drag - god out and stoned to death, theycould not drown the testimony trade; under such awful 'circumstances. "I am a Christian. I will die a Christian." "Let the rodeemd of the Lord say so." Samuel Hick, an English Methodist preacher, solicited aid for. West India missiuns from a rich miser and failed. Then the minister dropped on his knees, and the miser said, "I will give thee a guinea if thou wilt give over." But the minister continued .to ,pray until the miser said,"I will give thee two guineas if thou wilt give over." 'then the money was taken to the missionary meeting. Oh, the power of prayer I Melanchthon, utterly discouraged, was passing along a place where children were heard playing, and he came back, saying: "Brethren, take courage.The children are praying for us." Nothing can stand before pray- er. An infidel came into a Bible class to ask puzzling questions. Many of the neighbors caine in to hear the discus- sion. The infidel arose and said to the leader of the Bible class, "I hear you allow questions asked?" "Oh, yes," said .the leader, "but at the start let us kneel down and ask God to guide us!" "Oh, no," said the infidel, "I did not come to pray ! I carne to discuss." "But," said the leader, "you will of course submit to our rule, and that it always to begin with prayer." The leader knelt in prayer and then arose and said to the infidel,"Now, you pray." The infidel replied: "I have no God to pray to. Let me go! Let me go!" The spectators, who expected fan found nothing but overpowering solemnity and a revival started, and among the first who were brought in was the infidel That prayer did it. In our lives there have been tunes when we felt that pray- er was answered. Then let us say so. There lingers on this side of the river that divides earth and heaven, ready at any time to cross over, the apostle of prayer for this century, Jeremiah Cal- vin Lanphier,tbe founder of the Fulton street prayer meeting, and if he should put on his spectacles and road this I salute him as more qualified than any man since Bible times in demonstrating what prayer 'can do. Dear Brother Lau- ghter! The high heavens are full of his fame. Having announced a meeting fur 12 o'clock September 28, 1857, he sat in the upper room on Fulton street, New York, waiting for people to come. He waited for half an hour, and then a foot- fall was heard on the steps end after a while in all six persons arrived, but the next day twenty and the next day forty and from that time to this for over thirty-eight years every day, Sab- bath excepted, that Fulton street prayer meeting has been a place where people h ave asked prayer and answers to pray- er have been announcd, and the throb of that great heart of supplication has thrilled not only into the heavens, but clear around the world, more than any spot on earth. That has been the place where the redeemd of the Lord said so! Lot the same outspokenness be em- ployed toward those by whom we have been personally advantaged. We wait until they are dead before we say so. Your parents. have planned for your best interests all these years. They may sometimes have their nervous sysa m used up by the cares, the losses, the dis- appointments, the worriments of life, be more irritable than they ought to be,and they probably have faults which have become oppressive as the years go by. But those eyes, long before they look on spectacles, were watching for your wel- fare, and their hands, not as smooth and much more deeply lined than once, have done for you ninny a good day's wcz.r. Life has been to them more of a struggle than you will over know about, and much of the struggle has been for you, and how much they are wrapped up in your welfare you will never appreciate. ' In conjugal life the honeymoon is soon past, and the twain take is for grented that each is thoroughly understood. How dependent on tench other they be- come, and the years go by, and perhaps notning is said'to make the other fully understand that sense of dependenco.Im- patient words sometimes come forth,and motives are misinterpreted, sed it is taken as a matter of course that the two will walk the path of life side by side until about the same time their journey shall be ended, but some sudden and ap- palling illness unloosens the right hands that, were clasped years before at the altar of orange blossoms, the parfing takes place, and among the worst of all sorrow is that you did not oftener, if you ever did at all, tell, her or tell him, how in- dispensable she was, or how indispen- sable he was to your happiness, and that fs some plain, square talk long ago you did not ase for forgiveness for infirm- ities and neglects and by some unlimit- ed utterance make it understood that you fully appreciated the fidelity and re - enforcement of many years. Alas, how many such hive to lament time rust of their lives, "Oh. if I had only said so!" My subject takes a wider range. The Lord has hundreds of thousands of peo- ple among those who have never joined his army because of some high ideal of what a Christian should be, or because of a fear that they may not hold out, or because of a thought of procrastination. They have not publicly professed Christ. They have as much right to the sac- raments and as much right to all the privileges of the church as thous- ands who have for years been enrolled in church membership, and yet they have made no positive utterance by which the world may know they love God and are on the road to heaven. They are redeemed of the Lord and yet do not say so. Oh, what an augmentation it would be if by some divine impulse all those outsiders should become insiders! I tell you what would bring them to their right paces, and perhaps nothing else will. Days of persecution! If they were corn - .polled to take sides as between Christ and his enemies, they would take the side of Christ, and the fagots, and the instru- ments of torture, and the anathemas of. all earth and hell would not make them blanch. Martyrs are made out of such staff as they are. But let them not wait for such days, as I pray to God may never come. Drawn by the sense of fairness and justice. and obligation, let them show their colors. Let the redeemed of the Lord say sol This chapter from which I take my text mentions several classes of persons who ought to be outspoken. Among them all those who go on a tourney. What an opportunity you have, you who spend so much of your iliac on rail trains or on shipboard, whether on lake or river or seal Spread the story of God's good. ness and your own redemption wherever you go. You will have many a long ride beside some one vihoni you will never see again, some one who is waiting for one word of rescue or consultation, Make every rail train and steamer a mov- ing palace of saved souls. ',Casual oonver- stions'have harvested agrest host for God. . There ate many ,Christian workers in pulpits, in mission, stations, in Sabbath schools; in ' el heard of places who aro doing their best for'. God, and without any recognition: They go and come, and so one cheers them. Perhaps all the re. ward they get is harsh criticism, or .re pulse, or their own fatigue. If you have ever heard of any good they have done, let thein know about it. If you find some one benefited by their alms, or their prayers, or their cheering word, go and tell them. They may be: almost ready to give up their mission. They may be almost in despair because of the seeming lack of re- sults. One word from you may be an ordination that will start them on the chief work of their lifetime.' There are hundreds of ministers who have hard work to make sermons because no one expresses any appreciation. They are afraid of making hint vain. The mo- ment the benediction is pronounced they turn on their heels and go ont. Perhaps it was a subject on which he had put especial pains. He sought for the right text, and then did his best to put the old thought into some new shape. He had prayed that it might go to'the hearts of the people. Be had (added to the argu- ment the most vivid illustrations he could thing of. Ho had delivered all with, a power that left him nervously ex- hausted. Five hundred people may have been blessed by it, and resolved upon a higher life and nobler purposes, Yat all he hears is the clank of the pew door, or the shuffling of feet in the aisle, or some remark about the weather, the last resort of inanity. Why did not that man come up and say frankly, "You have done me good?" Why did not some woman come up and say," I shall go home to take up the burden of life more cheerfully?" There are men to whom life is a grind and a conflict, hereditary tendencies to he overcome, accidental environments to be endured, appalling opposition to be met and conquered, and they never so much as had a rose pinned to their coat lapel in admiration They never had a song dedi- cated to their name. They never had a book presented to them with .a compli- mentary word on the fly leaf. All they have to show for their lifetime battle is soars, But in the last day the story will come out, and that life will be put in holy and transcendent rhythm and their courage and, persistence and faith and victory will not only be announced but re- warded. We miss one of the chief ideas of a last judgment. We put into the picture the fire, and the smoke, and the earthquake and the descending angels, and, the up- rising dead, but we omit to put into the picture that which makes the last jufdg- ment a magnificent opportunity. We omit the fact that it is to be a day of glorious explanation and commendation. The first justice that millions of unre- warded and unrecognized and unapproiat- ed men and women get will be on that day when services that never called forth so much as a newspaper line of finest pearl or diamond type, as the printers term it, shall be called up for coronation. That will be the day of enthronement for those whom the' world called "nobodies." Joshua, who commanded the sun and moon to stand still, needs no last judg- ment to get justice done him, but those men do need a last judgment who at times, in all armies, under the most vio- lent assault, in obedience to command, themselves stood still. Deborah, who en- couraged Barak to bravery in battle against the oppressors of Israel, needs no last judgment to get justice done her, or thousands of years have clapped her ap- plause, But the wives who in all ages have encouraged their husbands in the battles of life, women whose names were hardly known beyond the next street or the next farmhouse, must have God say to them: "You did well! You did glori- ously! I saw you down in that dairy. I watched you in the old farmhouse mend- ing those children's clothes. I heard what you said in the way of cheer when the breadwinner of the household was in despair. I remember all the sick cradles you have sung to. I remember the back- aches, the heartaches. I know the, story of your knitting needle as well as I know the stpry of a queen's scepter. Your castle on the heavenly hill is all ready for roe. Go up and take it!" And turn- ing to the surprised multitudes of heaven he will say, "She did what she could." God will say so. And now I close with giving my own personal testimony, for I must not enjoin upon others that wition I decline myself to do. Born at Bound Brook, N.J., of a parentage as pious as the world ever saw, I attest before earth and heaven that I have always felt the elevating and re- straining influence of having had a good father and a good mother,and ifIam able to do half as we,1 for nay children as the old folks did for me I will be thankful forever. The years of my life passed on until, at about 18 years of age, I felt the pressure of eternal realities, and after prayer and religious counsel I passed into what I took to be a saved state and joined the church, anti I attest before earth and heaven that I have round it a most help - 1 fol and inspiring association. I like the companionship so well that I cannot be satisfied if I have a day less of it than all eternity. After graduating at collegiate and theological institutions I had the hands often of twelve good then put upon my head in solemn ordination at Belle- ville, N.J., and I attest before earth and heaven that the work of the gospel minis. try has been delightful, and I expect to preach until my last hour. Many times I have passed through deep waters of be- reavement, and but for the divine promise of heavenly reunion I would have gone under, but I attest before earth and heaven that the comfort of the gospel is high, deep, glorious, eternal. Many times have I been maligned and my work mis- represented, but all such falsehood and persecution have turned out for my ad- vantage and enlarged my work, and I attest before earth and heaven that God has fulfilled to me the promises, "Lo, I am with you alway!" and "The gates of hell shall not prevail against you." For the cheer of younger men in all de- partments let me say you will come out all right if you mind your own business and are patient. The assault of the world is only being rubbed down by a rough Turkish towel, and it improves the circulation and makes one more vigorous. While the future holds for me many mys- teries which I do not pretend to solve I am living in expectation that when my poor work is done, I shall go through the gates and meet my Lord and all my kind- red who have preceded mine, a precious' group whom I miss more and. morels the years go by, and I'attest before earth and heaven that the glories of the heaven- ly world illumine my pathway. I'm courts of law the witness may kiss the bible or lift his righthand in oath, but as I have often kissed the dear old book I now lift my right hand and take bath by him that iiveth forever and ever that God is good, and that the gospel is a mighty consola- tion in clays 'of trouble, and: that the best friend a roan ever had is Jesus, and that heaven is absolutely sure to those' who trust and serve the, blessed Redeemer, to whom, be gloryy and dominion and vie- to4y and song, and ouorus of white robed immortals standing on seas of glass mingled with fire.' Amen and amen! AT CAPE COLONY. AMONG THE MALAYS AND 4(AF FIRS. A Glimpse of the People and Customs Dowi'n`Brightest Africa --Unattractive Cape. Town. Whilst famous explorers, Livingston, Stanley, De Brazza and others, have plunged into the heart of Darkest Afri- ca and have returned with wondrous tales of endless forests, nations of pig - 331108, and other strange things, as yet no explorer has given an adequate re- port :of what may justly be termed Brightest Africa. We have heard much of cannibals and the fearful rites indulged in by savages, but. strange to say, writers have been comparatively silent upon the country stretching from Cape Town north to the Zambesi River. It is true that trade papers and even magazines have publish- ed statistics concerning this land, but little or nothing has been said of its characteristics, its Inhabitants and their idiosyncrasies. Yet that same Brightest Africa is richer in legend and far richer toraneiliate cabip of evolution. They are conceited, nevertheless, tt an •assinine degree, are bullies because of their' size, .� are anything but virtuous, and are al togther•'au unpleasant race. Next in point of nuthbers come the Malays. The men 'are Undersized', bilious - looking and insignificant. The women are superb. Their skin ,is of a velvety yellow,and their hair as black esnight, and of a"texture fine ea unspun flax. Their features are of 'a Caucasian oast, their figures supple, graceful and well developed. The when wear European clothes, with turbans on their heads. The women wear loose flowing gowns,,.consisting of bright colored silks wound tightly around their bodies and reaching to the ankles. Their shoes, if they can beterm- ed such, consist of wooden boards, with pegs which fit between the big and see- and toes, by which the shoes are held in place. At the front and rear end of this board are little blocks which raise it about two Inches from the ground, and which make it impossible to wear for anybody but a native or a man used to stilts. The Malays are a picturesque race. They are magnificent liars, and are free from the smallest taint of morality or modesty. As far as Cape Town is con- cerned, they appear to best advantage on Saturday evenings, when they turn out in full force, in all their gaudy trappings, j and walk up and down the various streets. It is a sight really worth seeing, and takes one at a bound from Africa into the Arabian Nignts. One can al- most imagine Haroun al Basel -mid come to life again, and his grand vizier and his slaves. Next to the Malays come the native tribes. There are some twelve hundred of them, and they are knoivn by the generic name of Kefiir. Strictly speak- ing, the Kaffir is not a negro, though his skin is black; he is the aristocrat of his race. Place an American negro side by side with a full-blooded Zulu, and you will at once see the difference. The Zulu is a gentleman by birth; his skin is brown, but beneath it can be seen coursing the red blood of a, pure and noble race. In his eyes shines the intelligence of the child of nature -he is a child in more ways than one. The Zulu is one of the noblest animals that nature created. He is honest, virtuous, courageous, self-respecting, obedient, when necessity arises faithful unto death, and always knows his piece. How different is the Hottentot. The Hottentot is to the Zulu what the Turk is to the American—the some of all that civilization loathes and despises. His nature is low and his morals lower, if that is possible—thieving, lying, treacherous and unclean. While the Zulu woman bathes herself twice a day, the Hottentot woman does not do so twice a century. The latter is not ' a beauty; one who called her attractive would be subject to a suit for criminal libel. They rarely exceed four feet eta inches in height, are bow-legged and have deformities that make thentnatur- ally disgusting. The smallest part of the population of Cape Town is made up of foreigners, many of whom have come for the good of their respective countries. They us- ually engage in the stock brokerage business, seeking for lambs to fleece. Some few,and they are the decent ones, are in the employ of the Government or of the larger mercantile houses. Much of the retail business is in the bands of the Malays, who are veritable Shylock°. The Haffirs are the servants, and their masters treat them a little better than slaves,paying them about $8 a month, and furnishing food and a piece of bare board for a bed. Cape Town is the seat of the Govern- ment of the Cape Colony, and contains the houses of parliament and the Gover- nor's residence. The Governor is ap- In the gifts of nature than many a country better known to fame and his- tory. It has diamonds, gold, sheep and settle, iron, silver, coal, magnifi- cent seaports, great wheat growing districts, vineyards that groan under the weight of their fruit—everything almost that can be desired except civilization; and for that it has little use until its re- sources era further developed. Just why the discoverer of the point of land lying between Cape Town and Si- monstown christened it the Cape of Good Hope is somewhat a mystery, unless it be hope for the ultimate reformation of that part of the world: As for Cape' Town itself, it looks truly beautiful at a' distance, but a closer acquaintance dis-' pots the illusion. It is rather pictur- esquely situated at the foot of Table Mountain—so called, perhaps, because it does not resemble a table—and at a dis- tance looks like a self-respecting town containing proper, church -going people, with civilized instincts. The dominating feature in a long-distance view is the green effect, due to the number of trees. The town stretches over a distance of about three wiles and ends in salt marsh- es toward the west. The eastern end is lost somewhere in the direction of the Indian Ocean, but no none with any social aspirations lives there. In one corner is the bay, which affords good anchorage and is splendidly protected by a breakwater, built by convict labor. At a distance Cape Town resembles nothing so much as a Swiss town, with its many cottages built on the slope of Table Mountain. The whole effect gives risotto feelings of pleasant anticipation; the realization is doubly bitten The closer one gets to Cape Town the more completely is the illusion dispelled. Intimacy with Cape Town is only con- ducive to disgust, for a great part of the town is so filthy and vile as to be fit only for Malays and Raffles. There is one street in Cape Town, Adderly street. which is considered its Broadway— but this is an unpardonable insult to Broad- way. Adderly street consists is dry weather of the finest grade of red dust. In wet weather its name is mud. On ordinary occasions the sand is a foot deep, but, when necessary water is supplied, the resultant mud attains three times that depth. By reason of this dust a collar that has been worn an hour looks like a sunset paineted by an impression- ist artist. After that, history is silent, for no one has yet been found who wore a collar more than an hour in Cape Town. Cape Town is subject to wind storms which blow in all directions at once and have an unpleasant habit of gath- ering up dust and depositing half a street full in your ears and nostrils. These wind storms are often accompan- ied by tremendous fritts of rain, anti give the place a very unpleasant cli- mate. In faot, one gets half a dozen climates a day in Cape Town. Leading in all directions from Adder- ly street aro other streets, some big, some small, but all unpleasant. The houses resemble barns; but this is not the fault of the inhabitants, who deserve encouragement, for they are really try- ing hard to approach a level where civ- ilization begins and the savage ceases to wear a nose -ring. You can find any nationality in Cape Town, for it is the Mecca to which all sorts of adventurers,and the scum of the earth generally, are drifting from every- where. You can find every walk of life represented; but no matter where you go you will :find the one predomi- nating trait -the, greed for gold. Human beings would not go to Cape Town unless there were a strong mag- net to attract them. Gold els that mag- net; and as the gold isnot to be obtain- ed in Cape Town itself, there is a ten- stant migration through the town north- ward • orthward;' so that while time arrivals num- : ber 100,030, and even shore, -a year, the population never gets above 40,000. The greater part of tins population consists. of whites, but many are darker' than car octoroons, and many could not truthfully say that they are pure-blood- ed Caucasians. These are called A frikaii- dors, and through some mistaken notion are proud to be. known as such. They are physically a fine race, but mentally they are below par. Their brain is un- developed; and they are still in the in - THERE WAS NO SECOND VERSE Absorbed Mr. Dash Didn't Know Ile Wry?., Hearing time'Lord's Prayer. , The occasion was one of the a9mi-t musical Sunday evenings which we en know wall, .. Mrs. Dash had attended: from genuine love for the hostess, bait•, young Mr. Herbert Dash, her ern. we! there only out of all respect and en . asp dent desire to please his mamma:. The host was a musical devotee, but made the unfortunate and familiar mis- take of overrating his own voice and hist power to please. Young Mr. Dash had done all that the strictest adherent to good form could ask. He had listened and he had applauded until finally, finding himself tete-a-tete on the sofa with charming Miss )3lank„ he yielded to natural impulses and listen- ed to the music of her voice rather than, to that which came from the piano. In. his own mind be had become convinced that in truth,virtue is Its own reward, His consciousess of a duty well done had pervaded his very soul. Satisfaction beamed from his eyes. Miss Blank's power of repartee kept him constantly on the alert. Iie, dearly loved a conversation- alist who vena Witty in an honest, whole- some way. In their secluded corner he felt no remorse. at enjoying the good things the gods had sent, The group about the pianoewere not disturbed, and the semi -confidential attitude, consequent. ' upon the subdued tones, lent an addition- al charm. All was peaceful as' a sum- mer's dream. Suddenly there was a lull, The voice at the piano ceased. Those near by mur- mured their applause, Mr. Dash looked. 1 up, paused a moment in his ohat, clapped in the subdued fashion appropriate to Sun. . day night and exclaimed, "Charmingi Excellent! My dear sir, could you not Igive us the second verse?" Instead of the expected eager response and the consequent renewal of themusic, under cover of which the confidences. might also be renewed, silence fell upon. the entire group. Presently a' voice arose. "Herbert," said Mrs, Dash, "that was the Lord's Prayer." pointed by the Foreign Office in London, and the less he knows about South Afri- can affairs the more likely he is to get the appointment. The present incum- bent, however, Sir Hercules Robinson, is an exception to the rule; for he has ser- ved in this capacity before, and has done well. The parliament consists of of an upper and lower house, antago- nistic to each other and to everything else. Their purpose in life appears to be to fight the advance of civilization; their main,, desire to antagonize what they call the "verdamtnte Uitlander" (the d --d foreigner). They have, how- ever, found a master of late in the per- son of Cecil Rhodes. The houses of par- liament where he rules are situated in the Botanical Gardens in the upper part of the city, and aro the finest buildings in Cape Town. They are three story red brick, and are still large enough to contain Mr. Rhodes. Tho one interesting thing about Cape Town is Table Mountain. It rises ab- ruptly and perpendicularly behind the town, towering up into the clouds 1,500 feet above the level of ,the sea. From its summit, which can be reached by au easy incline through the Lion's liloor .(gniol), or by a pntilons ascent up its almost perpendicular . front facing the sea, a imeenifietnt , view rewards the climber. To the south and west P.trotch es the Southern Anne tie, green and forbidding in aspect; to the ()est lies the Indian Ocean, with its .legends of. the Flying Detchinan and its pianos; to the north` are seen' the undulating hills that lead to the land of • dinenonns and of gold -that bourne to which every traveler is drawn, upon which all hopes are centered, where marvelous fortunes' have boon madeand lost, Where the strangest comedies .and tragedies have been"1Ileyed—tbe'region, upon which the entire future of Brightest Africa ponds, �a. -•=arc . r~ WHAT IS IMMORAL LITERATURE? Three of the Answers to the Boston. Globe's Inquiry. The Boston Sunday Globe published a symposium a short time ago on the ques- tion "What is Immoral Literature?" From three of the most remarkable ans- wers to this query we extract the follow- ing: Robert Appleton: Immorality in litera- ture is the absence of motive in composi- tion, of design in execution, It is like. life without principle—almost an impos- sible conception; or, like nature without beauty—an inconceivable possibility. I$ IS no more immoral to embody in living types the ugly accidents in life and. humanity than it is injurious to publish information about certain dangerous con- ditions of disease. The objective lessons .of both are inevitably moral and salutary. Albert Ross: The story of a dishonest life is not n^cessarily a dishonest story. A history of vicious and depraved persons may be quite the opposite of a vicious and depraved history. Otherwise, much of our best literature must come under the ban, and newspapers would be suppressed for printing the grand jury indictments. The truest morality is taught by plac- ing it in contrast with immorality. It is better to see these contrasth on a printed page than to come in touch with them in. actual experience. Ignorance of sexual dangers has never proved a safeguard, and there is no reason to suppose it ever will, A chief duty of the novelist, therefore, is to call things by their proper names. The greatest im- morality I know of is to sketch a quag- tnire and write above it, "This is solid ground." To call attention to it and teach people to avoid it is morality, if anything written with a pen is moraL What is immoral" in literature? Lying. What is moral? Speaking the truth. Mme JAnausohek: The literature of this country is sometimes unmistakably immoral in its influence and effect. The-- reason herreason for this is to be found, I think, in the fact that a spirit of commercial specu- lation has entered the literary world, and has exercised a pernicious power. The healthiest and most decorous boy will indulge in unwholesome material of the baker's and confectioner's art if his fancy be aroused and his desire awakened by repeated temptations, in the same way the pulbic patronizes the vulgar ex- hibition of so-called "realistics," when there was no demand for such things until it was awakened by the enterprising and ingenious showman. Authors respond to this demand, which is presented by the speculator. Row to Succeed. "I am rich, very rich, although, when I commenced business I had nothing." "That may be, but those who did bush nese with you when you commenced had something."—Journal Amusette. When Baby was sloe, we gas -tiller Castoria. When she was a Child, site cried for Castori:e. When she became Miss, site clung to Cestoria. When she had Children,, she gave them Castoria. Tel E MOST SUCCESSFUL REMEDY FOR !MRI Oil BEAST. 'Certain in its effects and never blisters. 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