HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1896-4-23, Page 37..1
ROSE TO HIGH PLACE.
PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM TH.E
LIFE OF JOSEPH.
The World Honors Christian Character --
The Result of Persecution Is Elevation --
Sin Will Surely Come to Exposure—The
Propriety of Preparing for the Future.
Washington, April 19.—Tho sermon ot
Rey. Dr. Talmage to -day is full of stir-
ring and parctical lessons for all. Wash-
ington has many men who, like the hero
of the texts started from almost nothing
and rose to high place. The texts chosen
were: Genesis xxxvii 28: "They drew
and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and
sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty
pieces of silver." Genesis xiv., 26: "He is
governor over all the land of Egypt."
You cannot keep a good man down.
God has decreed for him a certain point
of elevation. He will bring him, to that
though it cost Him a thousand. worlds.
,You sometimes Ilnd men fearful they
will not be properly appreciated. Every
man comes to be valued at just what he
is worth. You cannot write him up, and
you cannot write him down. These facts
are powerfulla illustrated in my subject.
It would be an insult to suppose that
you were not all familiar with the life
'of Joseph—how his jealous brothers
.threw him into a pit, but seeing a cara-
van of Arabian inerehants trudging
along on their camels, with spices and
gums that loaded the air with aroma,
sold their brother to these merchants,
who carried hem down into Egypt; Jo-
seph there sold to Potiphar, a man of in-
fluence and office; how by Joseph's integ-
rity he raised himself to high position in
the reahri until under the false oharge of
a vile wretch he was hurled into the
penitentiary; how in prison he com-
manded respect and confidence; how by
the interpretation. of Pharaoh's dream he
was freed and became the chief man in
the realm, the Bismarck of his century;
how in the time of famine Joseph had
the control of a magnificent storehouse
which he had filled during seven years of
plenty; how wheo his brothers, who had
thrown him into the pit and sold him
into captivity, applied for corn, he sent
them home with the beast of burden
borne down under the heft of corn sacks;
how the sin against their brother which
had so long been hidden came out at
last and was returned by that brother's
forgiveness and kindness, the only re-
venge he took.
You see, in the firsi place, that the
world is compelled to honor Christian
character. Potiphar was only a marx of
the world, yet Joseph rose in his estima-
tion until all the affairs of that great
house were committed to his charge.
From bis servant no honor or confidence
was withheld. When Joseph was in
prison, he soon won the heart of the
keeper, and, though placed there for be-
ing a scoundrel, he soon convinced the
jailer that he was an innocent and trust-
worthy man, and, released from close con-
finement, he became general superintend-
ent of prison affaixs. Wherever Joseph
was placed, whether a servant in the
house of Potiphar or a prisoner in the
penitentiary he became the first man
everywhere and is an ,illustration of the
truth I lay down—that the world is cern-
palled to honor Christian. character.
There are those who affect to despise a re-
ligious life. They speak of it as a system
of phlebotomy by which the man is bled
of all his courage and nobility. They say
he has bemoaned himself. They pretend
to have no more confidence in him since
his conversion than before his conversion. I
But all this is hypocrisy. There is a
great deal of hypocrisy in the eletunh, and
there is a great deal of hypocrisy outside ,
the church. It is impossible for any man
not to admire and confide in a man who '
shows that he has really become a child
of God, and is what he professes to be. I
You cannot despise a son of the Lord. God
Almighty. Of course we have no admire- I
tion for the shani of religion.
When Eudoxia, the empress, threatened.'
Chrysostom with death, he made the re.
ply. "Tell the empress 1 feat nothing but
sin." Such a scene as that compels the
admiration of the world. There was
something in Agrippa and Felix which
demanded their respect for Paul,the rebel
against government. I doubt not they I
would willingly have yielded their office
and dignity for a thousandth part of
that true heroism which beamed in the
eye and beat in the heart of that uncon-
querable apostle. Paul did not cower be-
, fare Felix. Pena cowered before Paul.
The infidel and worlding are compelled
to honor in their hearts, although they
may not eulogize with their bps, a Chris-
tian, film in persecution, cheerful in pov-
erty, trustful in losses, triumphant in
death. I find Christian men in all pre-
fessions and occupations,and I find them
respected and honored and successful.
John Frederick Oberlin, alleviating ig-
norance and distress; Howard passing
from dungeon to lazaretto with healing
for the body and soul; Elizabeth Fry go-
ing to the profligacy of Newgate prison
to shake its obduracy as the angel came
to the prison at Phillippi, driving open
the doors and. snapping loose the chain,ae
well as the lives of thousands of follow-
ers of Jesus who have devoted themselves
to the temporal and spiritual welfare of
the race are monuments of the Christian
religion that shall not crumble while the
world lasts. A man said to me in the
cars: "What is religion? Judging from
the character of many professors of relig-
ion X do not admire religion.", I said:
"Now, suppose we went to an artist in
the city of Rome and while in his gal-
lery asked him, 'What is the art of paint-
ing?" Would he take us out in a low
alley and show us a mere daub of a pre-
tender at painting, or would he take us
down into the corridors and show us the
Rubens and the •Raphaels and the
Mieha,e1 Angeles? When we asked him,
'What is the art of painting?' he would
point to the works of these great masters
and say, 'That is painting.' Now, you
propose to fbad the merecaricature of re-
ligion, to thek after that which is the
mere pretension of a holy life, and you
call that religion. I point' you to the
splendid 111011 and women whom this gos-
pel has blessed and lifted and crowned.
Look at the masterpieces of divine grace
If you event to know what religion is."
We learn also from this story of Joseph
that the result of persecutions is eleva-
tion. Had it not been for his being sold
into Egyptian bondage by his malicious
brothers and his false imprisomnent,
Joseph never would have beconie a gov-
ernor, Everybody accepts the promise,
"Blessed are they that are peesecuted for
righteousness sake, for theirs is the ideal-
dom of heaven," but they do not realize
the fact that this principle applies to a
worldly as well as spiritual success. It is
true in,all departments. Men ire to high
official positions through misrepaserate-
tion. Public abuse le all that some of OW'
public men have had to rely upon for
their elevation. It has brought to them
what talent and executive force could
not have achieved. Many of those who
are making great efforts for place and
power will never succeed, just because
they are not of enough importance to be
abused. It is the nature of men—that is,
of all generous and reasonable ni.on—to
gather about those who are persecuted
and defend them, and they are apt to for-
get the faults of those, who are the sub-
jects of attack while attempting to drive
back slanderers. Persecutien is eleva-
tion. Helen Stirk, the Scotch martyr,
standing with her husband at the place
of execution, said: 'Husband, let us re-
joice to -day. We have lived together many
happy years. This is the happiest time of
all our life. You kee vse are to be happy
together forever. I will not say 'Good
night" to you, for we shall soon be in
the kingdom of our Father together."
Persecution shows the heroes and hero-
ines. I go into another department, and
I find that these great denominations of
Christians which have been most abused
have spread the most rapidly.
No good man was ever more violently
maltreated. than John Wesley—belied and
caricatured and slandered, until one day
he stood in a pulpit in London and a
man arose in the audience and said,
"You were drunk last night," and John
I Wesley said: "Thank God, the whole cat-
alogue is now complete! X have been
charged with everything but that." His
followers were hooted at and maligned
and called by every detestable name that
infernal ingenuity could invent but the
hotter the persecution the more rapidly
I they spread, until you know what a great
I host they have become and what a tre-
mendous force for Godand the truth they
are wielding all the world over. It was
' persecution that gave Scotland to Presby-
terianism. It was persecution that gave
our land first to civil liberty and after -
'ward to religious freedom. Yea, I might
I go farther back and say it was porthole-
' don that gave the world the great sal-
vation of the gospel. The ribald mockery,
the hungering and thirsting, the unjust
charge, the ignominious death, when all
the force of hell's fury was hurled against
the cross, was the introduction of that
religion which is yet to be the earth's de-
liverance and our eternal salvation. The
I State sometimes said to the Church,
"Come, take my hand, and I will help
' you." What was the result? The Church
I went back and it lost its estate of hell-
! nese, and it became ineffective. 'At other
times the State said to the Chnrch, "I
will crush you." What has been the re -
suit? After the storms have spent their
Ifury the Church, so far from having lost
any of its force, has increased and. is
worth infinitely more after the assault
than before. Read all history, and you
; will And that true. The Church is far
more indebted to the opposition of civil
' government than to its approval. The
fires of the stake have only been the
torches which Christ held in his hand,
by the light of which the Church has
' marched to her present glorious position.
In the sound of racks and implements
I of torture I hear the rumbling of the gess
pd. chariot. The scaffolds of anartyrdorn
have been the stairs by which the Church
mounted.
Learn also from our subject that sin
will come to exposure. Long, long ago
had those brotheregold Joseph into Egypt.
' They had made :the old father believe
that his favorite child was dead. They
had suppressed tge crime and it was a
profound secret well kept by the broth-
ers. But suddenly the secret is out. The
old father hears that his son is in Egypt
having been sold there by the malice of
his own brothers. How their cheeks must
have burned and their hearts sunk at
the flaming out of this long suppressed
crime. The smallest iniquity has a thous-
and tongues, and they will blab out ex-
posure. Saul was sent th dsetroy the
Canaanites, their sheep and their oxen, I
but when he got down there among the
pastures he saw some flue sheep and
oxen too fat to kill, so he thought he
would steal them. Nobody would know
it. He drove those stolen sheep and oxen
toward home, but stopped to report to
the prophet how he had executed his
mission, when in the distance the sheep
began to bleat and the oxen to bellow.
The secret was out, and Samuel said to
the blushing and confused Saul, "What
means the bleating of the sheep that
hear and the bellowing of the cattle?"
Ah, my hearers, you cannot keep an in-
iquity still. At just the wrong time the
sheep will bleat and the oxen will bel-
low. Achan cannot steal the Babylonish
garment without being stoned to death,
nor Arnold betray his country without
having his neck stretched. Look over
the police arrests. These thieves, these
burglars, these counterfeiters, these
highwaymen, these assassins, they all
thought they could bury their iniquity so
deep down it would never come to resur-
rection, but there was some shoe that an-
swered to the print in the soil, some false
keys found in their possession, some
bloody knife that whispered of the death,
and the public indignation and the ana-
thema of outraged law hurled them into
the dungeon or hoisted them on the gal-
lows.
Francis I., King of France, stood coun-
seling with his officers how he could take
his tinny into Italy, when Ameril, the
fool of the court, leaped out from a cor-
ner of the room and said: "You had bet-
ter be consulting how you will get your
army back," and it was found that Fran-
cis I., and not Ameril, was the fool. In-
stead of consulting as to the best way of
getting into siege you had better consalt
as to whether you will be able to get out
of it. If the world does not expose you,
you will tell it yourself. There is an aw-
ful power in an aroused conscience. A
highwayman plunged out upon White-
field as he rode along on horseback, a
sack of money on the horse—money that
he had raised for orphan asylums—and
the highwayman put his hand on the
gold, and Whitefield turned to him and
said: "Touch that if you dare! That be-
longs to the Lord Jesus Christ." And the
ruffian slunk into the forest. Conscience!
Conscience! The milieu had a pistol, but
Whitefield shook at him the finger of
doom. Do not think you Call hide any
great ancl protracted sin in your 'heart,
my brother. In an unguarded moment it
will slip off the lip, or some action may
for the moment set asar this door that
you wanted to keep closed. But suppose
that in this hie you hid,e rb, and you get
along with this transgression burning in
your heart, as a ship on fu:e within for
days hinders the flames from bursting
out by keeping down the hatches, yet at '
last 131 the judgment that iniquity will
blaze out before God and the nnivaose.
Learn also from this subject, that there
is an inseparable connection between ell
events, however remote. The univexse is
only one thought of God. Those things
svhieh seemed' fragmentary and isolated
axe only different parts of that great
tbought. Row far apart seemed these
Iwo events—Joseph sold to the Arabian
tneprohants and his ;Worship of Egypt,
yet you see in what a mysterious way
God connected the two Into one plan. So
the events are linked together. You who
are aged raen look back and group to-
gether a thowiand thieve in your life
that once seemed isolated. One undivided
chain of events reaches from the garden
of Eden to the oross of Calvary and thus
up to the kingdom of heaven. There is a
relationship between the smallest insect
that hums in the summer air and the
archangel on his throne. God can trace
a direct ancestral line from the blue par
that this spring will build its nest in the
tree behind the house to some one of
the flock of birds which, when Noah
hoisted the ark's window, with a whirr
and dash of bright wings went out to
sing over Mount Ararat. The tulips that
bloom in the garden this spring were
nursed, by the snowflakee. The farthest
star on one side of the universe could not
look toward the farthest star on the other
side of the universe and say "You ate no
, relation to me, for from that bright orb
a voice of light would ring across the
heavens, responding: "Yes, yes, we are
sisters." Nothing in God's universe
swings at loose ends. Aceidents are only
God's way of turning a leaf itt the book
of His eternal. decrees. From our cradle
to our grave there is a path all marked
out. Each event in our life is connected
with every other event in our life. Our
losses.naay be the most direct road to our
gain. Our defeat and our victory are twin
brothers. ,
The whole direotion of your life was
changed by something which at the time
seemed to you trilling, while some emu.-
rence winch seemed tremendous affected
you but little. God's plans are magnifi-
cent beyond all comprehension. He molds
us and turns and directs us, and we
know it not. Thousands of years are to
him as the flight of a shuttle. The most
terrific occurrence does not make God
tremble. The most triumphant achieve-
ment does not lift Him into rapture. That
one great thought of God goes out
through the centuries, and nations rise
and fall, and eras pass, and the world
changes, but God still keeps the undi-
vided mastery, linking event th event
and century th century. To God they are
all one event, one history, one plan, one
I development, one system. Great and mar-
velous are Thy works, Lord. God .&l -
mighty! I was years ago in New Or-
leans at the exposition rooms, when a
telegram was sent to the President of the
'United States, at Washington, and we
' waited some 15 or 20 minutes, and then
the President's answer came back, and
then the presiding officer waved his hand-
kerchief, and the signal was sent to
Washington that we were ready to have
the machinery of the exposition started,
and the President put his finger on the
electric button, and instantly the great
Corliss wheel began to move—rumbling
rolling, rolling. It was overwhelming,
and 15,000 people clapped and shouted.
.Tust ono finger at Washington started
that vast machinery, hundreds and hun-
dreds of nailes away, and I thought then,
as 1 think now, that merx sometimes
touch influences that respond in the far
distance, 40 years from now, 50 years
from. now, 1,000 years from now -1,000,-
000 years from now—one touch sounding
through the ages.
We also learn from this story the pro-
priety of laying up for the totem. Dur-
ing the seven years of plenty Joseph pre-
pared for the famine, and when it came
he had a crowded storehouse. The life of
most men is divided into years of plenty
and faxnine. It is seldom that any man
passes through life without at least seven
years of plenty. During those seven years
your business bears a rich harvest. You
scarcely knave where all the money comes
from, it comes so fast. Every bargain
you make seems to turn into gold. You
contract few bad debts. You are aston-
ished with large dividends. You invest
more and more capital. You wonder how
men can be content with a small busi-
ness, gathering in only a few hundred
dollars, while you reap your thousands
Those are seven years of plenty. Now Jo-
seph has time to prepare for the threat-
ened famine, for to almost every man
there do come seven years of famine. You
will be sick, you will be unfortunate,
you will be defrauded, there will be bard
times, you will be ,disappointed, and if
you have no storehouse upon which to
fall back you. may be famine struck. We
have no admiration for this denying one-
self all personal comfort and luxury for
the mere pleasure of hoarding up, this
grasping for the mere pleasure of seeing
how large a pile you can get, this always
being poor because as soon as a dollar
comes in it is sent out to see if it can
find another dollar, so that it can cany
it home on its .back. We have a contempt
for all those things, but there is an in-
telligent and noble mindedforecast ashinh
we love to see in men who have families
and kindred depending upon them for
the blessings of education and home. God.
sends us the insects for a lesson, which,
while they do not stint themselves in the
present, do not forget their duty to fore-
cast the future "Go to the ant, thou slug-
gard. Consider her ways and be wise,
which, having no guide, overseer or ruler,
provideth her meat in the Runnier and
gathereth her food in the harvest."
Now, there are two ways of laying up
money. One of these is to put itin stock
and deposit it in bank and invest it on
bond and mortgage. The other way to
lay up money is giving it away. Re is
the safest who snakes both of these in-
vestments. There are in this house men
who if they lose every dollar they have
in the world would be millionaires for
eternity. They made the spiritual invest-
ment, but the man who devotes no
gains to the cause of Christ and looks
only for his own comfort and luxury is
,not safe, I care not how the money is in-
vested. He acts as the rose if it should
say, "I will hold my breath, and none
shall have a snatch of fragrance from me
until next week; then I will set all the
garden afloat with my aroma." Of
course the rose, refusing to breatle,
died.. But above all lay up treasures in
heaven. They never depreciate in value.
They never aro at a discount. They are
always available. You may feel safe flow
with your $1,000 or $2,000 or $10,000 or
20, 000 income, but what will 'such an
income be worth after you are dead? Oth-
ers will get it. Perhaps some of them
vvill quarrel about it before you are bur-
ied. They will be so impatient to get
hold of the will they will think you
should be buried one day sooner than you
are buried. They will be right glad when
yeti are dead. ahoy are only waiting for
Ton to die. What then will all your
earthly accuuralations be worth? If you
gathered it all in your bosom and walked
up with it to hea-ven's gate, it would not
purchase your admission, or if allowed to
enter it could not buy you a crown or a
robe, and, the poorest saint in heaven
wonld look down at you and say,
"Where did the pauper come from?"
Mn.,, we all have treasures in heaven.
Amen!
GIRLS' SHIRT WAIST.
With Detachable Collar and Cuffs.
This new pattern differs but slightdi
from those of last Boson, the only
marked °flange being the full bishop
sleeve vvith turn -over ouff. There is a
shallow pointed yoke in the back, and in
makng up striped materials a pretty
effect is given by cutting this; Wag and
having the stripes meet in the oenter.
The collar and cuffs are detachable, so
that various ones may be used with the
same waist. Wash silk, silk flannels
and a great variety of cottons, linens and
batistes are made up in this simple fash-
ion because the garments are so easily
laundered.
Medicinal Uses of Borax.
Few articles within one's reaoh pos-
sesses the virtues of borax for general
purposes in the household.
Chemically speaking borax is a salt,
and in appearance closely resembles table
wilt. It also has similar preservative
qualities. and is equally harmless in its
effeots upon the system. It differa, bow -
ever from common salt itt being a bibor-
ate of sodium instead of a chloride
Borax is provided by that wcalerful
process of nature crystalization, in one of
its purest forms.
Ati a simple domestic remedy for the
many ailments of the household borax is
unrivalled. If the eyes, from exposure to
the light, cold or other causes are weak
or inflamed, a daily washing with a mild
solution of borax will strengthen and
000l tham. For hoarsoness or tin ling in
the throat, a small quantity of powdered
borax dissolved in the mouth and swal-
losved is effectivo
A cold in the bead ean be readily cured
by snuffing borax freely, and the seine
treatment will be found excellent for ca-
tarrh in the head. Acidity et the stom-
ach can be corrected by taking a small
pinch of borax several times a day.
Borax applied to canker spots inside
the tongue, or used as a wash fax a sore
mouth gives relief.
The bites of mosquitoes and other in-
sects, as well as summer rashes will cease
to give pain if bathed ID a solution of
borax, which is quite as efficacious in
.ouring burns, scalds and other hurts of
the family.
For a wound borax is nature's own
remedy, being antiseptic, disenfeotant,
eixiohlient ami safe to use itt every way.
Corns and bunions may be cured by
wetting frequently with a etrong solution
of borax, and tender feet relieved from
burning by the same applioation.
Being cleanly, •cooling and sedative in
its effects, borax may be relied upon as
useful in alinost any ills of the house-
hold, and should always be on hand for
emergencies.
In the Sick Room.
Give the room which bas the best
means of ventilation and the most sun-
shine to the invalid.
Have dark -green Holland shades at the
windows. Green tempers the glare of the ,
sun in a way very soothing to tired eyes, I
Have a big screen in the room wilich
may be used either to shut out the bright
light when the patient wishes to sleep or
to keep off draughts when the windows 1
are raised and lowered.
Chime° the bed linen as often as possi-
ble. Onoe a day is not too often. In mak-
ing the bed be sure that the under sheet
is stretched as tight and smooth as a
drum cover. Wrinkles in the under sheet
cause continual discomfort and some-
times sores.
Banish creaking chairs from the sick
room. Nothing so grates upon the pa-
tient's naves and so irritates him as
unnecessary harsh sounds. Don't whisper
outside his door. That is intensely aggra-
vating to him, and conversations with
the dootor may be just. as well carried on
outside the invalid's hearing.
Keep the inedioine bottles, glasses and
spoons out of sight of the patient. Every
sick -room should be provided with a
small bottle cabinet where ;medicines
may be kept. If this is out of the ques-
tion a oouple af swinging shelves cur-
tained in silk may be used.
Du not ask the patient what be wants
to eat. Ask the doctor what he should eat,
prepare it daintily and in samli quanti-
ties and serve .1± to him, arrayed as
temptingly as possible. Cover the tray
with a spotless linen cloth, use the pret-
tiest china and the brightest silver and
glass and adorn the tray with a flower or
two. Daintiness is a groat appetizer.
The Guilt of Idle Hands.
The guilt of idle hands becomes more
apparent as we consider the activities
everywhere present. The great rooral and
physical forces of the world are never
still. The tides ebb and flow with cease-
less sweep. Evaporation, condensation
and gravitation Dever halt. , Men are ever
being, drawn toward good or evil, life or
death. The foroes of evil are never
speechless nor handless': they press along
the streets, bearing down the callow
young, and filling the air with subtle
death. A fearful battle is raging fur the
posseesion of the souls of men. Heaven
and bell meet on the battlefield of death.
Souls are won or lost with every success
or reverse, Heaven is calling to the idle
for recruits, There is DO 11111 in the strife,
nor sinking from exhaustion. The ranks
of evil are always full anti pressing to the
front, and sin has no idle -heeded fellow -
Ors. The anaels are filled alternately with
transports c7f hope by diligent, hands at
work or depressions of despair at the in-
efficiency oe those who ongbt to be eetive
for good in the contest, How menv sys
unwilling to see anything, in le
worse than neutrality, yam: • • ••
what the guilt of inactivies I:a
lieroz wee cursed I
FAMILIAR SAYINGS.
"Go to the dickens" is a popular abbrev-
iation and corruption of "go to the devil-
kins," or little devils.
"Go to pot" is a reminder of the days
when boiling to death was a legal punish-
ment of parricides.
"To be in a brown study" is a corrup-
tion of brow study, a study requiring
much thought and contraction of the
brows.
"Knocked into a cocked hat" is expres-
sive of the ease with which this article,
especially when old, assumed almost any
shape.
"As dead as a herring" is an expression
arising from the fact that herring die
very quickly after being taken out, of the
water.
"Please the pigs" is a corruption of
"please the pyx" a receptacle used by
clergy of the Raman faith to contain the
host of sacred wafers.
"To catch a weasel asleep" is indicative
of the extreme vigilance of these animals,
who are dieturbeci and made wide awake
by any sound, however slight.
"As jolly as a sand boy" represents the
hopping to and fro of a marine insect
seen everywhere along our coasts, whose
leaps give the idea of mirth and jollity.
"To cave in" comes from the English
coal mining regions. After a mine had
been worked out and abandoned, the last.
item in its history was the caving in of the
ground above.
"To curse with bell, book and candle"
was the most formal excommunication
practised by the Church of Rome. It was
an enathema pronounced with the most
solemn ceremonies.
"To knock the spots out of anything"
is an illusion to the traditional skill of
Western cowboys and famous rifle shots
who would shoot the spots out of a card
held between the fingers of a friend.
"To throw up the sponge" is borrowed
from the prize ring, it formerly being the
cnstora, when a prize. fighter had been
worsted, for his second to throw up the
sponge used for wiping him off.
"Do at Rome as Romans do" is credited
to no less an authority than St. Augus-
tine, who advised t convert, doubtful
about the propriety of some custom oh -
seined at Rome, to do as other people
did.
"Tell that to the marines" indicates the
contempt which, even to the present day,
professional sailors feel and express fax
the soldiers who form a portion of the
complement on board a man-of-war.
The term "blue stocking" is as old as
the year 1400, at which date in Venice a
society of literary ladies and gentlemen
WAS organized, the members of which as a
distinguishing badge wore blue stockings.
"As tight its Dick's hatband" originated
in the days of Richard Cromwell, sou of
the great Oliver, who, in the humorous
parlance of the time, found the crown so
tight that he could not put it on his
bead.
"By the holy poker" is a popular abbre-
viation of an oath which became common
during the Crusades. "By the holy sep-
ulcher" was ia the mouths of all English-
men during the two centuries that the
Crusades went on,
"As deaf as an adder" is an allusion to
the fact that the hearing of many kinds of
serpents is far from acute, owing to the
circumstance that their auditory appar-
atus is covered by the outer skin or epi-
dermis, which is shed every season.
"The dog watch" a term used by sail-
ors, was once the dodge watch, a short
watch being introduced between those
longer in duration, in order that too great
an amount of svorli should not be put
upon the same men in the course of the
day.
"To haul over the coals" recalls the for-
mer legal custom of trial by fire, the ac-
cused walking barefoot over a bed of
glowing coals, and his innocence or guilt
being deduced from the condition of his
feet after a certain number of days
elapsed.
"Post haste" recalls the days when
everybody who was in a burry and could
afford the expense traveled post; that is,
with relays of horses at the end of every
five or ten miles of the journey, the fresh
animals thus enabling greater speed to be
made.
"You whistle for it" originates in the
sailor. superstition of whistling to raise
the wind. As a great deal of whistling
was sometimes necessary when a calm pre-
vailed, the expression to denote failure
to achieve an end came into common
speech.
The expression "a grass widow" has
several fanciful explanations, but is most
probably a corruption of the French ex-
pression, veuve de grace, a widow by
grace or courtesy; that is, a woman who
has left her husband or has been deserted
by him.
FIGS AND THISTLES.
The whisper of a slanderer can be heard
farther than. thunder.
Some of the devil's beet helpers sit close
to the pulpit in church.
A mean man can get religion, but he
can't stay mean and keep it.
Too many men go to praying just as God
wants them to go to paying.
Finding fault with another is only a
roundabout way of bragging on yourself.
There are too many people in the church
who can't be religious in cloudy weather.
If some men had killed Goliath, they
would remiud the Lord of it every day of
the week.
It would puzzle angels to know what
some men mean when they put a 2 -cent
piece in the hat.
Don't talk much about giving the devil
his duo until you are sure if he had it he
would not have yote—Ram's Horn.
THE CONDENSER.
It takes 70 men to make a knife.
Hard luck is almost a synonym for lazi-
ness.
An ordinary piano contains a mile of
wire.
There are gold washingsia almost every
:part of Idaho.
Germany has an army of 8,000,000 agri-
caltaral workers.
A dozen varies in number in different
trades fain) 2 to 80.
American women are growing taller,.
while men are getting shorter.
The nations richest in hotses.are the Ar -
gen tine Rep ablic and'Uruguay.
The coalfields of India cover 35,000 square
miles, one-half the size of Missouri.
Of 1,000 men who marry, 332 marry
younger women, o79 marry women of the
same age, and 89 merry older women.
Australia has extreme heat iu summer.
A scieetist says that nettches accidentally
dropped on the ground there were ignited.
A YOTJNG LAD'S RESCUE.
CONFINED TO HIS ROON EOR HORE
THAN A TEAR.
An Tutemse Sufferer Through Pains iu the.
Muscles or Pas Legs and Arms--atedueed
Almost to a Living Skeleton.
From the Wolfville, N. S., Acadian.
Mr. T. W Beolswith ie the proprietor
of the Royal Hotel, Wolfyille, the most
important hostelry in the town, and is a
man well known and esteemed through-
out that section. He has a bright hands
snme looking son, 13 years of age, named
Freddie. who is a lad of more than aver-
age intelligence. It is pretty well known
itt Wolfyille that Freddie underwent a
very severe illness, though perhaps the
means to which he owes his recovery is
not so generally known, and a statement
of the case may be the tneans of helping
some other, eufferer. On the Nith of De-
cember, 1893, Freddie was taken. ill and
was confined to his room and his bed un-
til March, 1894. Two different phgeficians
were called in during his long 'illness.
One said he had la grippe and the other
that his trouble was rheumatic fever.
He was troubled with severe pains
through the muscles of his legs and arms,
after three or four days was obliged to
talse to bed, where he lay nearly all win-
ter, suffering terribly from the pains. He
became redueed almost to a skeleton and.
was unable to relish food of any kind.
During his illness he suffered relapse ow-
ing to trying to get up sooner than he
'bona Boylike he was anxious to get
out and enjoy the beautiful spring sun-
shine and for several days was carried out
and taken for a drive. This brought on
the relapse. The dootor was again called
in, and as be continued to grow worse he
was ordered once roore to bed. Things
then looked very dark, as despite the
medical cane he did not get any better.
At last his father decided to try Dr, Wil-
liams' Pink Pills. Soon after beginning
their use Freddie began to feel better.
His appetite began to return and the paine,
were less severe. As he continued the use,
of the Pink Pills be regained strength
and health rapidly,and in about a month
was apparently as well as over, the only
remaining symptom of his trying illness
being a slight pain in the leg, which did
not disappear for several months It is
over one and a half years ago since Fred-
die took his last pill, and in that time he
has not had a recurrence of the attack.
There is no doubt that Dr.Williams' Pink
Pills mired hira, and both the boy and
his parents speak highly in their praise.
Dr. Williams' Pink Pills are the medi-
cal marvel of the age. In hundreds of
oases they have mired a!ter all other medi-
cines had failed. They are a positive cure,
for all troubles arising from a vitiated
condition of the blood or a shattered ner-
vous system. Sold by all dealers or by
mail, from Dr, Williams' Medicine Com-
pany, Brookville, Ont., at 50 cents a box,
or six boxes for $2 50. There are numer-
ous imitations and substitutions againse
which the public is cautioned.
AFRAID TO RISK IT.
Something That Made a Bride Hesitate to.
Make a Court -room :marriage.
Aniong the applicants fax marriage li-
censes who were before Judge Eller wore
Fred. Randall and Bartle Brubaker, who
had come up from Beatrice to be joined
ha matrimony. They were both up to the
requisite ago, and Mr. Walknp did not
hesitate to draw up the preliminary affi-
davits. When be had dotted the last i and
crossed the last b. the young woman,
who had apparently been buried ha deep
thought, remarked:—
"1 don't believe 1 care to get married."
ou don't?" cried the startled bride-
groom."No, 1 guess not," and started out.
The young man followed her, and they
held a brief conversation among the books
and papers of the outer office, when -Mr.
Walkup, with dreams of an elopement in
bis mind, suggested that they might have
the inner room for a private discussion
if they desired. They entered and were
for some time engaged in earnest talk,
the bridegroom expectant arguing for all
he was worth. Finally the girl gave in and
ageeed to carry the affair through, and
the judge was called from the bench to
fix it up before she could again change
bar mind.
gleyunderl it was mighty lucky,
and it was nearly unlucky that you had
a judge around handy then," observed
the newly married man, as he wiped the
perspiration from his brow.
"What was the matter?" the clerk in-
quired.
"Why, there's some kind of a lawsuit
going on in there, isn't there?" Indica-
ting the direction of the court -room, from
which the voices of attorneys in dispute
were heard. It was a case in which one
member of a family living in South
Omaha was trying to get money from
another, and some vigorous family truths
were being told. "Wall, she had been
listening to the way they were testifying
about family troubles, and it had scared
Tho dissensim bred by
heIrtowuta.s"true, T
marriage in the South Omaha family
and wafted over the transom had nearly
spoiled the hopes of another' coup -me --
Omaha World -Herald.
And There Ton Are.
An Arkansas editor has let himself out
in this fashion; "You may have all the
stars in a nail keg, bang the ocean on 0
rail fence to dry, put the sky in a gourd
to soak, unbuckle the bellyband of eter-
nity, let out the sun and ' the moon,
but never delude yourself with tho idea
that you cat escape the place on the
other side of purgatory unless you pay
the printer,"
01, my!
Editor ( to p tin ter)—You' ve ruined
rue. De describing the groat ball I wrote
that Um famous lecturer on dross wore
nothing that was xemarkable. You've
printed it, "Mrs. B, wore nothing.
"'That was remarlsablo." Get your Money
of the cashier and go. We've no use fax
a man like you around here,