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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1896-6-18, Page 7HARP AND 'JATELIN. REV. DR. TALMAGE'S ELOQUENT SUNDAY -MORNING SERMON. An Extremely Vivid Word Picture—Perils That Can be. Avoided—Javelins of Wit and jr ()Hy, of Sophistry and of Diabolic Hostility. Washington, Jape 14.—In his eermon this forenoon Dr. Talmage brought in a novel and practical conjunction that Ss iuggested by a text perhaps never before chosen. The _subject announced was . "Harp and Javelin," the text being I Samuel, eighteenth chapter, tenth and eleventh verses. "And David played with his hand as at other times, andthere was alavelin in Saul's hand. And Saul oast the javelin, for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice." 'What a spectacle for all ages! Saul, a giant, and David, a dwarf. .An unfortu- nate war ballad hadbeen coniposed and sung eulogizing David above Saul. That song threw Saul into a paroxysm of rage which brought on one of his old spells of insanity to which he had been subject, If one is disposed to some physical ail- ment and be got real nad, it is very apt to bring on one of his old attacks. Saul is a raving neaaiao, and he goes to imitating the false prophets or sibyls, who Molted and gesticulated wildly when they pretended to be foretelling events. Wbatover the physicians of the royal staff, inay have presoribed for the dis. ordered king X know not, but David pre- eeribed musio, Having keyed up the harpneis fingers began topsail the rhythm from the vibrating strings. Tbruna I Thrum I Thrum! No use. The king will net listen to the exquisite cadences, He lets fly a javelin, expecting to pin the minstrel to the wall, but David dodged the weapon and kept on, for he was con- fidett that he could, as before, subdue Saul's bad spirit by music. Again the javelin is Ilmag, and David dodges it andaleparts. What a contrast! Roseate David with a harp and enraged Sanl with a javelin. Who would not ?ether play the one than fling the other? But that was not the only time in the world's history that harp and javelin net. Where their birthplace was I can- not declare. It is said that the lyre was first suggested by the telt drawing of the sinews of a tortoise across its shell, and that tbe flute was first suggested by the blowing of the wind across a bed of rode, and that the ratio of musical in- tervals was first suggested to Pythagoras by the different hammers on the anvil of the smithy, but the harp seems to me to have dropped out of the sky a,nd the javelin to have been thrown up from the pit. The oldest stringed instrument of the world is the harp. Jabal sounded his harp in the book of Genesis. David played many of his psalms on the harp while he sang them. The captives in Babylon • hang their harps on the willows. Joseph- , us celebrated the invention of the 10- , stringed harp. 'Bluenoses the Milesian was imprisoned for adding the twelfth stria:1g to the harp, because too much luxury of sound might enervate the peo- ple, Egyptian harps, Scottish harm 1 Welsh harps, Irish harps have been cele- brated. What an inspired triangle! I But the javelin of my text is just as old. It is about 5X feet long, with wooden handle and steel point, keen and sharp. But it belongs to the great family of death dealers and is brother to sword and spear and bayonet, and first cousin , to all the implements that wound and , slay. It has out its way through the ages. • It was old when Saul, in the scene of nay text, tried to harpoon David. It has gashed the earth with grave trenchee. ; Its keen tip is reddened with the blood of Axnerloan wars, English wars, German wars, Russian wars, French Wall, Cru - seder wars and wars of all nations and of all ages. The struature of the javelin ;shows what it was made for. The plowshare is I sharp, but aimed. to cut the earth in 'preparation for harvests. The lightning rod is sharp, but aimed to disarm the ' lightnings and secure safety. The ax is sharp, but aimed to fell forests and clear the way for human habitation. The knife is sharp, but aimed to cut the bread . for sustenance. But the javelin is sharp only to opea human arteries and extin- guish human eyesight and take human iife and fill the earth with the cries of orphanage and widowhood and child- lessness. Oh, 1 mu so glad that any text brings them so close together that we can see the contrast between the harp and the •javelin. The one to soothe, the other to hurt; the one to save, the other to de- stroy; the one divine, the other diabolic; the one to play, the other to hurl; the one in David's skilful hand, the other in Saul's wrathful clutch. May Godspeed the harp; may God grind into denness • the sharp edge of the javelin! Now what does all this make ran thane of? It suggests to me music as a medicine for physical and mental disorders. David took hold of the musical instrument ' which he best knew how to play and evoked from it sounds which were for King Saul's diversion and'inedicament. But you say the treatment in this case was a failure. Why was it a failure? Saul refused to take the medicine. A whole apothecary shop of our:dive drugs will do nothing toward healing your ill- ness if you refuse to take the medicine. It was not the fault of David's prescrip- tion, but the faulnof Saul's obstinacy. David, one of the wisest and best of all , • ages stands before us in the text ad- ministering music for nervous disorder and cerebral disturbance. And 'David was right. Music is the mightiest force in all therapeutics. Its results may not be seen as suddenly as other forms of cure, but it is just es wonderful. You will never know how much suffering and sorrow music has assuaged an healed. A soldier in the United States army said that on the days the regimental band • played near the hospitals all the stole and wounded revived, and men who were so lame they could not walk before they got up and went out and sat in the sun- • shine, and those so dispirited that they never expected to get home negan to pack their baggage and ask about timetables on steamboat and rail train. After the battle of Yorktown, when a musician was to suffer amputation, and before the days of anaesthetics, the • wounded artist called for a musical in- strument and lost not a note during the 40 minutes of amputation. Philippe Pal- ma, the great musician, confronted by an • angry creditor, played so enchantingly be- fore hint that the creditor forgave the - debt and gave the debtor 10 guineas more to appease other creditors. An eminent physician of olden tinae contended (of course, carrying our theory too far) that all ailments of the world could be cured by music. The medical journals never report their recoveries by thie roode. But in what twilight hour has many a ,saint of God solaced a heitrtache with a hyntai hummed or sung or played! Jerome of Prague sang while burning at the stake. • • Over what keys of, piano or organ con- solation bas walked! Yea, in ahurch one hymn has rolled peace over a thousand of the worried, perplexed and agonized. While there are hymns mid tunes ready for the j rtbilant, there is a, rich hymnology for thesuffering—"Naomi" and "Even- tide" and "Autuinn Leaves" and"Coane, Ye Disconsolate, and whole portfolios and librettos of team set to music. AR the wonderful triumphs of surgery and all the new modes of successful treat- ment of physioal disorders are discussed in medical conYentions and spread abroad in mediae' beaks, and it is high teem that some of tbe millions of 'souls that haye been medicated by music, vocal and instrumental, let the vsPeld know what • power there is in sweet • sound, whether rolling from lid or leaping from tight- ened cord or ascending from ivory key. Music is a universal language. .At the foot of the Toever of Babel language was split into fragments never to be again put together, but one • thing was not hure and that is music, and it is the same all the world over. Last summer in Russia at a watering place we were greeted as we entered a great auditorium which was filled • with thousands of Russiaus, Whose. language I could not understand any more than they could understand rain°. But after the grand band had, out of compliment to us, played our two great •American airs X stepped on the platMrna and said to the bandmaster, "Russian air! Rias• slan air!" and then he tapped with his baton the musio rack, mad with a splens dor and majesty of power that almost made us quail the full band poured forth their national anthem. They' understood our Amorloan music, and. we under- stood • their Amerieen Russian music. It is a universal language and so good rfor universal cure, The band of music at Waterloo played the retreat of the Forty-second Highland- ers back to their places, and saered music has returned many a faltering host of God into the Ch istien conflict with as nation determination and dash as Teeny - son's "Six Hundred." Who oan tell what has ben accomplished by Charles Wes- ley's 7,000 hymns, or by the congrega- tional staging of his time, which could. be heard two miles off? When my dear friend Dio Lewis (gone to rest all' too soon) conducted a campaign against drunkenness at the week and marshaled thousands of the noblest women of the land in that magnificent campaign and whole neighborhoods and villages shut up their gioe, sliops, cia you know the ohief weapon used It was the song Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee. They sang it at the door of hundreds of liquor saloons which had been open for years, and either at the first charge of the campaign or the second the saloon shut up. At the first verso of "Nearer, My God, to Thee," the liquor dealers laughed; at he second verse they looked solemn, at the third. verse they began to cry, and at the fourth verso thoy got down on their knees. You say they opened their saloons again. Yes, some of them did. But it is it great thing to have hell shut up if only for a week. Give full swing to a go5d gospel hymn, and it would take the whole world for God. But when in my text I see Saul de alining this medicine of rhythm and cadence and actually• hurling it -javelin at the heart of David, the harpist, 1 be- think myself of the fact that sin would like to kill snared music. We are not told what tune David was playing on the harp that day. but from the character of the man we know It was not it crazy madrigal, or a senseless ditty, or it sweep of strings, suggestive of the melodrama, but elevated music, God-given music in- spired music, religious 3nusic, a whole heaven of it eaorouped under it harp string. No wonder that wicked Saul hated it and could not abide the sound and with all his might hurled an lastru- Mont of death at it. „ In many it church the javelin of criti- cism has crippled the harp of worship. If Satan could silence all the Sunday sobool songs and the hymns of Christian worship he would gain his greatest achievement. When the millennial song shall rise (and it is being amide ready), there will be such a roll of voices, sueh concentrated power of stringed and wind instruments, such majestiy, such unan- imity, snah continental and hemispheric and planetary acclatnation that it will be impossible to know where earth stops and heaven begins. Roll on, roll in, roll up, thou millennial harmony! See also in my subject it rejected op- portunity of revenge. Why did not David pick up Saul's javelin and hurl it back again? David had a skilful. aeni. He demonstrated on another occasion be couldevield a sling, and he could have easily picked up that javelin, aimed it at Saul, the would-be assassin, and left the foaming and demented monster as life- less under the javelin as he had left Goliath under a sling. Oh, David, now is your chance. No, no. Men and woraen with power of tongue or pen or hand to reply to an embittered antagonist, better imitate David. Better imitate David and let the javelins lie at your feet and keep the harp in your hand. Do not strike back. Do not play the game of tit for tat. Revenge on Christian's tongue or pen or hand is inapt and more damage to the one who employs it than the one against whom it is employed. What! A javelin hurled at you mad fallen at your • feet and you not hurl it back again? Yes, I have tried the plan. I learned from my' father and have praetised it all my life, and it works well, and by the help of God and javelins not picked up I have conquered all my foes and preached funeral sernaons in honor of naost of them. The best thing yon can do with a elin hurled at you is to let it lie where it dropped or hang it up in your mu- seum as it curiosity. The deepest wound made by a javelin is not by the sharp edge, but at the dull end of the handle to him who wields it. I leave it to you to say which got the best of that fight in the palaces—Saul or David. See else In my subject that the fact , that a man sometimes dodges is not against his courage. My text says that when Saul assailed him "David avoided out of his presence twice"—that is, when the javelin was flung he stepped out of its direction or bent this way or that— in other words:, he dodged. But all those who have read the life of David know that he was not lacking in prowess. David had faults, but cowardice was not one of them. , But I am so glad that when Saul flung that javelin, David dodged it, or the chief work of his life , would never have been done. What a lesson this is to these who go into 'useless danger and expose their lives or their reputations or their usefulness unnecessarliy. When diety de- mands-, go ahead, though all earth ano bell,appose. Dodge not one inch from the 'right poeition. But wberi nothing is involved, step baek or step aside: Why stand in the way of peril, that ydu, can avoid? Go not into quixotic battles,to fight windmills. You will be or more use to the world'and thechureh as an slaty° Christien man than as it target for javelins. There are Christians always In a fight. If they go into churches :they fight there. If they go into presbyteries or conferences or consoeia tone they fight there. My Jake to yea Is, if anything is to be gained for Goo or the truth stand out of the way of tin javelhis 1 Samuel xviii, 11, -"Davie avoided out of his presence again." See also in any subject ithe unreasona- ble attittule'd javelintoward harp. What had that harp in David's hand done to the javelin in Saul's hand? Had the vi- brating strings of the one hurt the keen edge of the other? Was there asa old grudge between the two families of sweet • sound and sbarp cut? Had the triangle ever insulted the polished shaft? Whe the deadly aim Of the destroying eveapm against' the instrumeat of soothing. calining, healing sound Well, I will an- swer that if you will tell me why the hostility of so many to the gospel, why the virulent attacks against Christian why the angry „antipathy of so many to the most genial, most inviting, most salutary influence wader all the Wavelets? Why will men give their lives to writ- ing and.speaking and warning against • Christ and the gospel? Why the javelin of the world's hatred aud, rage against the harp of heavenly love? You know and I know men who get wrathfully red in the face and foaming at the mouth, and use the gesture of the clinched fist, and put down their feet with indignant emphasis, and invoke all sarcasm and irony and vituperation and scorn, and spite at the Christian religion. What has the Christian religion done that it should be so assailed? 'Munn hath it bitten and left with hydrophobia° virus in their veins that it should sometimes be chased as though it were it maddened caniue? - To heed off and trip up and push down and coiner our religion was the domi- nant thought in the life of David Hume and Voltaire and Shaftesbury and even the Earl of Rooliester until ono day in a -princely house in whioh they blasphem- , ously put Go t on trial and the Earl of Rochester was the attorney against God and religion mad received the applause of the whole company, when suddenly the earl was struck tinder con- viction and cried: "Good God, that a amen who walke uprightly, who sees the wonderful works of God and bas the uses of his seams and reason, should use them in defying his Creator! I wish I had. been a crawling leper in a, ditch rather than have acted toward God as I have done." Javeliu of wit, javelin of irony, javelin of scurrility, javelin of sophistry, javelin of human and diebolle hostility, have been flying for hundreds ot years and, are flying nOW. But aimed at what? At something that has come to devastate the world? At something that slays net- : Mons? At something that would maul and trample under foot and excruciate and crush the human race? No, aimed at the gospel harp—harp on 'which prophets played with somewhat lingering and uncertain flume, but harp on which apostles played with sublime certainty, and martyrs played while their fingees were on fire. Harp that was dripping with the blood of the Christ, out of whose heart -strings the barp was (lorded anti from whose dying groan the strings; were keyed, Oh, gospel harp! All they nerves a tremble with stories of self-sac- rifice. Harp thrummed by fingers long ago turned to dust. Harp that made heaven listen and will yet make all the earth hear. Harp that sounded pardon to any sinful soul and peace over the grave where any dead sleep. Harp that will lead the • chant of the blood -washed throng redeemed around the throne. May a javelin slay me before k fling it javelin at that. Harp which it seems almost too sacred for me to touch, and so I call down from their tbrenes those who used to finger it and ask them to touch it now. "Come down, William Cooper, and run your fingers over .the strings of this harp." He says, "I will," and he plays— There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn front Inimanuel's veins. "Come down, Charles 'Wesley, and tormh the strings." He says, "T will," and he plays:— Jesus, lover of any soul, Let me to thy bosom fly. "Come down, Augustus Toplady, and sweep your fingers across this gospel harp." He says,"I will," and he plays:— Rock of Ages, cleft for nab, Let me hide myself in thee. "Come down, Isaac Watts, and take this harp." He says, "I will," and he plays:— Alas, and did any Saviour bleed, And did my Sovereign die? "P. P. Bliss, come down and thrum this gospel harp." He says, "I will," and he plays Hallelujah, 'tis done, I believe in the Son. Ineffable harp! Transporting harp! Harp of earth! Harp of Heaven! Harp saintly and seraphic! Harp of God! Oh, I like the idea of the old monument in the an- cient church at Ullard, near Kilkenny, Ireland: The sculpture on that monu- ment, though chiseled more than 1,000 years ago, as appropriate to -day as then, the sculpture representing it harp upon a cross. That is where I hang it now; that is where you had better hang it. Let the javelin be forever buried, the sharp edge down, but hang the harp upon the cross. And now, bless our soulselet the harps of heaven rain MUSie, and as when the sun's rays fall aslant in Switzerland at the approach of eventide, and the shep- herd among the Alps pets the horn to his lips and blows a blast and says, "Glory be to God," and all the shepherds on the Alpine heights or down in the deep valleys respond with other blast of horns, saying, "Glory be to God," and then all the shepherds tincover their heads and kneel in worship, and after a few moments of silence some sbepherd rises from his knees and blows another blast of the horn and says, "Thanks be to God," and all through the mountains the response comes from other shepherds, "Thanks be to God," so this moment let all the valleys of earth respond to the hills with heavenly sounds of glory and thanks, and it be harp of earthly worship to harp of heavenly worship, and the words of St. John in the Apocalypse be fulfilled, "1 heard a voice from heaven :is the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and I heard the voice of harpers barping with their laarps." ti [TR OTTAWA LET BUT A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE MUSTER AT THE POLLS. The riled Sir John etecalied--"The Tug Of War"—Is There a conspiracy ?—The bate tie in Quebec -0 The Canadian ,Freeman" --Rumors or the Campaign. These are the days whea the industri- ous party manager has nearly completed the work of the campaign. But a few days .remain before the electors shall muster ae the polls. The work at the canvasser .is linished. From now urtil polling day the heavy work must be done by the stempers. Fresh from his trip to the provinces by the sea, Sir Charles Tupper has returned to °uteri°. At Montreal the other day he met Robert Birming- bam, the party organizer. for thSs prov- ince, and listened to his report. Cer- tainly the industrious Mr. Birmingham cannot justifiably he amused of being faint-hearted. He claims 'fifty-four out of the ninety-two seats In "Ontario as being sure to return supporters ef the Administration. The other day Ishowed this estimate to Alexamtler Smith, the Liberal organizer. Of •cougge Mr. Sraith said the figures had no foundation but Mr. 13irroinghara's sangaineness. "The Liberals evil! carry more than fifty seats," averred Mr. Smith, "and the fifty-two remaining, will be divided be- tween the Patrons, tho MeCarthyttes and the Conservatives." Dr. Montague, who has heen doing the largest amount of work for his party in Ontario, said that the estimate of Mr. Birmingham was hy no means overdrawn. The Mittiebet of A.griculture has been through the prov- ince. He says,that•the local Conserva- tives in a majority of the districts have furnished most favorable reports as to the party's prospects. Sir Charles told. an interviewer the other day that the Administration would retain its majority in the provinces down by the sea. At present the figures for the Maritime provinces are; Conservatives, 28, Liberals, 12. Sir Merles, it elsq will be seen,. takes a roseate view of things. ' • The First Sir John Recalled. Three or fear' weeks ago 1 gave your readers a brief syucipsisof the manifesto that Sir Charles had eiseued to the elec- tors of the country. The anniversary of Sir John Macdenald's death, it few days ago, forcibly recalled to many minds the last election manifesto that the Oln Mao delivered. Sir John made a strong bid for the aid or the supporters of British conneetion. The hadiseretions of Ned Ferrer, who certainly had been in ocen- anunication with certain American ans nexntionists, gave Macdonald "a peg to bang his hat on," as the saying is. And with characteristic adroitness he availed lamsele of the opportunity. "The great question," said Sir John "winch you will shortly be called upon to determine resolves itself into this: 'Shall we endanger our possession of the great heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers and submit ourselyes to direct taxation for the privilege of having our tariff fixed at Washington, with a pro - pen of ultimately becoming a portion of the American union?' "I commend these issues to your de- termination and to the judgment of the whole people of Canada, with an un- clouded. confidence that you will armlet.= to the world your resolve to show your- selves not unworthy of the proud dis- tinction you enjoy—el being numbered among the most dutiful and loyal sub- jeces of our beloved Queen. As for nay- selfany course is clear. A. British subject 1 was born, it British subject I will die. With my utmost, with my latest breath, will I oppose the 'veiled treason' which attempts, by sordid moans and mercen- ary proffers, to lure our people from their allegiance. During my king public service of nearly half it century I have been true to my country and its best in- terests, aad I appeal With equal confi- dence to the men who have trusted me in the past, and to the young hope of the country, with whom rest its destinies for the future, to giye me their united and strenuous aid in this my last effort for the unity of the Empire and the preser- vation of our commercial aad _political freedom." Time Tug of War." "A British subject I was born; a British &Mime I will die." In this epi- grammatic utterance the Conservatives discerned a valuable campaign cry. There were few politicians who believed that the Liberal leaders and the Liberal rank and file had any desire towards annexa- tion. But the indiscretions of our able friend Ferrer brought' trouble on Mr. Laueier's cohorts. Since 1891 mane' times bas Mr. Laurier accentuated his entire desire for a continnance of British con- nection. And his lieutenantbit-se done likewise. New issues have sprung up. The feeling of the country on the School question has overshadowed everything else, and it is Oh the School question that the battle will be WW1 and lost. Sir Charles reiterated this statement on Sat- urday last. And, OD the same day at Anaherstburg, speaking to an audience composed:mainly of French Canadians, the Liberal leader assured his hearers that, were he given power, he would have little difficulty 111 settling the ques- tion. Is There a Conspiracy? Once more do we hear of our friend Ferrer. The other day the Citizen, the Aclaninistration orgau in Ottawa, printed a three-cohunn article charging the Lib- erals, the Patrons and the McCarthyites with having entered into an offensive and defensive allianee—a conspiracy the Citi- zen called it—to defeat the Government. And Mr. learror it was, wording to the Citizen, who engineered the "deal." Mr. Laurier promptly repudiated the charge. Mr. D'Alton MoCarthy said that there eves no understandiug, but that he would accept any aid available that would assist in the defeat of the Government. "We who oppose the Adrniuistration are not going to cut each other's throats," said he. The Patron leaders agreed with the Liberals ingiving to the story a full and explicit denial. The Ministers say that they have documents shosaing that such an understanding was arrived at by the agents of the three opposition parties. • I am given to understand that within the next few days Dr. Moetague will give the proofs of the charges the widest pub- licity. 'Meanwhile Mr. Edward Ferrer, that man of hard experience, maintains a most consistent silence. He declines to say anything concerning the subject. for on do not believe that experienced politicians like Laurier and Jim Sather - lend would call in the aid of Mr. /Farrar, As to the Patrons it is another story. Mr. Ferrer has writtea, in his own able style, much of the Patron campaign literathre. The managers of the Patron body naustsbe, aetaware of or they must ignore certain disqualificatioxis under whicib'. • thin brilliant -journalint labozs. Bat, of course, flak is their business, Wha 1 desire to -ifm'phattize is that the managers of the two old parties would think several times before they would summon him to their aid. The )sattie in Quebec. Down,in Quebec the battle waxes vio- lent. The Conservative papers areepub- • lishing lists of English speaking Protestant candidates Who' have pledged' themselves to vote for remedial legisla- tion. The Houge—,&Liberal journal—• retorts that Laurier, When he shall attain power, will tiring ji remedial hill. "Why doesn't he say so?" demands the Bleu editor. And the Rouge replies that Sir Chaales Tupper has announced that the Frenen and Catholic Laurier will grant remedial legislation. Angers, Desjardins and Taillon, the latelY-entered members of the•Cabinetr will all run 'nor the Commons, the twofirst named re- signing their seats in the Senate, Sir Hector Langevin, who has been a politi- cal corpse since 'el, will be translated to the Upper Chamber, there to pass the remainder of his days4 as a Conservative lieutenant. SIX' Charles Tupper announces that "when my Governmentshall have been returned to power the session will be a short one—merely• long ,enough'to pass the supplies." We have yet to betr what the Laurier Government intends to do. The other two sections of the warring quartette—the MeCarthyites and the Patrons—do not aesert that they' are about to form Governments. They seem well content to be parliamentary free- lances. "The Canadian Freeman." Last week you wbre told something of the case ,''of Rev. Father Minaban, the Toronto parish priest who incurred the wrath of Arehbishop .Walsh on account of his denunciation or the Tupper Gov- ernment. The other day another Roman Catholic—' -a laymen this time—came in Lor the condemaation of another prelate, In Kingston, Ontario, is publisleen the Canadian Freeman, a Catholic weekly newspaper. The gentleman who &lite the Freeman is a steering Laurier man, while Archbishop Cleary is an adherent of the Government. It happened that a parish priest in Nova Scotia, in reading the Freeman, was surprised to find in its paitorial coltunns strong denunciations of Sir Charles Tupper. Thereupon be wrote to the Archbishop, inquiringevhether the 'miter was under his patronage. To wale's His Grace replied in a short and vigorous note, in which he remarked that the Freeman was it "rag," and. that its pubs Reiter was looking for "a misereble posi- tion under Laurier." Truly, His Grace of Kingston wields a "hefty pen." limners of the Campaign. ‘., The humors af the campaignare not t.,.few. One hears scores of stories, some of them good, some poor. A inan from Hamilton told. me the other night of a speech that caught the crowd at a Con- servative meeting the other night. Candi- date Bovine was talking of the wicked- ness of the Liberals, "Because I was a clergyman and am now a layman," said Mr. :Saville, "they hint that I Was drummed out of the Church. The next accusation will be that I have murdered nty mother-in-law." At which there was a huge roar of laughter, for Mr. Boville is it bachelor. Talking of stories—to use the colloquial—reminds me of one that is always told to the new comer be Ottawa. In the last parliament, after Ch t. Mankintosh resigned his seat to be,, • Lieutenant -Governor of the territorien Sir James Grant sat for Ottawa. This verbose, but likeable old physician, ob- tained his title in a curious ntanner. During Lord Lorne's tenure of the Gov- ernor -Generalship his uonsort, the Prin- cess Louise, sustained an injury to her ear by being thrown out of iter sleigh. Sir James Grant, then a physic:km with none too large it practice, and owning only the pro?essional title, was summoned to the aid of the Princess. The enesay was not serious, and Dr. Grant sent his royal patient home after it faw hours. It happened that in that yeer the Govern- ment had made normommendations thab any Canadians shonld Ineve conferred upon them therank of Commander of Se Michael And St. George—a,.1=k whieh is purely nominal, since the bearer is allowed no title. The Priecess, out of pure good-heartedness, suggested that the name of Dr. Grant be forwarded to the Imperial authorities. The 'Marquis of Lorne made xio objection, and ehe Prime Minister, Hon. Alexander :Mackenzie, settled the unimportant matter. with it scratch of his pen. The recomniendation went over sea, and here is Where the story comes in. Prone Australia and 'other Colonies ban arrived several- recom- mendations for knighthoods—and;„as you know, a knighthood is something worth having. The warrants were sent to the Colonial office to be engrossed, anciabere did it chief clerk, or a clerk assistaat, or an engrosser, make an amazing anistanee One of the nominees for knighthood was forwarded it commission as C. M. G. white this unknown clerk, to put it truly, conferred on Dr. Grant the venk of Knight of St. Michael and. 51.. George. Never, they say, Wee mortal Man more surprised than was the doctor when he received his patent. And likewise its must be acknowledged that Alexander, Mackenzie and Her Royal InSghness felts sorne amazement. But, with she utmost good-heartedness, neither informed Sir James of the mistake that had been annele. And as to what happened to the man whmsbould have had knighthood; or as to what was done to the erring clerk I do not know. One thing was cer- tain: Dr...Grant of Ottawa had his patent as Knight, signed by Tier Majesty. And Dr. Grant has it now. McCarthy and Clarke Wallace. That is a story of twenty years ago. Let us hark back to modern thnes. In the very modern city of Toronto D'Alten McCarthy held it meeting on Monday night at which there were nominated two ale,Carthyite candidates in the western division of the city. The mese important occurrence of the (naming was McCar- thy's explanation of nee alliance between himself and Clara, isnallace. "In Jetty last," said the man from North Simooe, "I told the House of Commons • that I thought Mr. Wallace should resign, The Government had announced their inten- tion of bringing in a remedIal bill, and Mr. Wallace had stated that he would vote against it. Mr. Wallace continued to be it member of the Administration natil December, when Manitoba declined finally to alter itaeaw. T.hen he resigned. Now we are working together, doing our best to aid the people of Manitoba in preserving their school system." • s Down by the Sea. Down by the sea the Minister of Finance is conducting what original newspaper men call "a vigorous cam- paign." be it known that ,the people ef St. John, New Brunswick, are in it greab state of indignation for that the Ottawa, Government those Halifax and not St. John, as the winter port for the fast At- lantic steamers. Now, between the oiti- VMS Qf 51John and the ultra»Eogliels who live in Halifax, no love is lost. To show their indignatfon, two independents ore running against Hagen and Chesley, the Government candidates. At it meet - 4,1g the other night Mr. Foster went for the Liberals hammer and tongs. "They ehave the same un -British,. 'an -Canadian policy as ever," he,vvas saying, when a =an in the audience shoutede---- ' "Tell las about:the winter port." Now, Foster does not like being hissed, and. be remarked: "You are the same crank as your leader, Lanrier.". The meeting was ahout half Liberal, anti Laurier's xnen set up an Unearthly din of hisses and eat -calls. When the noise died down Mr. Foster shoed that be is a gentleman as well as a politician. "I apolegize to a man who is thousands of >miles away," said he. "I acknowledge that I was angry, and that made &mis- take, 1 regret having designated Mr. Laurier a crank." Am/ everybody cheered Who says that Canadians are noataneastaicri of lovers of fair play and .of nIann The Methodist Conference. Down in the Eastern tOwnships, the only Protestant section of Queboc, the Methodist conference passed a, si,411,11cant raeciatiop the other day. It dealt directly with the mandetneut of tire bishops, the sermon of I3ishop Laileche, and indirectly with the School enNtion. Let us have its exact words: "While we recognize the same liberty ef sleeell on all matters, religious, secular and political, to our ,Roman Catholic fellow -citizens that we elaint oru.w.lves, we protest most ear- nestly against the baseless assumptions of the Roman Catholic hierarehy, as expressed in the mandement of the bishere and the serrnou of Bishop Lblieelie„ in that the former cla:m for the Church a place of supremacy in all things above the State or civil Ocvern- ment, and the latter proclaims the dan- gerous and disloyal doctrine that no Catholic can be good and true who does not in bis political capacity in all things take the standpoint of Roman Catholic- iena." • Rev. Dr. Hunter brought in tbe reso- lution. "Give us in Quebec." saki be, "the free institutiont of the province of Ontario, and keep the people from the domination ef the Rotnati Catoblic hier- archy that drives them like sheep to the rolls, and in. ten years we will be ahead of Ontaelo." Truth to tell, the Methodist confer- ences Imre had few good words to say for remedial legislation. 'I said so to it prom- inent layman of the denomination. "My eear sir," said he. "Don't you 'know teat the elections are keeping half the laymen away from conference? I can tell you that the clergymen are running the conferences this year. and the clergy are liable to go to extremes." No doubt all ot my readers will be amaz:.KI to hear that this gentleman is it Conservative. PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. They nave »one Nothing to Explore or Develop the Country. La the early years of the sixteenth cen- tury, long before the first Dutch fort was erected at Cape Town, Portugal had planted }ter settlers at various paints along the east coast, from Delagoa Bay to the Zambesi and Mozambique. They aid some trading ne gold and ivory with the interior, and they ascended the Zeus - best for several hundred nines. But the pestilential strip of flat ground which lay between the coast and the plateau damped their desires, and threw obsta- cles in the way of their advance. They did little to explore and nothing to MY- ilizleIrtheee niennteturiroire.s .71 ad, during which our knowledge of South. Central Africa was F" aely exteneed; and it was not till S01110 sixty years ago that the Dutch Boers in their slow v.I.-;ons passed north- eastward from Cape G.,Iony fo the spots where Bloemfontein and Rretoritt now stand; not till 1854-06 that David Liv- • ingstone made his way through Be.ehua- nalancl to the Victoria Falls of the Zam- besi and to the Atlantic coast at lemiacia; not till 1889 that the Vase --territories which lie between the Transvaal Repub- lic and Lake Tanganyika began to be oc- cupied lay the Mashonaland Dimmers. All them farmers, explorers Radmining prospectors came up over the ingh plat- eau from the extreme southeremost end of Africa, cheeked from time to time by the warlike native tribes, but drawn on hy finding everywhere it country in whieh Europeans could live and thrive; whine the Portuguese, 'having long since lost the impulse of discoVery end conquest, did no more than noniet,:lo their hold. upon the coast, and allowed even the few forts they had established along the course of the Zambesi to crumble away. n--"Impreenfons of South Afriea," by 'Prot James Bryce,..M. P., in the Oen- tire'. A True Christian's Thoughts. A 'Christian of the right sort thinks that everyone is 'like himself; be looks on every oue as gond whose wickedness he is not thoroughly convinced of; he bardly ever suspects, and never judges ill Joe others. He does ilia duty and leaves •the rest to God. The inipure man thinks that they. Are all li!ze himself, and that they have the sante theughts, the same meaning in their -words and .conversas don' as he has; a treacherous flatterer trusts no one, through near of being de- ceived; an impetiene, quarrelsome pas- sionate man takes every sour look, every thoughtless word, as an insult. A proud, coaceited man, whose only idea is to have a high position in the world, thinks that everyone is trying to forestall him. In a word, just as looking through a red or blue glass makes everytnitag appear red or blue, so each one will judge an- other aecording to the vices to which be himself is subject. hence, when he has discovered a fault in his neigiabor, hi memory seizes hold of it at once. His imagination paints it much blacker than it really is, cum on the first opportunity that offers he will talk about it, either because it ,gratifies him to see that an- other is subject to the same fault as himself or because he is so full of hateed. and . envy that he cannot bear to see any good; qualities in him: Living for Self Alone. The man who lives to hinaseff be- queaths his own folly and poverty and meanness for his mortuenent. He has benefited nobody, wile he has dwarfed and warped his own powers, and seise - less stone or marble, however lavishly supplied to mark his resting place, does him no honor. He has lived in himself, he has died in himself, and all that be leaves in memory of himself speaks no word of praise in his behalf, no word of justification. This is no true life. It is the 'worst of failures. There are glorious opportunities in this world for service. He who wisely uses them enriches both his race and himself, and dying leaves a anointment winch outlastanranite and is brighter than polished. brass.