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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1896-10-15, Page 7WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. STRIKING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIVINE CHIROGRAPHY. Tito Penmanship is Christ's and the Let- ters Ara Written in a Trembling Yet liold and Indelible Hand—One of Tal- mage's Most Unique Sermons. il Washington, Oct. 1L—We send out this, one of the most unique sermons Dr. Talmage ever preached. It is as novel as wide -spreading and practical. His subject is, "Divine Chirography," the text being: Luke x, 20: "liejoloe because your names are written in bee- tven." Chirography, or the art of handwrit- ing like the science of acoustics, is in a 'very unsatisfactory state. While con- struoting a church, and told by some architects that the voice would not be heard in a building shaped like that pro- posed, I came in much anxiety to this laity, and consulted with Prof. Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, about the law of acoustics. He said: "Go ahead ,and build your church in the shape proposed, and I think it will be all right. I have studied the laws of sound perhaps more than any man of ray time, and I have come so far as this: Two auditoriums may seem to be exactlY alike, and in one the aoceistios may be good and in the other bad," In thls un- satisfactory stage Is chirography, al- though many declare that they bave re- duced it to a science. There are those who say they can read character by handwriting. It is said that the way one writes the letter "I" decides Ms egotIsm or modesty, and the way one writes the letter "0" decides the beiglat and depth of his emotions. It is declared a cramped hand means a 'tramped nature, and an easy, flowing hatvi a facile and liberal spirit. Some of the cleanest in person and thought present their blotted and spattered page, and tionee a the roughest put before us an immaculate chirography. Not our char- acter, but the complete set before as in our schoolboy days, decades the general style of our handwriting. So else there is a fashion in penmanship, and for one decade the letters are exaggerated, and in the next minified; now erect and now millet% now heavy and DOW fine. An autograph album is always a surprise, and you find the penmanehip contra - dicta the character of the writers. But • while the chirography of the earth is uncertain, our blessed Lord in our text presents the chirography celestial. When addressing the seventy disciples standiug before him, he said: "Rejoice because your names aro written in heaven." Of course the Bible, for the most part, when speaking of the heavenly world, speaks figuratively while talking about books and about trumpets and about wings and about gates and abnut golden pavements and about orchards with twelve crops of fruit—one crop enoh month—and abont the white borsee of heaven's cavalry; but we do well to fol. low out these inspired metaphors and reap from them oourage and sulbime ex- 'pet:ration, and oonsolation and victory. We are told that in the heavenly library there is a Book of Life. Perhaps there are ninny volumes in it. When we say a book, we mean all written by the author on that subject. I cannot tell bow large those heavenly volumes are, nor the splendor of their binding, nor the number of their pages, nor whether they are piotorialised with sorne exciting scenes of this world. I only know that the words have not been impressed by type, but writteu out by some hand, and that all those who, like the seventy disciples to -whom the toad was spoken, repent and trust the Lord for their eter- nal salvation, surely have their names written in heaven. It may not be the name by which we were called on earth, but It will be the name by which heav- en will know us, and we will have it iannounced to us as we pass in, and we will know it so certainly that we will 'not have to be called twice by it, as in the Bible times the Lord called some people twice by name "Saul! Saul!" „ "Samuel! Samuel!" "Martha! Martha!" i When you come up and look for your • name in the mighty tomes of eternity and you are so happy as to find it there, hyou will notice that the penmanship is 'Christ's, and that the letters were writ- eten with a trembling band, Not trerub-e ling with old ago, for he had only passed three decades when He expired. It was sonn after the thirtieth anniversery of liis birthday. Look over all the business accounts that. you kept or the letters you •wrote at 30 years of age, and if you were ordinarily strong and well, then there was no tremoren the chirography. Why the trenaor in the hand that wrote your name in heaven? Oh, it was a compres- sion of more troubles than ever smote anyone else, and all of them assumed for others. Christ was prematurely old. He had been exposed to all the weathers • of Palestine. He had slept out of doors, now in the night dew end now in the tempest. He had been soaked in the gull of Lake Galilee. Pillows for others, but He had not where to lay His head. Hun- gry, He could not even get a fig on which to breakfast; or have you missed the pathos of that verse: "In the morn• .in,g, as He returned into the city, He .hungered, and when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it and found nothing thereon." Ob, He was a hungry Cnrist, and nothing makes the hand tremble worse than hunger, for it pulls upoia the stoinaoh, and the stomach pulls upon the brain, and the brain pulls upnn the nerves and the agitated nerves snake the hand quake. On the top of all this exaggeration came abuse. What Sober man ever wanted to be called a drunk- ard? hilt Christ was called one. What respecter of the Lord's day wants to be called a, Sabbath breaker? but he was called one. What man, careful of the • onmpany be keeps, wants to be called the associate of profligates? but ho was so called. What loyal man wants to ho eh urged with treason? but he was charged with it. What • man of devout speech wants to be called a blaspbemei? but he was so termed. What man of self-respect wants to be struck in the mouth? but that le where they strnek Mm. Or to be the victim of vilest =pee- 'toratione but tinder that he.stopped. Oh, ,Ile was a worn -Out Christ. That is the reason He died so soon upon the crots. Miley VietiMS Of, crucifixion lived day after day upon the cross; but Christ was in the court roona at 12 o'clock of noon and He had expired at 3 o'clock.. in the afternoon of the same day. Subtrecting from the three hours between le and 8 o'clock, the time taken to travel from the ("aware= to the place of execution and the time that mutat have been taken in getting ready for t'he tragedy, there • could not have been much more than two hours left Why did Christ live only two hours upon the °roes, when others had lived 48 holm? .AbI he was worn out before Ho got there, and you wonder, oh, child of God, that, looking into the volumes of heaven for your name, you find it written with a trembling penman- ship—trembling with every letter of • your name, if it be your earthly name, or trembling with every letter of your hea- venly name, if thot be different and more euphonious. That will not be the first time you saw ehe ntark of a quiver- ing pen, for did you not, oh man, years ago Rep your nanse so written on the back of a letter, and yon opened it, say- ing, "Why, here is a letter from mother, " or "Her; is a letter from father," and after you opened it you fouled all the words 'bemuse of old age were traced ir- regniarly and uneertain, 'so that you could hardly read it at all. But after much study you mode it out—a letter from home, tolling you bow much they missed you, and how muell they prayed for you, and how muoh they wanted to see you, and if it might not be on earth that so it might be in the world where there are no partings. Yes, your name is written in heaven, if written at all, with, trembling chirography. Again, in examination of your name in the heavenly archives, if you find it there at all, you will find it written with a bold hand. You have seen ninny a sig- nature that because of sicknees or old age had a tremor in it, yet it was as bold as the man who wrote it Many an order written on the batthlefield and amid the thunder of the cannonade, Juts had evidence of exoltementin every word and every letter and in the speed with which it was folded and handed to the officer as ,he put his feet in the swift stirrups, and yet thab commander, not withstanding Ms trembling hand, gives a boldness of order that shows itself in every word written. You do not need to be told that a trenabling hand does nut always mean a cowardly hand, Tremb- ling hand no sign of timidity. The der. ing and defiance thee in the way your • rime la written in heaven is a challenge to all earth and hell to come on if they oan to defeat your ransomed soul. The way your name is written there is as • much as to say, "I have redeemed hini•, I died for him I am going to crown and enthrone him. Nothing than ever happen, down in thet world wbere he now lives, to defeat my determination to keep Mm, to shelter him, tn sate Moe By my .A1 - mighty grace I am going to feteh him hero, He may slip and slide, but he has got to come here, By my omnipotent sword, by the combined strength of all heaven's principalities and powers and dominions, by the twenty thousand char- iots of the Lord emighty, 'I am going to see him thrcugh." Bold handwriting! It is the boldest thing ever written to write my =me there and your name there. He knows our weliknesees and bad propensities better than we know them ourselves. He knows all the appollyonic hosts that are sworn to down ua if they can. He knows all the temptations that will assail us between now and the moment of our last pulsation of the heart, and yet he dares to write our name there. Can you not see the bold- ness in the pennianseip that has already written our names there? Apostle Peter, what do you think of it? And he an- swers, "Kept by the power of God throueh faith unto complete salvation." Again if according to the promjse of the text you are permitted to look into the volumes of eternity and shsll see your name there, you will find it written in lines, in words, in letters unmistak- able. Some people have come to consider indistinct and almost unreadable pen- manship a mark of genius, and so they affect it. Because every paragraph that Thomas Chalmers, and Dean Stanley, and Lord Byron, and Rufus Choate, and other povent men wrote was a puzzle, imitators make their penmanship a puz- zle. Alexander Dumas says that plain penmanship is the brevet of incapaoity. Then there are some who, through too inuoh demand upon their energies and through lack of time, lose the capacity of making the pen intelligible, and much of the writing of this world is indecipher- able. We have seen piles of inexplicable chirography, and we ourselves have helped augment the magnitude. We have not been sure of the name signed, or the sentiment expressed, or whether the reply was affirmabive or negative. "Some one had blundered." But your name, once written in the Lamb's Book of Life, will be so unnalstakable that all heaven can read it at the first glance. It will not be taken for the name of some other, so that in regard to it there shall come to be disputation. Not one of the millions and billions and quadrillions of the fam- ily saved, will doubt that it means you and only you. Oh, the glorious, the rapturous certitude of that entrance on the heavenly roll. Not saved in a prom- iscuous way. Not put into a glorified mob. No, no! Though you came up, the worst sinner that was ever saved, and somebody, who knew you in this world at one time as absolutely abandoned and diasolute, should say, "I never heard of your conversion and I do not believe you have a right to be here," you could just laugh a laugh of riumph, and turning over the leaves containing the names of the redeemed, say, "Read 1± for yourself. That is my name, written out in full, and do you not recogoize the hand writing? No young scribe of heaven entered that. No anonymous writer put it there. Do you not see the tremor in the lines? Do you not also see the bold- ness of the letters? Is it not as plain as yonder throne, as plain as yonder gate? Is not the name unmistakable ana the handwriting unmistakable? The crucified Lord wrote it there the day I repented and turned. Hear it! Hear it! My name is written there! There!" I have sometimes been tempted to think that there will be so many • of us In heaven that we will be lost in the crowd. No, each one of us will be as dis- tinctly picked out and recognized as was Abel when he entered from earth, the very first sinner saved, and at the head of that long procesion of sinners saved in all the centurtes. My dear hearere, if we once get there, I do not want it left uncertain as to whether we stay there. After you and I get fairly settled there, in our heavenly home, we do not want our title proved defective. We do not want to be ejected from the heavenly premises. We do not want some one to say, "This is not your room in the house of many mansions, and you have on an attire that you ought not to have taken from the heavenly wardrobe, and that is not really your name on the books. If you had more oarefully examined the writing in the register at the gate you would have found that the name was not yours at all, but mine. Now move out while I move in." Oh, what wretch- edness, after once Worshipping in heav- enly temples, to be compelled to turn your back on the music, and after having joined the soolety of the blessed, to be forced to quit it forever, and after hay- ing clasped our long -lost kindred in heaven's embrace, to have another separ- ation! What an agony would there be in such a good -by to heaven! GlotY be to God oneeligh that our names will be ece plainly.written na those volumes, that neither saint, nor cherub, nor seraph, nor archangel shall doubt it for one moment, for five ' hundred eternities, if there were room for so many. The oldest inhabibant of heaven can react it, and the thild that left its mother's lop last night for heaven oan read it. You will not jnab look at your name and. °Jose the hook, but you will stand, and sollioquiee, and say, '18 it not wonderful that my name is there at all? How much it coat my Lord to get le there? Unworthy am 1 to have it in the same book with the sons and daughters of martyrdom, and with the choice spirits of all time! But there it is, and so plain the word, and so plain all the letters!" .Again, if you are so happy as to find your name in the volumes of eternity, you will End it written indelibly. Old Time is represented as carrying a scythe, with which he outs down the genera- tions; but he carries also chemicals, with which be eats out whole paragraphs from important doouments. We talk about in- delible ink, but there is no such thing as indelible ink. It is only it question of time, the complete obiteration of all earthly signatures and engrossmeuts. But your name, put in the heavenly record, all the millenniums of heaven cannot dim it. .After you have been so long in glory that, did you not possess imperishable memory, you would have forgotten the day of your entrance, your name on that page wtll glow as vividly as on the instant it was traced there by the finger of the Great Atoner. There will be new generations coming into heaven,and a thousand years from now, from this or from other planets, souls may enter the many-mansioned residence, and though you name were one plainly on the Welts, suppose it should fade out. How could you prove to the newcomers that it had ever been written at all? Lidell blot Inoapable of being canceled! Eternity as helpless as time in any at- tempt at erasure! What a reinforcing, uplifting thought. Other records in hea- ven may give out, and will give out. There are r000rds there in which the Recording Angel writes down our sins, but it is a book full of blots, so that nallOh of the writing there cannot be read or even guessed at • The Recording Angel did the writing, but our Savior put in the blots; for did he not prom- ise, "I will blot out their transgressions?" And if son= one in heaven should re- member some of our earthly iniquities and ask God about them, the Lord would say, "Oh, I forgot them. I completely forgot those sins, for I promised, 'Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."' In the fires that burn up our world all the safety deposits and all the title deeds, and all the halls of reoord, and all the libraries will disap- pear, worse than when the 200,000 vol- umes and the 700,000 manuscripts of the Alexandrian library went under the toroh of Omar, and not a leaf or word will escape the flame in 'that last conflagra- tion, whioh I think will be witnessed by other planets, whose inhabitants will exclaim, "Look! There is a world on fire." But there will be only one conflag- ration in heaven and that will not destroy, but irradiate. I mean the con- flagration of splendors that blaze on the towers and domes, and temples and thrones, and rubied and diainoncled walls in the light of the sun that never sets. Indeliblel There is not on earth an autograph letter or signature of Christ. The only time he wrote out a word on earth, though he knew so well how to write, he wrote with reference to having it shuffled out by a human foot, the time that he stooped down and with bis fin- ger wrote on the ground the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But when he writes your name in the heavenly archives, as I believe he has or hope he may, it is to stay there from age to age, frozn oycle to cycle, from aeon to aeon. And so for all you Christian people I do what John G. Whittier, the dying poet, said he wanted done in his home. Lovely man he was! I sat with him in a hay ,now a whole summer afternoon, and heard him tell the story of his ilife. Be had for rnany years been troubled with insomnia, and was it very poor sleeper, and he always had the window curtain of his room up so as to see the first intimation of sue - rise. When be was breathing his last, 10 the morning hour, in his home in the Massachusetts village, the nurse thought that the light of the rising sun was too strong for hina,and so pulled the whitlow curtain down. The last thing the great Quaker poet did was to wave his hand to have the curtain up. He wanted to depart in the full gush of the morning. And I thought it might be helpful and inspiring to all Christian souls to have more light about the futhre, and so I pulled up the curtain in the glorious sunrise of my text and say, " Rejnice that your names are written in heaven." Bring on your doxologies! Wave yonr palms! Shout your victories! Pull up all the curtains of bright expectations! Yea! boist the window itself, and let the per- fume of the "morning glories" of the King's garden come in, and the music of harps all a -tremble with symphonies, and the sound of the surf of seas dashing to the foot of the throne of God and the Lamb. But there is only one word on all this subject of Divine chirography in heaven that confuses me, and that is the small adverb which St. John adds when he (motes the text Jo Revelation and speaks of some "whose names are not written In the Book of Life of the Lamb slain." Oh, that awful adverb "not!" By full submission to Christ the Lord, have the way all cleared between you and the snblime registration of your mune this moment. Why not look up and see that they are all ready to put your neme among the blissful immortals? There is the mighty volume; it is wide open. There is the pen: leis from the wing of. the "Angel of the New Covenant." There is the ink: it is red ink from Cal - venial sacrifice. And there is the Divine Scribe: the glorious Lord who wrotoyour father's name there, and your mother's name there, and your child's name there, and who is ready to write your nanie there. Will you consent that He 'lo it? Before I say ".A men" to this service, ask Ellin to do lt I wait a moment for the tremendous action of your will, for it is only an action of your will. Here someone says, "Lord Jesus, with pen plucked from angelic wing, and dipped in the red ink of Golgotha, write there either that which is now zny earthly name or that which shall be my heavenly hame." I peon a second longer that all may consent. The pen of the Dielne Serlhe is in the fingers and is lifted and Is lowered, and it touches the shining Ifign, and the world is traced, and in when e and bold •and uninietakable t tele, Ile has put it down in the right tt lis done! The great transaction's done, am my Lord's, and He 18 10100. BOYSANDGIRLS • AMONG QUEER PEOPLE. The Hairy Alan Me the Most Pecul People in the 'World. Hokkaido is the name given by the Japailese to the island of Yezo, with alk the sznaller islands near its coast, to- ' gather with the Kurile group, Thus the Hokkaido extends, roughly speaking, from 41 to 51 degrees latitude north, and be- tween 130 and 157 degrees longitude east of Greenwich. It is in Yezo particularly that the litre° number of Ainu are found, While a few live in the islands of Kane - shire Etorofu and Sbikotart. Tile Air= are a race of people whose strange peoullarity is that they are covered with hair all over the body, almost as *monkeys are. Their faces are not quite so hirsute, though the hair on the scalp begins to grow low on the forehead, and • the beard of the inen begins from right under the eyes. Their eyebeows aro thick and shaggy, and occasionally they even have a few coarse hairs growing on the nose. The women, whe are not stipplisa with Ruch a luxuriaut growth of hair on their fes, melee tip for the lack of it by ar THE HAIRY ALM tattooing on their lips a long mustache, wheal), when completed, reaches from one ear to the other. This, they think, gives them a manly appearance, and as manliness and hairi- ness are the only two things the Alnu are proud of, the women sometimes also tattoo lines on the forehead and rough geometrical patterns on their arms, all of vehich are supposed to add to the cov- eted air of virility. The Ainu have no literature, ne heeKS, no writing, and hardly one individual out of a hundred can count up to five, even with the help Of his fingers. Their language Is extremely poor in words, and as for rules or it grammar, the Ainu never even dreamed of having one. Like all barbarians, the Ainu are ex- tremely superstitious, and it was with the greatest difficulty that I was able to obtain sketches of them, or =thaw them to sit for their likeness. Indeed, once I had a very unpleasant experience as I was taking a sketch or a group of them cutting up a large fish. They assaulted me and destroyed any picture, paint box and brushes, which they threw into the eon. In the struggle I was stabbed in my arm with a large knife, and they called me all sorts of names; for, according to Ainu ideas, certain sickness, if not immediate deatb, comes of having one's picture painted. "Besides," they yelled, brandishing their hairy arms at me, "do you know, bad man, that once you take an image of an Ainu, all the fish will disappear from the senli AnAnu hut possesses a email store- house raised above ground on four, six or eight piles. Upon each pile is placed a aquare piece of wood turned downward at the sides, so as not to be aooessible to mice and rats. Rafters are then plaoed over these pieces of wood, and the store- house built on them. It is generally so small that an adult cannot stand erect in it. The ladder by which these storehouses are accessible is a mere round log, with a few cuts in it to serve as steps. One end of the ladder is pointed so as to be stuck in the ground when in use, but the whole arrangement is anything but a model of stability. The Ainu go up and down these lad- ders with great facility without holding on with their hands, but to anyone thab is not born an acrobat or a monkey the feat is somewhat more difficult As Ipro- ceeded to inspect ono of the storehouses one day, and was mounting the ladder Ainu fashion, it turned,and I came near breaking my Deck, besides skinning both my knees on my precipitate way down. —A. H. Savage-Landor, in Youth's Companion. There! menet ',Nothing. The following story of excessive zeal is told by a young minister who spent last summer in missionary work among the Green Mountains. The two maiden ladies with whom he boarded kept no horse, and were wont to rely upon the courtesy of neighbors to bring their mail from the post -office. As the ladies and their boarders were sitting on the piazza one evening, a neighbor passed in the direction of the village, and one of the sisters called out, "Are you going to the village, Jonas? ' "Yes," replied Jonas, pulling up his horse; "can I do anything for you?" "You might get our mail at the office, if you would be so kind," said "Aunt Clary." Jonas drove on. but did not return from the village until after the household had retired. Shortly before midnight the whole house was aroused by a thumping at the door, and calls of "Clary—Clary —Aunt Clary!" Aunt Clara arose bastily, lit a lamp, and slipping a wrapper over her night. robe, desoended and unlocked the door. • "Why, it's you, Jonas!" said Clary. "What a turn you gave me!" "There wa'n't nothing," said 'Tones, as he turned to go, full of the happy con- sciousness of duty performed.—Youth's Conapanion. It Was His Etemory. Poor, patieat Ned had been kept in again and again and again to learn a very simple stanza that had been easily mastered by all the rest et bis class. Flintily he broke down and sobbeti out:— "I can't do it, Miss Gray; I just can't do it. Father says it's because I have snob a poor—" "A poor what, Ned?" • "Yon know what it is," a glimmer of light flickering in the dear dull little face, "the thing you forget with." Such is memory, alas, to the roost of us!—Philadelphia Times. Pleasures or the sea sbore. She -1 have often Wondered what the wild vulvae are saying, He—Judging from their roar I should say they were joining be the general kick against the high prices at this resort. BLIND BOYS PLAY BALL. Their Game Differs in Many Details Prom the Regular One, Prof. R. B. Huntoon, of the Kentlecky gehool, describing barteball among the blind, says: The baseball game differs, of course, in maey of its details from the regular games. The diamond is not of regulation size, but it is of regulation form. The distance between bases is but forty feet The fielders are stationed the salnes'ae In the National league game, with Ca uceeption that thre is a right shortst , thus making ten men to a side. n the outfield, in public games there Is an unlimited number of play- ers, each taking a tura at the bat, first movtng up one position whenever a bats- man is put out. The catcheresits on the ground, well Week from the home plate, and, to guard against injuzy, he wears a mask and a chest protector. His position is such that when a pitober delivers a ball it strikes the ground just betweeen the knees and is taken on the short bound. The batsmen takes Ms position at .the plate with a heavy flat bat, somewhat like those used in cricket, The umpire, who must be a man of unimpaired vis- ion, calls upon the pitcher to get ready, and then clearly sings out: "One, two, three!" At the word three the pitcher must loyally deliver the ball. He pitches in the slow, underhand way peculiar to the game 05 or 30 years ago, the idea be- ing to deliver a ball that can be bit by the batsman, who, standing there in the darkness, with a sharpened sense ofhear- Ing and a wonderful oonceptioa of the time tient must elapse before the bell reaches him, is prepared to strike. If the batsman should miss, the ball bounces into the caaoherPs lap, and is re- turned to the pitcher by a tangle toss with a precision that is veonderful. When the ball is batted the umpire collo out quickly to the fielder in 'whose dir- ection it is traveling, and he, guided. by a sense of hearing either catches the ball or follows it in its course through the grass. Six strikes are an out In fielding any number of bounds are permitted. If the batted ball is a "hot liner" and traveling straighb for an infielder's bead, the umpire shouts a warning, and in such oases the player ducks or i ails to the tuft It is possible, in fact the ball is fre- quently fielded to first in time to put out the runner. When throwing to first, •the assisting player, who is guided by the voice of the batsman, calculates the dis- tance with nicety and throws the ball so that it strikes the ground a few yards in front of the batsman. The latter hears it coming and usually gets it without fur- ther assistance. Running bases was form- erly a difficult thing. There were then three trees on the diamond, toward which the runner ran with outstretched hands. Bags have since been substituted for bases, and the runner is guided by the voice of the batsman, who is requir- ed to shout "First, first, first!" In like manner the other bags are won. Once on a base the runner is pretty sure to get home, unless his side dies at the home plate, Six outs put a side out.— Boston Transcript. Bright Boy's Idea. A bright boy writing to St. Nicholas tells how shinny sticks are made. "I get sticks," he writes, "as nearly straight as possible and bend them at home. I have a board made like this: There are two pins at one end, at 1 and HOW TO MAKE A SHINNY STICK. 9, around which the stick is bent; and at the other end are two rows of holes into which a pin, No. 3, can be put to hold the handle in place. When the sticks—they should be as green as pos- sible—are in place on the board, put the whole thing in the back of the fur- nace, where the stick will bake. In about two days the stick will keep its curve. "Then I take a belt lace—a leather string about half an inch wide and one - sixteenth of an inoh thick—and bind it on the short end. If the stick • is split, I bind it first with braise wire and then put the leather binding over the brass." Wonderful Power. The power of imagination is amus- ingly illustrated in the story told of an old lady who had never heard the cele- brated violinist, Paganini, play, and one day obtained permission to attend a re- hearsal of one of his concerts. It so happened that Paganini did not take his violin with him to the rehearsal that day, but borrowed one from a mem- ber of the orchestra, and insteed of play- ing as usual, simply kept up a kind of pizzicato accompaniment. After the rehearsal the old lady went up to Mr. Cooke, the musical director, and said in a burst of enthusiasm, "Oh, dear! Mt Cooke, what a wonderful man he is! I declare I never knew what music was capable of till this morning." "Indeed, madam, he is truly a marvel. Mus man," assented Mr. Cooke, with a smile; "but this morning you are in- debted rather to your imagination thaa your ears for the delight you have had, for Paganini has not really played at all. He has not even touched a bow." "Well," said the old lady, after a moment's astounded silence, recovering herself, "then all I can say is, he's even more remarkable than I thought he was! For if he can affect me in such a manner without playing. what should I do, hove should I feel, when he really did playl" Spontaneous Combustion, The Iowa Dairy Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company has issued a circular con- taining the following on spontaneous oom bustion "Sawdust in ice houses is self -ignitable, caused by sponuaneous combustion in hot weather. In order to avoid a fire from above cense the sawdust should, not be allowed to pile up over four or five inches on top of the ice. The surplus should be removed and kept out of the lee house. Where the sawdust is allowed to accumulate on top of your ice it will consume the ice. It 'should baye daily oare during the hot weather." 111.1.50111, Beds Me Scarce. Beds are quite an innovation in Rus- sia, and nanny well-to-do houses are still unprovided with them. Peasants sleep on the top of their ovens; middle-class people and servants roll themselves up in the sheepskins and lie down near the stoves; soldiers reet upon wooden cots without bedding and it is only within the last few years that students in schools bavel been allowed beds. • NERVOUS PROSTRATION.I THE FREQUENT CAUSE OF 11113CH ,1I1SERV A.ND SUFFERING. The Victim Helpless and tinreilable--It Saps he constttution and Maitre Olio In" voluntarily Asit is Life Worth Living. From the Lindsay Poet. It is at least •corcomeedable to bow before the inevitable. But what appears to be inevitable may be delayed or altogether averted. WJaat were considered necessarily fatal diseases twenty-five or even ten years agn in many instances are not now placed in that category— thanks to medical and scientific skill. Life is sweet. We must either °central the nerves or they will mastee us. Hysteria may prove fatal, It renders tbe person afflicted helpless and unreliable, and casts a continual shadow upon a hither- to bright and cheerful life. It saps the constitution and makes one involuntarily ask, "Is life worth living?" Miss Fanny Watson, daughter of Mr. Henry Watson, living on lot 22, in the township, of Somerville, Victoria county, is one of those whose life for years was made mis- erable from nervous disease. At the age of twelve Miss Watson met with an accident which go seriously affected her nervous system that during the subse- quent five years she was subjected to Very severe nervous prostration, result- ing in aonvulsions with unconeeionsnese for three or four hours at a time. This condition continued until March last when she had an increased and prolonged attack by wbicb she was completely pros- trated for the space of a fortnight. The disease so affected the optic nerve that MSS Watson was forced to wear gleans. Many remedies were tried with no avail, •toad both Miss Watson and her friends feared that a euro uould not be obtained. Ultimately Dr. Williams' Pink Pills were strongly recommended by various friends and the young lady deoided to give them a trial. A half dozen boxes were bonght, and by the time one box was used there was an improvement in her condition, and before the half dozen boxes were used, Miss Watson was, to uee her own words, a different imam altogether. Her entire nervous system was reinforced to such an extent that she is now able to dispense with the use of the glasses which previous failing eye- sight had made necessary. Miss Watson Is now a staunch friend of Dr. 'Williams' Pink Pills, and says; "I have pleasure in reconamending them to all similarly afflicted." Rev. D. Millar, a friend of slate ffoaritahy, vouches for the facts above Dr. Williams' Pink Pills create new blood, build up the nerves, and thus drive disease from the system. In hun- dreds of cases they have cured after all other medicines have fal/ed, thus estab- lishing the claim that they are a marvel among the trimaaphs of modern medical science, The genuine Pink Pills are sold ouly in boxes, bearing the full trade mark, "Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People." Protect yourself from im- position by refusing any pill that does not hear the registered trade mark around the box. FROM THE ASHES TO LARGER ITFE. PRICELESS RECORDS IN DANGER, BUT ALL SAVED. Hundreds of Gross of Dodd's HidneyPills Burned—The Dodd's Medicine Company In blew Quarters—Orders Front Ocean to Oecan—Energy and Enterprise Conquers. The extensive establishment of the proprietors of Dodd's Kidney Pills, at Nos. 1 and 3 Jarvis street, with its con- tents, excepting the offices, was entirely destroyed by fire on the afternoon of the 15±11 ult. The tire broke out in an adjoining werehouse, but spread so rapidly that in less than ten minutes the employes of the Dodd's Medicine Cnnipany, from tbe laboratory, the advertising and the shipping departments, were all in panic flight for their lives, The perfect safety of all these persons once assured, and while naore than two hundred and fifty gross of Dodd's Kid- ney Pills, together with labels, wrappers and tons of advertising were being con- sumed, interest and effort all centered In the rescue from the advertising rooms of a mass of seemingly old and worth- less letters. These, as afterwards learned, proved to be the accumulations of years, consisting of thousands of testimonials from persons cured by Dodd's Kidney Pills, and dating from the inception of the business up to the day of the fire. These records of triumph, these proofs of the supreme merits of this great kidney treatment were the most precious of all the possessions of the firm, and were to be saved if possible, as they fortunately were, at the last possible moment. On the invitation of the president of the company a reporter of The News visited the quarters, located at Nos. 6 and 8 Bay street, where new premises have been promptly opened. Here a rapid glance revealed many busy hands rush- ing the several details of oorapletion of new goods to fill orciers continuously arriving from all points in Canada, the United States and other parts of the world. Judging from the accumulated orders on ftle, of which your reporter got O glimpse, the output of Dodd's Kidney Pills is already almost beyond the con - caption, and one oan easily anderetand that their merit alone can create such an incredible demand. Characteristic of the energy and enters prise of the Dodd's Medicate° Company, it may be mentioned that, though absent In Buffalo during the fire, the manager was made aware of the probable extent and outhome of the disaster, and while the premises were still burning ordeas had been wired and goods frona New York and other points were speeding to- wards Toronto for the reproduction of Dodd's Kidney Pills, so that no order should remain unffiled.—From Toronto News. Stained Bands. • If the hands are stained after cutting up vegetables, take a raw potato, cut ib in half and with it rub them before washing them. Some women can never be happy be- cause their husbande are forever tracking chet over the floor. A desire to kill the saloon and then vote to perpetuate it has never yet made satau tremble.—Corner Stone.