The Exeter Advocate, 1897-1-21, Page 3•
MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS.
THEY ARE OBSTACLES IN THE
WAY OF CHRISTIAN
PROGRESS.
But Rev. Dr. Tithong* Shows Dow They
May be Torn Down und Put Out, of Sight
Forever, -.A Sermon of Sublime Eneour-
aectuent.
Washington, jai. 17.—In the presi-
dent's ohurch and before an audience in
which were prominent senators aud
meant ers a the house a represeutaaives
• petple of all nista nalities this dis-
course of sublime encomagement was
delivered. Dr. Talmage's subject was
"Storming the Heights" and his text
Zechariah, iv, 7: "Who tat thou, 0 great
mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou slatit
become a plain."
Zerubba,bel 1 Who owned that diffieult
name in which three times the letter "b"
occurs, disposing most people to stammer
lu the pronunciation? Zerubbabel was
the splendid inau called to rebuild the
destroyed temple of Jerusalem. Stone for
the building had been quarried, and the
trowel had rung at the laying of the
cornerstone, and all went well, when the
Oath/teams offered to help in the work.
They were a bad lot of people, and Zer-
ubbabel declined their help, and then the
trouble began. The Cuthaeans prejudiced.
• the secretary of Iv treasury against Zer-
ubbabel, so that the wages of the carpen-
ters and masons could not be paid, and
the heavy cedar 1:bashers which lia,d been
dragged from Mount Lebanon to the
Mediterranean and floated in rafts from
Beirut -to Joppa and were to be drawn by
ox teem. from joppit to Jerusalem bad
halted, and as a result of the work of
those jealous Cuthaeans for 16 years the
building of the temple was stopped. But
after 16 yews Zerubbabel, the mighty
soul, got a new call from God to go
ahead with the temple building, and the
angel of the Lord in substance said:
"They have piled up obstacles in the way
of Zerubbabel until they have become as a
mountain, height above height, crag
above OM., bill it shall all be thundered
down antemade flat and smooth as the
floor of a house. 'Who art thou, 0 great
mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou sbalt
become a plain.' "
Not All Deed Yet.
Wellathe Cutheams are not all dead
yet. They aro busy in every neighbor-
hood and every city and every nation of
every age, heaping obstacles in the way
of the cause of God. They lune) piled up
hindrances above hindrances until they
have become a hill, and the hill has be -
tome a mountain, and the mountain bas
become an Alp, and there it stands,
right intim way of all movements for the
world's salvation. Some people are so
dicouraged about the height and breadth
of this mountain in front of them that
they have done nothing for 16 years, mad
many of those who aro at work trying to
do something toward. removing the moun-
tain toil in such a way that I can see
they have not inuelt faith. that the moun-
tain of hindrances will eyer bo removed.
They feel they must do their duty, but
tbey feel all the time—I ean hear it in
their prayers and exhortution—that they
are stliking their pita:axes and shovels
into the side of the Rocky mountains. If
the god Lord will help me while I
preach, I will give you the names of some
of the high mountain; which are really
In the way and then show you that those
mountains are to be prostrated, torn
down, ground up, leveled, put out of
sight forever. "Who art thou, 0 great
mountain? Before Zerubbalail thou shalt
become a plain."
First, there is the mountain of preju-
dice, as lone as a range of the Pyrenees.
Prejudice against the Bible as a dull book,
an inconsistent book, a, cruel book, an
unclean book and in every way an unfit
book. The most of them have never road
it. They think the strata of the rocks
contradict the account in Cellists. The
poor souls do not know that the Mosaic
account agrees exactly withthe geological
account. No violin or flute ever was in
better accord. By (Towbar, and piokax
and shovel and blasting powder the geo-
logist goes down in the earth and says,
"The first thing created. in the furnish-
ing of the earth was the plants." Moses
says: ".Aye, I told you that in the book
of Genesis, The earth brought forth grass
and herb, yielding seed after his kind
and the tree yielding fruit.' " The geo-
logist goes on digging in the earth and
says, 'The next t•hiag in the furnishing
of the earth was the making of the crea-
tures of the sea." Moses sa,ys: "Aye, I
told. you that was next in the book of
Genesis. 'God said, Let the waters bring
forth abundantly the moving creatures
that have life, and God created great
whales.' "
The geologist goes on digging, and
says, "The next thing in the furnishing
of the earth was the creation of the
-cattle, and the reptiles, and the beasts of
the field." "Aye," says Moses, "I told
you that was next in the first chapter of
Genesis, 'And God said, Let the earth
tagaag forth the living creature after his
'lid, cattle and creeping thing, and beast
of the earth after bis Idnda " The geo-
logist goes on digging in the earth and
says, "The next creaiire was the human
family." "Aye," says Moses. told you
that was next in the book of Genesis,
'So God created man in his own image,
In the image of God created he him;
male and female, created he them.' "
Those prejudiced against the Bible do not
know that the explorations in Egypt and
Palestine and Syria are confliming the
Scriptures—the same facts written on
monuments and on the walls of exhumed
cities as written in the Bible. The city
of Pithom has been unburied, and its
briek are found to have been made with-
out straw, exactly corresponding -with
the Bible story of the persecuted He-
brews. On a terra cotta cylinder,recentla
brought up from thousandof years of
burial, the capture of Babylon by Cyrus
Is told. On a Babylonian gem recently
forma are the figures Of a tree, a man, a
woman and a serpeat, and. the hands of
the roan and woman are stretched up
toward the tree as if to pitiek the fruit.
Thus the Bible story of the fall is con-
A Bigh Monntain.
In a museum at CoustantinOple you
see a piece of the well that Once in the
ancient temple of Jerusalem separated the
court of the Gentiles and the °cant of the
Israelites, to which Peal refers when he
says of Christ, "He is our peaCe, who
bath bioken down tae middle wall of
partition between us." On tablets recent-
ly discovered have been found. the names
of prtanineat men of the Bible, spelled a
little different, . emordiag to the domande
of ancient language, "Adanau" for
.A.dara,Abriunn" for Abraham, "A.blu" for
Abel, and so on. Twenty-two feet under-
ground has been found: a seal inscribed
with the words, "Haggai son of She -
Wallah, a thousatais of yearago out,
Siiiswi»g that thi3 Prophet Haggai; who
wrote a part of the Bible, was not In
myth. • . .
The royal engineers have found, 8 feet
below the surface of the ground at .Tera -
seam Pluoniciait pottely and hewn atones
with inscriptions showiag that they` were
furiasited by Hiram, king Of Tyre, just
tt.4 the 'Bible says they were. The great
mows of Bible history, that niany sup-
pose are names of imaginary beings, are
found cut into imperishable stones which
hate withiu a fest ayeam been rolled up
from their entombment of ages, such as
Stionacherib and Tiglath-Pileser. On the
edge of a broazed, step and on burned.
brick has been found the name of ageism-
laidezzas. Henry Rawlinsou and Oppert
and Melts :tad Palestine exploration so-
eleties tl.”C) Asyriologists and Egyatolo sists
have rolled another Bible up from the
depths of the earth, audio! it corresponds
exactly with our Bible, the rack Bible
just like the prin.ted. Bible, inscalptions
on cylinders and brickwork put 3,800
years before Christ testifyiag to the truth
of what we read 1,897 years after Christ.
The story of the tower of Babel has been
confirmed by the fact that recently at
Babel an oblong pile of brick 110 feet
high evidences the remains of a fallen
tower. In the inspired book of Ezra we
read of the great and noble Asnapper, a.
name that meant nothing especial until
recently in pried up Egyptian sculpture
we have the story there told. taf him as a
great hunter as well as a great warrior.
'Villa I say now is news to those preju-
dlced against the Bible. They are so far
behind the times that they know not
that the old book is being proved. true by
the prying eye of the antiquarian "and the
ringing hammer of the archaeologist and
the plunging crowbar of the geologist,
No more is infidelity charaeterized by its
blasphemy than by its ignorance, but,
oh I what a high mountain of prejudice
agabast the Bible, against Christianity,
against cburehes, against allevangelizing
enterprises—a mountain that casts its
long blaek shadows over this continent
and over all continents! Geographers tell
us that Mount Everest is the highest
mountain in the world. Oh, no! The
mountain of prejudice against Christian-
ity is higher than the highest crags that
dare the lightnings of heaven. Before our
Zerubbabel, can it ever become a plain.?
The Mountain of litebrisiey.
Another mountain of hindrance is that
of positive and outspoken in:morals.
There is the mountain of inebriacy. It is
piled with kegs and demijohns and. de-
canters and hogsheads, on which sit the
victims of that traffic whose one business
is to rob earth and heaven of the most
generous and large hearted. and :splendid
of the lianaau race, If their business was
to take only the mean and stingy and
contemptible and useless, we would not
-say much against the work, for there are
tens of thousands of men and women
who are a nuisance to the world, and
their obliteration from human society
would. be an advantage to all that is
good. The removal of these moral deficits
would not aroustain us much of a protest.
But insobriety takes the best. The moun-
tain of inebriacy stands in the way of the
kingdom of God, and hundreds of thou-
sands of men but for that hiudrauce
would step right into the ranks of the
Lord's host and march heavenward, each
one bating a regiment with him. The
mountain of inebriaey is not an ordinary
mountian, but it is armed. Ib is a lino
of fortresses continually blazing away its
destructive forces upon all our neighbor-
hoods, tOWXIS and cities, their volleys of
death poured. down upon the homes and
churches. Under this power more than
100,000 men and women are in this
country every year imprisoned, and an
army of 600,000 druakards almost shake
the earth with their staggering tread. It
causes in this country 300 murders and
400 suioides a year. This mountain of
inebriacy has not only assaulted the land,
brit bombarded the shipping of the sea,
and some of the most appalling ship-
wrecks on Atlantic and Pacific coasts
have been the result. What sank the
steamer Itotbsy Castle, on the way from
Liverpool to Dublin, destroying 100 hu-
man lives? A drunken sea captain.
What blew up the Ben Sherrod on the
Mississippi and sent 150 to horrible
death? A drunken crew. Wbat drove on
the brealters a steamer making its way
from New York to Charleston and sent
whole families on the way home from
summer watering places to the merciless
depths of the sea? A. drunken seacaptain.
Gather up from the depths of the rivers
and lakes and oceans the bones of those
shipwrecked by intoxicated captains and
crews, and you could build out of them
a temple of horrors, all the pillars and
altars and floors and ceilings fashioned of
hinnan skulls. Is it possible that such a
mountain of inebriacy can ever be made
a plain?
The Mountain of Crime.
sconder also is the mountain of crime,
with 1s strata of fraud and malpractice
and malfeasance and blackmail and.
burglary and piracy and embezzlement
and libertinism and theft, all its heights
manned with the desperadoes the cut
throats, the ptekpockets, the thimble rig-
gers, the corsairs, the wreckers, the
bandits, the tricksters, the forgers, the
thugs, the garroters, the fire fiends, the
dynamiters, the shoplifters, the klepto-
maniacs, the pyromaniacs, the dipso-
maniacs, the smugglers, the kidnappers,
the Jack Sheppards, the Robert Macaires
and the Macbeths of villainy. The crimes
of the world! Am I not right in calling
them, when piled up together, a moun-
tain? But we cannot bring ourselves to
appreciate great heights except by com-
parison. You think of Mount Washington
as high, especially those of you who have
ascended as ef old, on Mule back, or
more recently by rail train, to the Tip
Top House. Oh, no!. That is not.high.
For it is only about 6,000 feet, whereas
rising on this western hemisphere are
Chimborazo, 21,000 feet high, and Mount
Sabasna, 23,000 feet high, and Mount
&rota 24,800 feet high. But that is not
the highest mountain on the western
hemisphere. The highest mountain is the
mountain of crime, and is it possible that
this mountain before our Zerubbabel,
• can ever be naide a plain?
Tee Monntain of tVar. '
There is also the mountain of war, the
most voleanic. of all mountains—the
Vesuvius Which, not content, like the
Vesuvius of Italy, with whelthing aim
cities, Herculaneum and Pompeii, has
coveied with its fiery -scoria; thousands of
cities andwould like to whelm 'all the
cities of both henaiepheres,. Givethis
aimuntain full utterance, and it Would
cover up Washington and New York and
London as smelly as, a henseholder, with
ht shovel at 10 o'clock at night, banks
grate fire with ashes. This mountain is
a pile of fortresses, barricades and arm-
ories, the world'sartillery heaped, wheels
above wheels, columbiadia above colum-
biads, 74 pounders above 74 pounders,
wrecked nations abet% Wrecked nations.
This mountain of war is not only
•loaded to canuonade the earth, but it is
also a cemetery, lolding the corissea of
80,0000,000 slain in the WM'S of Alex-
ander and Cyrus, . 60,000,000 slain in
Roinau wars, 180,000,000slain in wars
with Turks and Saracens and bolding
about 85,000,000,000 corpses uot million
but billion whieli was the estimate made
bylikimund Burke more than 100 years
ago of those who had been destroyed by
war, so that you would have to aahl
more militias now. Twenty years ago a
careful author estimated that about 14
time's the then population of the wrald
had gone down in battle or in hospital
after battle. Ali, this snountain of war is
not like an ordinary mountain It is like
Kilauea, one ofthe Sandwich Islands,
which holds the greatest volcano in all
the earth, and concerning whioli I wrote
from the Sandwich Islands a few years
ago:—
"What a hissing, bellowing, tumbl-
lug, soaring force is Kilauea! Lake of
unquenchable fire; convolutions and
paaoxysras of flame; eltondnts of nature
in torttuss; tomitlity ana luridity; con-
gregation of dreads; molten horrors;.
sulphas -oils abysms; swirling mystery of
all time; irdlnite turbulence; chimney of
perdition; wallowing terrors; 15 acres of
threats; &anus iusufferable and Dantes-
que; caldron stirred by the champion
witeh of pandemonium; campffre of the
armies of Diabolus; wrath of the moun-
tains in full bloom; shimmering incan-
descence; - pyrotechnics of the planet;
furnace blast of the ages; Kilauea! But,
iny friends, mightier, higher. vaster,
hotter, more raging is the volcanic moun-
tain of war. It bas been blazing for
hundreds of years and will keep oh blaz-
ing uutil, uutil—but I dare not hazard a
proplieey. Can it be that its fires will
over be put out? Can it be that its roar
will ever be silenced? Can it be that
'before our Zerubbabel that blazing Inman-
t•ain will ever become a plain?
A. Long Range.
There is also the long range of moun-
tains, louger than Appalachian range,
longer that Caucasian range, longer thau
Sierra Nevada, range—the piled up op-
position of bad. literature, had homes' bad
institutions, had amusements, badcen-
turies, bad religion—Paganism, Hindoo-
ism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism and
buttressea and enthroned godlessness,
devoted to ambition and lust and hydra
headed, argus eyed abomination as it
stauds with lifted, fist and inocking lips,
challeuging Jehovah upon the throne of
the waiver:a to stellte if he dare. Oh, it
is a great mountain, as my text declares.
There is no use in denying it. The most
authentio st•atisties deelare it. The signs
of the times prove it. All Christian
workers realize it.It is a mouutain. "The
manatain ean never be brought down,"
says worldly speculation. "The mountain
cau never be made a plain," says asmall
faith in the churches. Wel), let us see.
Let us look about for the implements
we can lay oar hands on. Let us count
the munber on our side who are willing
to dig, with a shovel or bore a tunnel or
blast a rack. Let us see if, there is any
foreign help that will come in to re -
enforce us. I do not want to make myself
absurd by attempting an impossibility.
If it Is telly one spittle at the foot; of
Mount Blanc, if it is only one arm,
capable of lifting but a, few pounds,
agniust a mountain that weighs 100,000,-
000 tons, let us quit before we make our-
selves the travesty and 'caricature of tbe
universe. If we are to undertake this
job, first of all wean-ust have a competent
exigineor, one who knows all about ex-
eavatious, about embankments, about
tunnels, about inatmtains. I know
engineers who have carved= mountains,
cut down =ormolus, removed mountains.
I will do nothing unless I know who is
to be our engineer. Zerubbabel led at
the rebuilding of the ancient temple, and
Matthew Henry, the greatest of com-
mentators, deelares that our Zerubbabel
Is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Zerubbabel
of any text was only a type of the glori-
ous and omnipotent .Tesus, and as I
look up into the face of this divine en-
gineer aud see it glow with all the splen-
dors of the goddhead and see that in his
arin is the almightiness that fltuig out all
the worlds that glitter in the midnight
heavens, and that to lift the Himalayas
would cost hini no more effort than for
sne to lift an ounce, ray courage begins
to rally, and -my faith begins to mount,
and my enthusiasm is all aflaane, and
the words of my text this moment just
fit ray lips and express the triumph of
my soul, and I cry out: "Who art thou,
0 great mountain? Before Zerubbabel
thou shalt become a plain."
Use for Shovels.
My experience with the shovel are that
you cannot do much by one push of that
implement, and that after you have been
digging with it an hour what you have
accomplished seems very little, but just
go along by the place where they are
building a railroad through a mountain
and see what a great Work 1,000 shovels
can do and know that while there are
1,000 shovels at work on this side of the
mountain there are 1,000 busy on the
other side, and all I have to do is to
'manage sny own particular shovel. It
cheers me to think that against this old
mountain of sin there are hundreds of
thousands and millions of shovels this
moment busy, and we are all at work
under the one engineer who came down
fawn his throne = heaven to oversee and
help the removal of that mountain and
who has -contracted to have it done. I
have seen the contact, and he is well
paid. for it. The compensation promised
by the throne of .heaven'is, "I will give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance
and. the 'uttermost parts of the earth for
thy possession." The reason so many of
us are idle is that we want a bigger
shovel or we would liketo manage some
great hydraulic engine. No, brother.
Stick to your shovel. Dig away in your
Sabbath classes. Dig away in your mis-
sions. Dig away in your homes. Dig
away in your pulpits. Do the work next
to you. Do not spends too much time
looking at the great size of the mownMins or at the way others use their
Shovels. .A.11 that you can accomplish
toward the ramoving of that mountain
will be. with your own particular shovel.
Remember,. little . David with Saul's
helmet on him, dropping clear down
over ,his ears even auto his shoulders.
Rat when he got in his hand the•boy's
sling, how well he used it! If• you do not
understand Greek, do not attempt to tell
the people what the teat is . in the ori-
ginal. If you do not understand Latin,
attempt no drafts upon Latinity. You
who want to help in the removal of the
mountain hold on to your shovel. Mu&
time has 'been lost by the fact that many
of the sharpest shovels, instead of being
used for the removal of the Mountain,
have been used in fighting each other.
The •great Presbyterian church was
mightily hindered by the fight that for
years went on between old school shovels
and new school shovels, and it was not
until the meeting of the general assembly
at Pittsburg 30 or 40 years ago that many
good loon made up their minds, that
alawels are not made to fight teak but to
dig with. Many of the old tlieologiana
went avoand with bandaged foreheads
.which had siot been struck hy the swords
itt the battle for God., but by the Shovels
Of ecclesiastical imbroglio. They had a
special aandration fax that i saint o,f
David which said, "Bleased be the Lord
w hiell teat:het/1 my halals tcaivar Mal my
fingers to light." So also the afethofflat
chweli had a 'battle of shovels over the
questions of lay delegation and Yeomanly
representation. I • ma glad to say that
most of the ecclesiastical, pugilists in all
denominations are dead and that the),
hati big funerals.
But there are 80 many shovels now
rightly engaged that to statistics Call
count t,beni. I tell you the 71101111taill 15
eoming down. It is owning downraaidly.
It will all come down. There are those
who hem' or read these words who will
gaze upon its complete prostration, for
*hat is the use of rny keeping back any
longer the full statement of tbe feet,
which 1 hate somewhat delayed through
serinoliic strategy, the fact that
the Lord God Almighty, it the full play
of his omnipotence, will accomplish this
supernal work. If God can build a moan-
• tain, 1 guess he can remove a mountain.
A-fter God has given full opportunity for
the shovels he will come in with his
thunderbolts. We have aanplifled the idea
of the lannb of God. I tell you now of
the lion. Here is a thought that I have
never seen projected, and yet it is the
most cheering of all considerations and
plainly Scriptural, the thought that as at
the opening of the gospel drapensation in
the ()bristly and Johanian and Pauline
days the machiuery of the natural world
was brought into service, the shadow of
eclipses and the agitation of earthquakes,
tempests put to steep under the voice of
divine lullaby, iron bolts of paisons
shoved back by invisible muscle, kindling
fiaaue ou heads of worshippers, by
instantaneous pharmacy blasted vision
given full eyesight, and the deadreturned
from the eternal world, mingling amid
earthly scenes, so it will be again.
As I read my Bible, these superna,t-
pleas are to return. Again the eclipses,
as at the destruction of Jerusalem, will
put red wing under the moon and black
wing under the sun, and the mountain
will shake with the ague of excitemant
and hospital cots be emptied. as their
patients bound. into midden health and
the gospel a ineroy emphasized by most
treineudous speataeles. "And I beheld
when lie had opened the sixth seal, and,
lo, there was a great earthquake, and the
sun bee:tone black as sackcloth of hair,
and the 1110011 became as blood * * * and
every nsountain and island were moved
out of their places!" There you have it.
The- shovels now digging away at the
mountains to be re -enforced by thunder-
bolts. The gosnel is only partially suc-
cessful because we preach it amid all
placidities, the bearers having heard. the
invitation ne thousand times before and
expect to hear it a thousand times more,
but in coining times to be preached amid
pulverized rocks and stellar panies and
shattered masonry of cemeteries, from
which the pallid dead will spring iuto
roseate life. I say then the gospel will be
universally accepted. There is the pro-
gramme. First the shovels, tbeu the
thunderbolts. Ours the shovels, Gad's; the
tinuiderbolts. The text, which before we
uttered. with someStiing of trepidation,
now we atter in laugh of triumph, "Who
tut thou, 0 great mountain? Before
Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain."
Cheer tor Christian Worker.
Sometimes a general begins o battle
before he is ready, because the enenay
forces it on 111111. The general says:
"The enemy are pushing us, and so I
open battle. We are not suficient to cope
with them, but I bope the reserve forces
will come up. in time." The bottle rages,
and the general looks through /Ps field -
glass at the troops, bpt ever and anon he
sweeps his fieldglass backward and up-
ward toward the hill to see if the reserve
forces are coaning. "Hard pushed are
we," says the general. "I do wish those
re-enforceinexits would come up." After
awhile the plumes of the advancing cav-
alry are seen tossing on the ridge of the
hill, and then -the flash of swords and
then the long line of mounted troops,
their horses in full gallop, and the gene-
ral says: "All is -well. Hold out, my
men, a little longer. Let the sergeants
ride along the lines and cheer the men
and tell them • re -enforcements are com-
ing." And now the rumbling of the
batteries and gun carriage is distinctly
heard, and soon they are in line, and at
the first roar of the newly arrived artil-
any the enemy, a little while before so
jubilant, fall back in wild retreat, their
way strewn with canteens and knapsacks
and ammunition, that the defeated may
be unhindered in their flight.
That is just the way now. In this great
battle against sin and crime and moral
death the enemy seem too much for us.
More grogshops than churches. More bad
men. than good men, and they come up
with bravado and the force of great
numbers. They have opened battle -upon
us before we are in our strength ready to
meet them, and great are the discourage-
rnents. But steady there! Hold on! Re -
enforcements are coming! Through the
glass of inspiration I look and see the
flash of the sword of "him wbo hath on
his vesture and on his thigh a name
written, King of kings and Lord oflords."
All heaven is on our side and is coming
to the rescue. I hear the 'rumbling of the
King's maillery, louder than any thunder
that ever shook the earth, andwith every
rollof the ponderous wheels our Courage
augments, and when these re -enforce -
silents from heaven get inM line with the
force§ of God already ou earth all the
armies of =righteousness will see that
their hour of doom has come anti will
waver and fail back and take flight and
nothing be left of them save here and.
there, strewn by the wayside, an
agnostic's pen or h broken' decanter,. or
a torn playbill of a debasing amusement,
or a blasphemous' paragraph,. 'or a leper's
scale, or a aragone tooth, to show they
ever existed. Let. there. be cheering all
along the limes of Christian workers, over
the fact that what the' shotels fail to do
wifl be accomplished by the thunder-
bolts. "Who art thou, 0 great Mountain?
Befote aZerubbabel thou shalt become a
plain, a
The mountains look on Marathon,
Aix]. Marathon looks on the ,sea.
Shrine of the mighty, can it be
That this is all remains of thee?
A Whopper. •
De Crystal—Well, sir, I was out sein-
ing yesterday, and to my astonishnient
hauled up, with a lot of fish, the watch
I lost in the river eleven years ago!
Openface—Indeedl all rusted, I s'pose.
De Crystal—No, sir, in excellent state
of pieseivation—and running!
Openface—Conie off ! What kind of a
watch wa$ it?
De Crystal—A Water -bury,
CAN SATAN WRITE?
I:eniarkable Story of ci Conforrooe We-
WPC211 film and Sig ,nr Crispi.
We are interested. in the remarkable
debate between two foreign, theological
joeirtuas, the Volkszeit-ung of , Cologne
and the Pelikan of Feldberg, in the
larol, as to the authenticity of a signa-
ture of the devil which was recently dis-
covered in Rome. The 'detate grew out
of the publication of a tract, "'Die Gehee
ininis,se der Iloilo," or "The Secrets of
Heal," the production of a' pious -woman,
Miss Vaughan. It author gave an ac-
count of a conference that took place on
the night of Oct. 18. 1883, latweea the
devil and.Signor Orispi„ the man who
afterward becanie premier ba the govern
-
meet of the kingdom of Italy. It was
held in tbat Free1718.80718' lodge in Rome,
of which Crispi is a Member, aud the in-
terest of it lay in the .circuinstance that
the devil predicted that within a yecu.
from the time of the interview a , certain
woman whom he named woad I give
birth to a child destined to becoshe the
grandmother of a boy who would serve
as the most powerful of his earthly allies.
In testimony of the truth of this pre-
diction, u. doctuisent was drawn up, at
the end of which the devil wrote his title,
i'sanetas daemon prbautrious praeses,'"
which may be translated as "first pre-
siding sacred. devil." He did not write
in words, but in symbolical signs, such
as a rooster, a three -pronged the fork, a
pair of horns and a cauial appendage,
using for that purpose a pen which lay
in the lodgeromn. Other Freemasons
beside Signor Crispi kept art eye on bim
while he was engaged in writing, or
rather in drawing. The news of the
affair leaked out, and it came Mt° the
possession of Miss Vaughan, the author
of the tract on the subject. •
Dr. Mamie, the learued editor of the
Feld.herg Pelika,n, ccntsnds for the gen-
uineness of this siemature, appeals to
tradition itt support of his opinion and
fortifies his appeal witn arguments drawn
from theologians of distinction. Among
his backers may be uaraed the aristocrat,
Prince zu Lowenstein..
The Cologne Volkszeitung refuses to
give credence to the revelation made in
Miss 'Vaughan's tract It says that only
superstitious people catt believe in the
authenticity of the devil's signature, or
in the report of his interview with Signor
Crispi, the Freemason. While the 'Volk-
szeitung afarms that it is cortaia that a
man like Crispi may hold interview with
satan, sometimes known in. the Tyrol as
Vitro, it rejeots the testimony offered, as
proof of Vitra's appearance in the lodge
at Rome. How could Vitra know that
the woman Sappho would give birth to
the grandmother of the chief one of his
earthly allies?
The Pelikau bac replied to the Volks-
zeitung, The Volksseitung has made
answer to the Pelikau. Both of the theo-
logical journals have become very ranch
heated. while carrying on the debate.
What do we think of the case as it
stands? We frankly confess that we are
unable to answer the arguments of either
of the parties engaged in it. They go far
beyond our depth.
But one tbing we are able to say, and
It is that if the devil's signature it in
that, ifreemasons' lodge at Rona° to which
ex -Premier Crispi belongs, this Crispi
aught to be called upon to deliver it up,
His successor in office, the Marquis of
Rudini, has the 1008318 of compulsion in
bis own bands. The Corte di Cassazione
can issue a mandate in the ease. Parlia-
ment possesses the poWer to ma npon it.
The king cannot be disobeyed with
impunity': The symbolical signature,
rooster, three pronged fire fork, horns
and other thiugs would. be more interest-
ing than the Roman Coliseum, which is
a genuine relic.—Newslairls Sun.
A Titled Husband.
Wo d011bt 1± LS a delightful thing, if
yom• father has made some millions, to
dignify your obscure family by wedding
foiaigner with a well title. It is wise,
however, to make inquiries into his
chamber before actually going to church
with hint. From Paris there come two
comic tales about such a union. The
bride was showing a friend of hers the
other day over her gorgeously fm•nished
hotel, and in the drawn room t re iv her
attention to the magnificent chandelier.
Piqued by her lack of enthusiasm, the
bride remarked, "Well, you don't seem
to say much about my 44,000 chande-
lier?" "Four thousandpounds?" said the
friend, with a polite sneer. "Isn't that
piling it up rather high? That very
chandelier was offered to me for £2,300.
That afternoon the bride drove over to
the shop from which the chandelier came
and began an indignant speech about
the wickedness of charging her £4,000
for a chandelier offered to some one else
fax- a little more than half. The dealer
interrupted her: "Madame, you are mis-
taken. That chandelier was chosen by
your husband, was it not'?" "Yes," she
replied. ."I never saw it till it was put
up." "And. you gave him 100,000 francs
to pay for it with?" "Certainly." "We
offered it to him for 55,000 francs, but he
beat us down to, 50,000, and. that's all
we got. You Iliad better ask him to show
you the receipt. I think you will find he
has lost it."
at. little later the bride received a hill
for 40,000 francs for a .pearl necklace.
The husband had given it to her as a
birthday present, and she was pleased by
the kindly' thought, although she knew
well she would have to pay, as the
pocket money she allowed him would.
hardly cover such presents to his wife.
She was rather startled by the price,
since, though the pearls were fine two
rows did not seem to represent anything
like so large a sum; so the went to the
jeweler's to remonstrate with him for
cheating her husband. "But, madame,"
said the jeweler,•."really the price is very
fair. Five rows of such pearls, and very -
fair pearls, are not dear at 44,000 francs."
."Bert there are only two!" "Pardon me,
madame, five when we sold the necklace.
I can show you our book, with the de-
scription and number. of pearls." He
showed her the book, and she ;is no
longer delighted by her husband's 'kind
attentions. After all, one baldly expects
a husband to lake danser l'anse du
panier to make a bit for himself when
acting as steward to his wife. --London
Sketch.
A &ailerons Girl.
Mamma --Did you eat all that candy
that Santa Claus put in our stocking?
Ethel—No, mamma; I gave half of it
to that ragged Mary Dinnison that lives
in the alley. .
Mamma—You darling! I am proud of
my little daughter.
Ethel—Yes; she said ff I gave her the
candy, she'd let me lick her.
In Pinta or ale window.
Oplielia—That lace hosiery looks very
fragile. .
Delia—And yet each piece is capable
of holding a calf.
PROVIDENTIIiL RESC111.
FROM A LIFE BURDENED WI=
PAIN AND SUFFERING.
Languor. Severe ricottas:ems and Pains la
the Regioa of the Kidneys Bade the Lir*
of Mrs. McCause Miserable—Dr.
WU-
ii*m' Pink Pills Cured After 10thar
Medicines
from the Gravenhurst Banner.
Poor health is an affliction that is dread-
ed by every one, end the arst siga of ap-
proaching•disease is usually met with an
attempt oa the part of the patieut to cheek,
and kill it. Frequently, however, even
the most skilled physicians fail, and, dm
sufferer endures a, weary round of agony -
such as those .who are -in the full enjoy-
ment of health cats have 7)0 conceptSon of. ,
But when at last a Medicine is found that
will cure its worth cannot be estimated ia
dollars and cents. It is without price.
Suchis the opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh
adcCauce, of Ashdown, Ont. Mr. McCatatat
tells the story of his wife's illness and
cure as follows; "For three or four yeara
past my wife had been constantly failing
in health. The first symptoms of her
trouble were languor and loss or appetite,
accompanied by bearing down pains and
headaches, whicia affected her periodically.
As time grew on she was attacked with
pains in the region of her kidneys that be-
came almost unbearable owing to their
severity. Home remedies mad different
medicines were tried, but with no good re-
sults. Last winter she grew so weak acid
helpless that I was obliged to seek medical
aid for her, and accordingly sent her out to
Barrie, where she received the best medi-
cal attention, the result of which was only
slightly beneilciel. On her return, owing
no doubt to the tediousness of the journey,
she suffered from a relapse and her
trouble came back in a form more aggra-
vated than before, I noticed in a paper
which I was reading one day a testimonial
from one who had been cared of a similar
trouble, and although knowing that other
remedies had failed in my poor suffering
wife's case, there was yet a ray of hope. I
therefore procured a few boxes of Dr.'
William's Pink Pills and on ray return
home admiaistered the first dose to Mr
wife. It is perbaps needless to relate that
before the first supply was exhausted she
found great relief. My wife now com-
menced to enjoy a buoyancy of spirits and
kept on taking the Pink Pills with in-
creasing good results. By the tiros she
had used six boxes her condition had so
improved that her neighbors were almost
unprepared to believe the evidence ot their
own eyes when seeing the cbauge in her
appearance. Before taking the pills it
was a severe task evert to dress hetself.
much less to do any housework, while
now, although not having used auy pills
for more than a couple ot months, she at-
tends to all her household duties without
the slightest incoavenience. Taking all
things into consideration, I feel it a duty
I owe to other sufferers to recommend
these little pink messengers of health
which stood between my well-nigh dis-
tracted wife and the jaws of a lingering
but certain death."
The experience of years has proved that
there is absolutely no disease due to a
vitiated couclition of the blood or shattered
nerves that Dr. Williams' Pink Pill wiU
not promptly cure, awl those who are suf-
fering from such troubles would avoid
Much misery and save money by promptly
resorting to this treatment Get the
genuiajPitik Pills every time and do not
be persuaded to take au imitation or some
other remedy from a dealer, who, for tbe
sake of the extra profit to himself, may
say is "just as good." Dr. Williams' Pink
Pills cure wnen other medicines fail. a
only with the „Queen's Permission.
No part of a tree can be removed from
the grounds of Ilolyrood palace without
the permission of the Queen One, dating
from the region of Queen Mary, was re-
cently blown down, and before the gar-
deners could touch it a photograph had to
be forwarded to the Queen, who formally
ordered its removal.
Small Incomes in India.
Millions of men in India live, marry and
rear apparently happy children upon an
income which, even when the wife works,
is rarely above 50 cents a week.
The artist gets a glimpse of Heaven in
the meadow, where the farxner sees only
so much hay.
WOMEN'S WEAKNESS.
Female Complaints Combined Witt,
Kidney Troubles are Fatal.
LUCKY WOMAN ESCAPED.
Consented to Try Dodd' s Kidney P Ills
the Premier of Proprietary Medi.
eines, and is Now Strong
and Well—One Box
Cured kter.
Walkerton. Ont., Jan. 11.—Half a dol.
lar saved a woman's life in this town no
many months ago—only last Augnsta.to
be exact.
Half a dollar is the price of a box a
DODD'S KIDNEY PILLS. One box of
these far-famed and justly -famed pills
was enough to put Mrs. Elwena Ady on
her feet, when she was very ill with female
complaint, combined with Kidney trouble.
With this example in view, why should- •
there be a single woman in Canada totter-
ing on the brink of the grave, or goiag
about her work dragged down, dispirited,
despondent and discouraged?
Kidney diseases are fatal. They mean
slow death, if not cured. But there is a
cure, and it is the purpose of these lines to
demonstrate it. liens is Mrs. A.dy's testi-
monial.
Gentlemen,—I have been troubled
with a complaint called women's weak-
ness end Kidney trouble. I •read of
the many cares DODD'S KIDNEY
PILLS had done. I consented to try
them. I have used one box and I em
completely cured. No pains or back-
aches have ever come back. I can
bighly recommend them to all women.
You may publish this so as to help a
others.
MRS. E. ADY,
Walkerton, Ont.
August 8.
Any druggist bas DODD'S KIDNEY
PILLS. If your drueraist should be out of
them, address the nts_staS MEDICINK
COMPANY, Toronto. Price fifty cents A
box; six boxes for $2.50.
•