HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1897-8-26, Page 3•
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HIS NARROW ESCAPE
JOB DID IT "WITH THE SKIN OF
HIS TEETH."
Bev. Dr. Talmage Chooses a Unique Top
to Preach an Eloquent and Powerfi,t1
Sermon—Encouragement for Those Who
Consider Their Cases 3$1odeless.
New Yorks Aug. 22.—In this discourse
of Dr. Talmage is mighty encouragemetat
for many who consider their own ease
hopeless. His text is Job xix, 20, "I am
escaped with the skin of my teeth."
Job had it hard. What with boils and
bereavements and bankruptey and a feo
of a wife he wished he vats dead, and I
do not blame him. His flesh was gene
and hisbones were dry. His teeth wasted
away until nothing but the enamel
seemed left. He cries out, "I am escaped
with the skin of my teeth."
Thera has been some difference of
opinion about this passage. St. Jerome
and Schultens and 'Drs. Good and Poole
and Barnes have all tried their forceps
on Job's teeth. You deny my interpreta-
tion and say, "What did Job know
about the enamel of the teeth?" He knew
everything about it. Deutal surgerr is
almost as old as the earth. The mum-
mies of Egpyt, . thousands a years old,
are found to -day with gold filling in
thole teeth. Ovid and Horace and Sol
-
anon alai Moses wrote about these im-
portant faators of the body. To other
provoking complaints Job, I think, has
added an exasperating toothache, and
puttiug his hand agaiust the inflamed,
face he says, "I aan escaped withethe
skin of my teeth."
A very narrow escape, you say, for.
Job's body and soul, but there are thou-
sands of men who Inalto just as narrow
escape for their soul. Thae was a dine
when the partition between them and
ruin was no thicker than a tooth's
enamel, but, as Job finally escaped, so
have they. ;Thank God! Thank God!
Paul expresses the same idea by a
different figure when he says that some
people are "saved tut by fire." A vessel at
sea is in flames. You go to the stern of
the vreeel. The boats have shoved off.
The V.:altos advance. You can endure
the hatt no longer on your face. You
slide deem on the side of the vessel and
hold on with your fingers until the
forken tongue of the fire begins to lick
the beek of your hand and yon feel that
you matt fall, when one of the lifeboats
comes back, and the passengers say they
think they have room for one more. The
boat swings under pm. You drop into it
—you are saved. So some men are pur-
sued by temptations until they are' par-
tially consumed, but after all get off—
"saved as by fire."
But, I like the figure of .lob a little
better than that of Penh because the
pulpit has not worn it out, and I want
to show you, if Goa will help, that some
men make narrow escape for their souls
anti am saved as "with the skin of their
teeth."
It is as easy for some people to look to
the cross as for you to look to this pul-
pib, hiild, gentle, tractable, loving, you
expect them to become Christians. You
go over to the store and say, "Grandee
joined the church yesterday." Your
q business comrades say, "That is just
what might have been expected; he al-
.
.6 ways was of that turn of mind." In
youth this person whom I describe was
always good. He never broke things. Re
never laughed when It was improper to
laugh. At 7 he could sit an hour in
church, perfeAly quiet, looking neither
to the right hand nor the left, but
straight into the eyes of tin minister, as
though hu understood the whole discus-
sion about the eternal decrees. He never
upeot things nor lost thein. He floated
into the; kingdom of God so gradually
that it is uncertain just when the mat-
ter was decided.
Here is another one, who started in
life with an uncontrollable spirit. He
kept the nursery in an uproar. His
mother found him walking on the edge
of the house roof to see if he could bal-
ance himself. There was no horse that
he dared not ride, no tree he could not
climb. Els boyhood was a long series of
predicaments; his manhood was reckless,
his middle very wayward. But now he
is converted and you go over to the store
and say, "Arkwright joined the church
yesterday." Your friends say.: "It is
not possible! You must be joking." You
say: "No; I tell you tho truth. He
joined the church.", Then they reply,
"There is hope for any of us if old Ark -
weight • has become a Christian!" In
other words, we will admit that it is
more difficult for some men to accept the
gospel than for others.
may be preaching to some whca'have
out loose from churches and Bibles and
Sundays, and who have no intention of
becoming Christians themselves, and yet
you -may find yourself escaping before
you leave this house as "with the skin
of your teeth." I do not expect to waste
this hour. I have .seen boats Off from
Cape May or Long Branch and drop
their nets and after awhile come
i‘ ashore, pulling in the nets without hay-
, ing caught a single fish.. It was not a
good day or they had not the right lcind
ot a net, but -we exPect no such excur-
sion to -day. The water is full of fish, the
wind is in the right direotion, the gospel
net is strong. 0 thou didst help Simon
land Andrew to fish, show us how to oast'
the net on the right side of the ship.
IR Some of you in coining to •God will
have to run against skeptical notions. It
is useless for pimple to say sharp and
clotting things to those who . reject the
Christian religion. I cannot say subh
things. By whatprocess of temptation
or trial or betrayal you have come to
your present state I ltnow not. There Etre
, two gates to your nature—the gate of
the head and the gate of tbe heart. The
gate of year head is locked with bolts
and bars that an archangel could uot
• break, but the .gate of your heart swings
easily tat its hinges If I assaulted your
body with weapons, you would meet me ,
with weapons, . and it would be sword •
stroke fer sword stroke and wound for
• wound end blood for blood, but if I
come and knock at the door of your
house you open it and give ene tee best
seat in your parlor. If I should oome.at
you now with an argennont, you would
answer Me with an aiguesent; if with
, sarcasm you would answer mo with
sarcasm; blow. • for blow, stroke for
stroke, but when I come and knock at
ithe ,door of your house, yet open it and
say, "Come in, My brother, and tell me
all you know a,bout Christ end heaven "
Listen to two or three questions: Are
you as happy as you used to be when
you believed in the truth of the Chris-
tian Would • you like, to .havo
lye= children, travel on in the road in
,which you are now traveling? You had a
relative who professed to be a Cheistian
,
and was thoroughly consistent, living
and dying in the fattit of the gospel.,
Would you not like to live the same
quiet life and die the same peaceful.
death? I bold in my hand a letter sent
me by one who has rejected the Chris-
tian religion. It says: "I am Old enough
to know that the joys and pleasures of
life are evanescent and to realize the fact
that it must be ooinfortable in old age
to believe in sanethieg relative to the
future and to have a faith in some sys-
tem that proposes to save.
, "I am free to oonfess that I, would
be happier if I oould exeroise the simple
and beautiful faith that Is possessed by
many whom I know. I am not willingly
out of the churchor out of' the faith.
My state of uncertainty is one of unrest.
Sometimes I doebt my immortality and
look upon the death bed as the closing
scene, after which there is nothing.
What shall I do that I have not done?"
Ah, skepticism is a dark and doleful
land. Let inc say that this Bible is either
true or false. If it be false, we are as
well off as you. If it be tree, then which
of us is safer?
Let nie ask also whether your trouble
has not been that you confounded Chris-
tianity with the inconsistent character
of sonic who profess it? You are a law-
yer. In your profession there are mean
and dishonest men. Is that •.anything
against the law? You are a doctor. There
aro unskilled and 'contemptible men in
your profession. Is that anything against
medicine? You are a merobant. There
are thieves and defrauders in your busi-
ness. Is that anything agaenst merchan-
dise? Behold, then, the unfairness of
charging upon Ohristiaeity the wicked-
ness of its disciples! We ndrnit 801110 of
the charges against those who profess
religion. Some of the most gigantic
swindles of the present day have been
carried an by members of the church.
There 'are men" standing In the front
rank iu the .thurches who would not be
trusted for $5 without good collateral
security. They leave their business dis-
honesties in the vestibule of the chute%
as they go in and sit at the communion.
Having concluded the sacrament, they
get up, wipe the wine from their lips, go
out and take up their sins where they
left off. To 'serve the devil is their regu-
tar work, to serve Carl' a sort of play
spell. With a Sunday sponge they eepect
to -wipe off from their triteness slate all
the past • week's inconsistencies. You
have no mote right to Mite such a outlets
life as a specimen of religion than you
bave to take the twisted irons and split
timbers that lie on the beach at Coney
Island as a 'specimen of an American
ship. It is time that we draw a line be-
tween religion and the frailties of those
who profess it.
Do you not feel that tbe Bibbe take It
all in 1111, is about the best book that the
world has ever seen? Do you know any
book that has as much in it? Do you not
think upon the whole that its influence
has been benefleent? I come to you with
bath hands extended toward you. In ono
hand I have the Bible and in the other
hand I have nothing. This Bible in one
hand I will surrender forever just as soon
as in my other hand you can put a book
that is better.
I invite you back into the good old
fashioned religion of your fathers—to the
God whom they worshiped, to the Bible
they read, to the promises on which they
leaned, to the erase on which they hung
their eternal expectations. You have
not been happy a day since you swung
off. You will not be happy a minute
until you swing back.
.Again, there may be some who in the
attempt after a Christian life will have
to run against nowerful passions and ap-
petites, Perhaps it is a disposition to
anger that you have to contend against,
and perhaps, while in a very serious
mood, you hear of something that makes
you feel that you roust swear or die. I
know a Christian man who was once so
exasperated that he said to a mean cus-
tomer, "I cannot swear at you myself,
for I emu meneber of the church, but if
you will go down stairs my partner in
business will swear at you." All your
good resolutions heretofore have .been
torn to tatters by explosion of teinper.
Now there is no harm in getting read
if you only get mad at sin. You need to
bridle and saddle those hot breathed
passions and with them ride down! injus-
tice and wrong. There are a thousand
things in the world we ought to be mad
at. There is no harm in getting redhot
if you only bring to the forge that which
needs hammering. A man who has no
power of righteous indignation is an im-
becile, but be sure it Is a righteous in-
dignation and not a petulant's' that blurs
and unravels and depletes the soul.
There is a large class of persons in
inidlife who have still in them appetites.
that were aroused in early manhood at a
time when they prided themselves on
being "little fast," "high livers," "free
and easy," "hail fellows well inet."
They are now paying in compound inter-
est for troubles they collected 20 years
ago. Some of you are trying to escape,
and you will, yet very narrowly, "as
with the skin of your teeth." God and
youit own soul only know what the
struggle is. Omnipotent grace has pulled
out many a soul that was deeper in the
mire than you are. They line. the beach
of heaven, the multitude whom God has
rescued from the thrall of suicidal habits.
1! you this day turn back on the wrong
and start anew, God will help you.
• Oh, the weakness of human help! Men
will sympathize for awhile, and then
turn you off. I;f you ask for their par-
don, they will give it and say .they will
try yen again; but falling -away. again
'under the power of temptation they
oast you off forever. • But God forgive•
seventy times seven; yea, seven hutdrede
thnes; yea, though this be tho ten thou-
sandth time, be is more earnest, more
sernpathetio, more helpful this last time
dan whets you took your first misstep
If With all the influences favorable for
a right life men 'make so many Mie-
• takes, how much harder is it when, for
instance, sane' appetite thrusts its iron
grapple into the roots of the tongue and
pulls a loan down with hands of destrtue
teen 1 If under such circumstances be
ereak•away, there will be no sport io the
undertaking, no holiday enjoyMente but
a struggle in which the wrestlers move
from side to side and bend and twist and
watoh'for au opportunity rto, get in a
heavier stroke midi with one final effort,
in which the muscles are distended and
the veins.. stand out, and the blood
starts, the swarthy habit • falls under the
knee of . the victor—esoaped at last as
with the skin of his teeth."
The shiP Emma, bounce from ,Gotten
-
burg to Harwich, was 'sailing on, when
tbe lean on the , lookout saw something
that he pronounced a vessel bottom up.
There was soneethieg on it that looked
like a Sea gull, but was afterward found
to be a waving handkerchief.. • In the
smallboat the crew —pushed out to the
wreck and fottnd that it was a capsized
vessel and that three men had . been digt
•
ging their way °air through ,he bottom
•of toe ship. When the vessel capsized,
they bed uo means of (tempo. .The cap-
tain took. Ms penkoife and dug away'
• through the planks until his knife broke.
Then an old nail was found, with which
• they attenspted to scrape their • way up
out of the darkness, eaoh • one working
Instil his hand was well nigh • paralyzed,
and he sank Week faint and sick. After
loin and tedious work, the light broke
through the bottom of the ship. A hand-
• kerchief was hoisted. Help oame. Tbey
were taken on board the vessel and saved.
Did ever men come so near a watery
grave without dropping into it? How
narrowly they escaped—escaped. only
"with the skin of their teeth." There
are men who have been •Capsized of evil
passions and capsized midocean, encl
they are 1,000 elites away from any
shore of help. They have for years been
trying to dig their way out. Tbey have
been digging away and digging away,
but they can nova be delivered unless
now they will hoist some signal of dis-
tress. However weak and feeble it may
be, Christ will see it and bear down
upon the helpless craft and take them on
board, and it will be known on earth
and in heaven how narrowly they escaped,
"escaped as with the skin of their teeth."
There are others who in • attemptiog
to come' to God must run between a
great many business perplexities. If a
man go over to business at 10 o'clock: in
the morning and come away at 3 o'clock
be the afternoon, he has solne religion,
but how shall you find time for rellgimas
coutempation when you are driven front
sunrise to sunset and have been for five
years going behind in business and are
frequently dunned by creditors whom
you caneot pay, and when from Monday
morning until Saturday night you are
dodaing bus that you caenot meet? You
walk day by day in uncertainties that
have kept your brain op fire for the past
three years. Sento with less business
troubles than you have gone °ritzy. The
clerk has heard a noise in the back
counting room and gone in and found
the chief man of the firm a raving
maniac, or the wife has heard the bang
of a pistol in the back parlor and, gone
In, stumbling over the dead body of her
husband—a suicide. There are inert pur-
sued, harassed, trodden down and scalped
of business perplexities, and which way
to turn next they do not know. Now God
will not be bard on yeu. no meows
what obstacles are in the way of your being
meChristian, and your first effort in the
• right direction he will crown with suc-
cese. Do not let satan with cotton bales
and kegs, and hogsheads anti counters
and stooks of unsaleable geods block up
your way to heaven. Gather up all your
energies. Tighteu the girdle about your
loins. Take an agonizing look into the
face of Goa and then say, "Here goes
ono grand effort for life eternal," and
then bound away for heaven, escaping
"as with the skin of your teeth."
In the last days it will be found that
Hugh Latimer and John Knox and Huss
and Ridley were not the greatest martyrs,
but Claestiau anon who went up ineor-
rupt from the contaminations and per-
plexities of Pennsylvania avenue, Broad
streee, State street and Third street. On
earth they were called brokers or stook
jobbers or retailers or importers, but in
heaven Christian 'moos. No faggots
were heaped about their feet; no inquisi-
tion demanded from them recantation;
no soldier aimed to pike at their hearts,
buteghey had mental tortures compared
with which all physical consuming is as
the breath of a spring morning.
I flnd in the community a large class
of men who have been so °heated, so
lied about, so outrageoosly wronged.
that they have lost their faith in every-
thing; in a world where everything
seems so topsy turvey they do not see
how there can be any God. They - aro
confounded and frenzied and misan-
thropie. Elaborate arguments to prove
to them the truth of Christianity, or the
truth of anything else, touch them no.
where. Hear me, all such mon. I preach
to you no rounded periods, no ornamen-
tal discourse, but put my hand. on your
shoulder and invite you into the peace
of the gospel. Here is a rook on which
you may stand firm though the waves
dash against it harder than the Atlantic
pitching its surf clear above Eddystone
lighthouse. Do not charge upon God all
these troubles of the world. As long as
the world stuck to God, God stuck to the
world, but the earth seceded from his
government and hence all these outrages
and all these woes. God is good. For
many hundreds of years he has been
coaxing the world to come back to him,
but the more be has coaxed the more
violent have men been in their resist-
ance, and they) have stepped back and
stepped back until they bave dropped
into ruin.
Try this God, ye who have had the
bloodbounds after you and who have
thought that God has forgotten you. Try
him and see if he will not holp. Try
him and see if he will not pardon. Try
him and see if he will not save. The
flowers of spring have no bloom so sweet
as the flowering of Christ's affections.
Mar stus hath uo warmth compared with
the glow of his heart. The waters have
no refreshment like the fountain that
will slake the thirst.of thy soul. .At the
moment the reindeer stands with his lip
and nostril thrust in the cool mountain
torrent, the hunter may be coming
tbrough the thicket. Without crackling a
stick under his foot, he comes close by
the stag, aims his gun, draws the trigger
• and the poor thing rears in its death
agony and falls backward, its antlers
• crashing on the rooks, but the Panting
heart that drinks fram the water brooks
of God's promise shall never be fatally
wounded and shall Dever die.
This world is a poor portion for your
soul, 0 business man! • An eastern king
has graven on his tomb two 'fingers,
representing as sounding on each other
with a snap, and under thera the Motto,
"All is not worth that." Apigins Ocellus
habged himself bectoIse his steward in-
formed hilt: that he hadonly A80,000
]eft. All of this world's riches make lent
a small inheritance fa a soul. Robes-
pierre attempted to win tho applause of
• the meld; but when he was dying a wo-
man came rushing through the crowd,
crying to him "Muederer of rny kindred,
descend to bell, (severed with the curses
,of evay Mother in Thanes!" • Many who
have .expeeted the plaudits Of the world
have died under its anathema.
Oh, fled yea peace in God: Make one
strong pull fax heaven. No halfway work
will do it. There. sometimes 0032309 a
tine on shipboard when everything 33111St
be sacrificed to save the passengers. The
cargo is nothing, the rigging nothing:
Thecaptain puts .the trumpet to his lip
end shouts, "Cut away the mast." Some
of you have been tossed and, driven, aeld
you havu in your effort to keep the'
world well nigh lost year 'soul. Until
you have decided this matter let every-
thing else go. • Overboard with all the
other anxieties and, burdees. You will
• ••-•••--
^ +
have to drop the sails of your pride and
cut away the mast. With one earnest cry
Lor help put your cause into the hand
of him who helped Paul out of the
breakers of Halite, Aild who, above the
shrill blast of the wrathlest tempest that
ever blackened the sky or shook the
ocean, can hear the faintest imploration
for rueroy, •
shall close this sermon feeling that
some of you who have considered your
case as hopeless will take heart again,
and that with a blood red earnestness,
snob as you have never experienced be-
fore, you will start for the good land of
the gospel, at last to look back, saying:
"What a great risk I ran! Ahnost lost,
but eavedl Just got through and no
morel Escaped by the skin of nay teeth."
SHOT BY THE PRINCE.
After Wales Had Sweetened the wounds
• They ilecanae a Matter of Pride.
The Prince of Wales • is so impatient
and intolerant of any carelessness when
out shooting, assailing with the bitterest
invectives any one who is so uufortunate
as to have an accident with ids gun, that
it is rather amusing to hear of his being
himself guilty of the very fault which he
regards with so much irritation in
others. It seems that while staying with
the Earl of Crewe at Frystott Hall, near
Pontefract, during the Doncaster races,
the Prince, with his bosa Lord London-
derry and Mr. Harry Stoner, went out
shooting rabbits. The Prince fired on one
Occasion so carelessly that the entire
charge struck some iron railings, or
feece,when it rebounded into the faces of
five of the beaters, who were "raoging"
bushes near by. One of the beaters, a
burly Yorkshire man, who received the
largest portion of the charge in the face,
berated the Prince roundly for his care-
lessness, asking him, with a number of
choice and picturesque expletives, to
turn his gun some other way.
However, the Prince treated the men
With so muoh generosity afterward that
they now speak of being shot by the heir
apparent to the English throne with a
considerable degree of pleasure and pride,
and aro selling the pellets taken from
various parts of their aeatemy for quite
a considerable sum to well-to-do people of
the district
God is Love.
Love is the highest experience of the
human soul. Faith and hope, it Is true,
are gifts from God to man, but love is
the very essence of God bimself. God is
lave. When God imparts love to us He
impartHimself. "Every one that loveth
Is born of God, and knoweth God."
There is no simpler truth in Scripture
than this of God's love to man, and yet
I knew of no more difficult subject to
present to the world. Could I but make
the world understand and believe that
"God is love" I should never preach from
any other text. My last days would be
devoted to proclaiming that one fact in
every part of the world, and I know that
every day would be a veritable Pente-
cost. Fax if the world were convinced
that God was love, a God, of mercy, and
not of judgment, our mesons would be
empty, and the Kingdom of God would
be establishad in our midst. For love
begets love; and if we can make men
really believe that God loves them many
will love Him in return.. We are apt to
judge others by ourselves. If a man is
covetous he thinks every one else is
covetous; if he is base, every one else is
base. And so men would think of God
as like themselves; and because they
love those only who are lovable, they
thilk 0! God as only' loving those who
are good and who are deserving of His
love.—Dwight L. Moody In Ladies'
Home Journal.
Opposed Long Engagements.
"So you are engaged?" remarked the
girl in the buff top -coat.
"Yes, dear," replied her dearest friend.
"Charley has asked nee to marry him
and I consented,"
"How lovely. When is it to be?"
"When are we to be inarrietl?"
"Yes. I want to know the date so I
can get my dress for my part as a brides-
maid. 5tou know you promised that I
should be your bridesmaid when you got
naarried."
"It hasn't been fixed yet."
"I hope it will be soon."
"But it won't be. You see, I am not
very rich and Charley Is poor. We have
decided to wait until he can save enough
money to furnish a house."
"That's too bad."
"Don't you approve of long engage-
ments?"
"No, I don't, you see—"
"1 didn't at first. But Charley succeed-
ed in converting me. Why do you oppose
them? Tell me so I can tell Charley."
"Well, you know the fashion in engage-
ment rings changes so. Next year the
ring he gives you now will be out of fas-
hion and then what will you do?"
"That's so. I'll see Charley at once."
—Chicago limes -Herald.
Give and Yo Shall Receive.
"Cast thy bread upon the waters and
thou shalt find it after many days."
Cast your bread of kindnest upon the
evorld; cast your bread of wisdom upon
the world; benefit somebody by what you
have. "Give and it shall be given unto
you, good measure, pressed down and
running over. Do you think a good deed
ever went unrewarded? I answer for you.
Never. A alma deed is in itself its own
retvard. 11 pays an interest in the best
bank -book that ever was held, and that
is your own heart. Every good deed ex-
alts, ennobles the door. Consciously or
unconsciously, you are finding the bread
that you oast upon the waters in a
nobler life, a life of larger possibilities;
for ono good deed leads to another, and
life to be real is full of such avenues of
action, such growth, such possibilities.
These good deeds may cost you little or
they may cost you much. --Rev. M. D.
Tolman. •
Get Right atNight.
"Let not the sun go down upon your
wrath." Let us instantly crush the be-
ginnings of envy, jealousy and bate in
our hearts, never allowing the day to
close on a bitter feeling. • The hour of
evening prayer, when .wo bow • ab God's
feet, should always be a time for getting
right everything that may have gono
wrong with as during the • day. Then
every injury should be forenven when we
pray, "Forgive us, as we forgive," Then
every spark Of envy or jealousy or aegoe
should be quenched, and the love of
tiniest should be allowed to flood our
hearts. We should. never allow the sun to
go down on our anger.
I• le Elad It.
Cora—What did yeu, spy when Dick
expeessed a desire to kiss you?
Dora—I told him that 1 supposed he
was just mein enough to have his oven
way.
CAUSES INSANITY.
The Effects of Alcohol on the Erato and
-Nervous System.
Dr. Bedford Pierce, medical superins
tendent of the York Retreat, England,
in a recent article in the Medical Pioneer, ,
cane attention to some raost interesting
and important facts in relation to the
effects of alcohol upon the brain and
nervous system. Dr. Pierce shows from
statistics that more than 14 per cent. of
all oases of insanity in England are due
to aleohol, 20.08 uer cent. of caseso!
insanity in men being the result of aloe,
hol, and 8.1 in women. At the Royal
Edinburgh asylum, the number of cases
a alcohol% insanity during the past 15
years WU 16.4 per cent. During "influ-
enza year," this number was suddenly
increased, doubtless as the result of the
extensive use of alcohol as a remedy for
la grippe.
The effects of alcabol are shown to be
hereditary—at any rate as regards idiocy
aod imbecility. We quote as follows
from the article referred tot—.
"Dr. Howe, of Massachusetts, in ex
amining the antecedents of 800 idiots,
found that 48 per cent. were the children
of habitual drunkards. Dr. Beach, out of
430 patients in Darenth idiot asylum,
found 31 per cent. similarly the progeny
of drunkards.
"Dr. Legrain, in a recenb work upon
'Social Degeneration and Alcoholism,'
has published an account of the descend-
ants of 00 drualtards that he personally
has traced. This work thews conclusively
that in such families a very largo num-
ber of the children die young, and that
the families rapidly die out; that epilepsy,
insanite and other nervous disorders aro
extremely 410M111031.
"Before leaving this part of my paper,
It may not be out of place to express the
opinion that I consider the influence of
alcohol upon the brain of infinitely
greater importance than its influence
upon the circulation on upon other parts
of the body. And it is on this account
that I regret thee we have, so fax as I
know, to look to Germany for workers
to elucidate the action of alcohol and
other drugs upon the mind.
"In England it IS true that we have
beard of the watering of geraniums by
diluted solutions of alcohol, and of at-
tempts to aceustom water -fleas to live in
weak spirits and water; but we hear
that wither geraniums nor water -fleas
flourish. All this, however, is remote
front the problem in hand, and the skep-
tical persoa ie not convinced by deduc-
tions drawn from such experiments. The
work done by Prof. KraepoIin and his
pupils in Heidelberg promises to be of
very great importance. Unfortunuately
fax us, his book detailing his experiments
and researches into the mental phenom-
ena produced by aleohol and other drugs
has not been translated into English.
"Kraepelin has summed up his condo -
sloes as to the action of alcohol in his
‘Psychologische Arboiten.' He states that
-
experiment bas shown that the idea that
alcohol strengthens has arisen from self-
deception. Alcohol only facilitates the
discharge of motor impulses, and does
not make them more powerful. If there
is any strengthening effect, any increase
of power, it is very transitory, and is
quickly followed by a pronounced dimin-
ution, which takes some time to disap-
pear. He goes on to say: 'Moreover, the
powers of conception and judgment are
from the beginning distinctly affected,
although NS% perceive nothing of it. The
actual facts are exacaly the opposite to
the popular belief. I must confess that
my own experiments, extending over
more than ten years, and the thearetical
deductions therefroru have made nee an
opponent of alcohol.' "
The observations of Prof. Kraepelin
agree exaotly with experiments under-
taken several years ago by the writer,
which clearly show that alcohol even in
moderate doses diminishes the acuteness
of all the perceptives, and the ability of
the brain to receive impressions and to
transmit impulses. Two ounces of brandy
lessened a young man's lifting capacity
more than 25 pr cent. Science gives na
countenance to the use of alcohol, even
in the greatest moderation.—Good. Health
The Proportion of Honest People is Very
The other day a reporter put an inno-
cent and inconspicuous little advertise-
ment hate a daily paper announcing that
he had found a pocketbook containing a
considerable sum of money, which he
would be pleased to return to the owner
if the latter would call at a certain place
During the next four days the reporter
was visited by 818 persons, of whom 317,
on being asked if they had lost a red
morocco pocketbook contaMing some
visiting 'cards and postage stamps, a
newspaper clipping and $185 in cash, re-
plied that they could not tell a lie—they
had.
The 818th person, an elderly woman
with a thin nose and a mole on her
ohin, thought there was nearer $200 than
$185 in the pocketbook, because the had
$230 when she got to town, and the pur-
chases which she made (a complete list
of which she recited with great earnest-
ness) came to a very little, if anything,
over $25.
The reporter was compelled, in the in-
terests of strict veracity, to state that he
hadn't found any such pocketbook. The
experience which he gained during these
four days convinced the journalist that
appearances are very deceptive, and tbat
many people who seem poor—or even
penniless—are in • the habit, Av.:weever
they take their walks abroad, of carreing
considerable sums of money with them.
• To Fight Opium Habit.
It is satisfactory to know that in ac-
cordance with the' reconnnendations of
Mr. E. 3. Wilson' M.P., and the two
native members ofthe late royal corn-
niission, the Indian government has at
last taken important inasures against the
vice a opium smoking in India. The
opium =eking dens have been sup-
pressed, and the sale of the drug, when
prepared for smoking, has beeti declared
• Not Fanatical at .4.11.
'William Lloyd Garrison once said: "It
is a cheap device to brand the temper-
ance movement as fanatical. Now I deny
that it has a single feature of fanaticism,
for it is based upon physiological prinoi-
pies, cheseioal relations, the welfare of
SOOisty, the laws of self-preservation, the
claims of seffering humanity—all that is
noble in patriotism, generous in philan-
thropy and pure mad good in Christian-
ity."
Brian Boroihme Harp.
• The harp of Brian Boroiliane, the Irish
king of 900 years ago, is in the museum
of Trinity college, Dublin. Itis 82 inches
high. The sounding board is of oak and
the uppertnost arta is capped with silver.
It contains a largo crystal set in silver.
A DRUNKEN WILLIAM TELL
Temperance Stoll, Front the Wilds ofl
Montana.• ,
'B'en, whose boy 're you?" The voice'
Was thick and husky.
• "You'rn, pop." •
'An' who's the best shot in these
parts, Pen? Tell them fellers."
• The xems's dull eyes fated themselves
on the boy. The little 'fellow's Attie
lighteeed up, and he aeswered, looking
round dellantly:—
"My pop's the best shot in tdontan-
ny."
A silence fell over the crowd, and.
something of pride gleamed from the
whisky -dimmed eyes of old Billman.
The he said, lauding the boy an apple:—
"Tbese fellows 'low I'm no good, Ben,
an' I'm' just goin' to do our Willyum
Tell act, and show 'em that elm Hillman
kin draw as tine a bead now as ever he
could."
Hillman patted his son's bead with a
trembling band, and the boy drew him-
self proudly as he took the apple rrom
his father.
"Go over to that trYle, Bon," corn: -
mended Hillman, at lest, and the boy
walked with a fearlese step to the place
indicated, turned his back ta tbe tree,
reinoved his hat, baluaced the an': le on
his bead, then placed his hands behind
him. There was not a quiver in hie faoe,
riot 8 sh Wow of fear. Kis father whom
he loved, and who loved him. was the
marksmen. Old I3illtoan rithati his gun
to his shoulder. Tbe weapon shook In
bis nerveless hands like a reed. Uttering
an imprecation, he lowered the gun and
brushed his sleeve arress his totes, tried
again, but still without sgeeess.
"1 kuow what's the matter," he mut-
tered, and took a drink from a bottle
In his pocket. "Now. then; all right,
Ben?"
"All right, pop."
A short moment the gun troinhled in
Billinan's hands and then—
Spring!
It was a strayme, dull sound, not like
the emelt of a bullet through oak, but
more like—
Alas! the smoke had cleared away, and
the boy was ling in a lifeicss heap upon
the ground—killel by his drunken flther I
A cry as of a wild IPar.T, a rush. and old
Hillman hail the Wetly form in his
arms.
"Kill me:" shrieked the old man,
reeking to an I fro, "hill me!" But the
miners pass:•,i silently away .114* by one,
and left the eld man alone with his grief
and his deafe—D atroit Free Press,.
Hol.v to 'lean and Curl re:nisers.
White or Ice% colored featirrs can be
washed in hozoin without lwing their
curl or color. They should be swung in
the air until k iry. Another plan fax white
Leathers is to wash them in warm water
and castile s ap, rinsP three times to re-
move fully all thp soap, pass through a
warm solution of oxalic acid a111il then
lightly starch. Dry In a want room by
lightly beatine each feather againet the
hand or near the fire. To cart intrich
feathers have a dull knife with the top
hollowed out near the leant if you are
going to make a business of it. Hold
your feather neer a live but not suffi-
ciently near to scorch It, shaking it gen-
tly until warm. Them holding tee feat
ther in the IA hand, place the fiber of
the feather te tween the thumb and knife
edge and. draw it elong quickly, curling
the end only If feathers are damp at
any time, the ourl may be retained by
holding thehat over the lire and waving
it until dry. Then place in a cool room
for the fibers to stiffen. Feathers may
also be curled over a knife bold near a
hot flatiron, the heat making the curl
more durable. A little blue in the water
in which white feathers aro washed im-
proves the color.
To make Blaeltberry Cordial.
Take very ripe berries and put them
in pomelain lined lettle on b.. k of
range. Let them come to a boil, etirring
oceasionally to crush ti.e berries. When
the juice seems to be extracted. take
from the fire and when cool onougb to
handle strain through a jelly bag. To
each gallon of juice add 3 pounds of out
eager. Take a goad handful of stick cin-
namon, one of whole cloves, one of all-
spice. Tie these up in a piece of bobinet
or mosquito netting and put in your ket-
tle with juice and sugar. Boil until it is
a thick stamp, remove from the the and
when cool take out the spieo bag and
add to each gallon of syrup one quart of
good, old brandy. Bottle, cork and seal
and it will keep well and improve with
age.
The quantity of spit cs givert for black-
berry cordial in this recipe is intended
Lor three or four galloes of juit e. If less
is made, a smaller quantity of spices will
be sufficient, but the whole spices are
much better to Use thial the ground, be-
iott purer and stronger.
The Gibraltar Fortress.
The g.vatest fortress in the world is
Gibe/tit:tr. The height of the rock is over
1,400 feet and this stupendous precipice
is pierced by miles of galleries in the
solid stone portholes fax cannon being
placed at frequent intervals. The rook is
perfectly impregnable to the shot of an
enemy, and, by means of the great ele-
vation, a plunging fire clan be directed
from an enormous height upon a hostile
fleet. From the water batteries to a dis-
tance two-thirds • up the rock one tier
after another of cannon is • presented to
the evenly. A garrison of from 5,000 to
10,000 troops is maintained, with pro,
visions and ammunition for a six months'.
siege. In 1779 the clebrated siege lasted
three years. The fortress was successfully
defended by 7,000 British, and attacked
by an army of over 40,000 men, with
I.,000 pieces of artillery, forty-seveu
of the line, ten great floating batteries
and great numbers of smaller boats. For
months over 6,000 shells a day •were
thrown into the tower. •
• Tee al:1%0:ft llonee.
The bones of old Tecumseh, skeleton
No. 26, of the MoKees Rock mound, are
lyiiag in state in a glass case in the Car -
bogie Museum. Aroend the neck are the
bone beads and ornaments, just as they
were dug from the earth. When Andrew
• Carnegie views the remains next Thurs-
• day at 2 o'olock this inscription will ten
him what he is looking at:—
• "This skeleton was kunst 15 feet and
4 incises from the top, and near the cen-
ter of the mound: From its positien anti
the number of its ornaments; implements
and weapons found with this skeletal,
it' is inferred that this is the warrior for
whom the mound was built."
• To improve, green peas put the pods
into a pot, oOver and boil thoroughlY;
then strain and put the peas into the
same water and boil tattler. With the
butteroalt and pepper add a small pinch
at smear.
"'nee;