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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1897-9-2, Page 3t AT SEA IN A STORM. DR. TALMAGE ON THE STILLING OF THE WAVES. Be Tells the Familiar Bible Story With Dramatic Interest and Power — Life's Stormy Voyage and How Shipwreck May be Avoided. Washington, Aug. 29.—This sermon by Rev. Dr. Talmage will be of great solace to people who are finding their life a rough voyage. Text, Mark iv, 86: "And there were also with him other little ships, and there arose a great storm of wind. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." Tiberias, Galilee, Gennesaret—three names for the same lake. No other gem ever had so beautiful a setting. It lay in a scene of great luxuriance; the sur- rounding hills high, terraced, sloped, graved, so many hanging gardens of beauty; the waters rumbling down be- tween rooks of gray and red limestone, flashing from the hills and bounding into the sea. In the shore were castles, armed towers, Roman baths, everything attractive and beautiful; all styles of vegetation in shorter space than in almost any other space in all the world, from the palm tree of the forest to the trees of a rigorous climate. It seemed as if the Lord had launched one wave of beauty on all the scene and it hung and swung from rock and hill and oleander. Roman gentlemen in plea - bare bouts sailing the lake and country men in fish smacks coming down to drop their nets pass eaoh other with nod and shout and laughter, or swinging idly at their moorings. Oh, what a wonderful, what a beautiful lake) The Storm. It seems as if we shall have a quiet night. Not a leaf winked in the air; not a ripple disturbed the face of Gennesaret, but there seems to be a little excitement Op the beach, and we hasten to see what it is, and we find it an embarkation. From the western shore a flotilla pushing out; not a squadron or deadly armament, nor clipper with valuable merchandise, nor piratic vessels ready to destroy everything they could seize, but a flotilla, bearing messengers of life and light and peace. Christ is in the front of the boat, His disciples are in a smaller boat. Jesus, weary with muoh speaking to large multitudes, is put into somnol- ence by the rocking of the waves. If there was any motion at all, the ship was easily righted; if the wind passed from ono side, from the starboard to the larboard or from the larboard to the star- board, the boat would rock, and by the gentleness of tlio motion putting the Master asleep. And they extemporized a pillow made out of a fisherman's coat. I think no sooner is Christ prostrate and his heacl touching the pillow, than he is sound asleep. Tao breezes of the lake run their fingers through the locks of the worn sleeper, and the boat rises and falls like a sleeping child on the bosom of a sleeping loather. Calm night, starry night, beautiful night. Run up all the sails, ply all the oars, and let the largo boat and the small boat glide over gentle Genneseret. But the sailors say there is going to be a change of weather. And even the pass- engers can hear the moaning of the storm as it comes on with long stride, with all the terrors, of hurricane and darkness, The large boat trembles like a deer at bay trembling among the clangor of the hounds; great patches of foam are flung into the air; the sails of the vessels loosen, and the sharp winds crank like pistols; the smaller boats like petrel poise on the cliff of the waves and then plunge. Overboard go cargo, tackling and masts, and the drenched disoiples rush into the back part of the boat and lay hold of Christ and say unto him, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" That groat personage lifts his head from the pillow of the fisherman's coat, walks to the front of the vessel and looks out into the storm. All around him are the smaller boats, driven in the tempest, and through it comes the cry of drowning men. By the flash of the lightning I see the calm brow of Christ as the spray dropped from his beard. He has one word for the sky and another word for the waves. Looking upward he cries, "Peace!" Looking downward he says, "Be still!" Stilling the Waves. The waves fall fiat on their faces, the foam melts, the extinguished stars re- light their torches. The tempest falls dead and Christ stands with his foot on the neck of the storm. .And while the sailors are bailing out the boats and while they are trying to untangle the cordage the disciples stand in amazement, now looking into the'calm sea, then into the calm sky, then into the calm of the Saviour's countenance, and they cry out, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" The subject in the first place impresses me with the fact that it is very import- ant to have Christ in the ship, for all those boats would have gone to the bot- tom of Gennesaret if Christ had not been present. Oh, what a lesson for you and for me to learn 1 Whatever voyage we undertake, into whatever enterprise we start, let us always have Christ in the ship. Many of you in these days of re- vived commerce are starting out in new financial enterprises. I bid you good cheer. Do all you can do. Do It on as high a plane as possible. You have no right to be a stoker in the ship if you can be an admiral of the navy. You have no right to be a colonel of a regiment if you oan command a brigade. You have no right to be engineer of a boat on river banks or near the coast if you oan take the ocean steamer from New York to Liverpool. All you can do, with ut- most tension of body, mind and soul, you are bound to do; but, oh, have Christ in every enterprise, Christ in every ship! There are men who ask God to help them at the start of great enterprises. He has been with them in the past. No trouble can overthrow them. The storms might come down from the top of Mount Hermon and lash Gennesaret into foam and into agony, but it could not hurt them. But here is another man who starts out in worldly enterprise, and he depends upon the uncertainties of this life. He has no God to help him.After awhile the storm conics and tosses off the masts of the ship.. He puts out his lifeboat. The sheriff and the auctioneer try to help him off. They can't help him off. He must go down. No .Christ in the ship! Here are young men just starting out in life. Your life will be made up of sunshine and shadow. There may be in it aretie blasts or tropical tornadoeb. I meow not what is before you, but.I know if you have Christ with you all shall be well. , You may seem to get along without the religion of Christ• while everything goes smoothly, but after awhile, when sorrow hovers over the soul, when the waves of trial dash olear over the hurri- cane deck, and the bowsprit is shivered, and the halyard are swept into • the sea, and the gangway iscrowded with pirati- cal disasters—oh, what would you then do without Christ in the ship? Young man, take God for your portion, God for your guide, God for your help; then all is well; all is well for time, all shall be well forever. Blessed is that man who puts in the Lord his trust. He shall never be confounded. Look Out for Breakers. But my subject also impresses me with the fact that when people start to follow Christ they must not expect smooth sailing. These disciples get int() the small boats, and I have no doubt they said: "What a beautiful day this isl What a smooth sea! What a bright sky this is 1 How delightful is sailing in this boat, and as for the waves under the keel of the boat, why, they only make the motion of our little boat the more delightful." But when the winds swept down, and the sea was tossed into wrath, then they found that following Christ was not smooth sailing. So you have found it; so I have found it. Did you ever notice the end of the life of the apostles of Jesus Christ? You would say that if ever men ought to have had a smooth life, a smooth departure, then those mon, the disciples of Jesus Christ, ought to have had suoh a departure and such a life. St. James lost his head. St. Philip was hung to death on a pillar. St. Mat thew had his life dashed out with a hal- berd. St. Mark was dragged to death through the streets. St. James the Less was beaten to death with a fuller's club. St. Thomas was struck through with a spear. They did not find following Christ smooth sailing. Oh, how they worn all tossed in the tempest! John Huse in the fire; Hugh MoKail in the hour of martyr - dein; the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the Scotch Covenanters—did they find it smooth sailing? But why go to history when I can find all around me a score of illustra- tions of the truth of this subject? That young man in the store trying to serve God while his employer scoffs at Chris- tianity, the young men in the same store antagonistic to the Christian reli- gion teasing him, tormenting hire about his religion; trying to get him mad, -say- eing, "You're a pretty Christian!" Does this young man find it smooth sailing when be tries to follow Christ? Here is a Christitin girl. Her father despises the Christian religion. Her mother despises the Christian religion. Her brothers and sisters scoff at the Christian religion. She can hardly find a quiet place in which to say her prayers, Did she find it smooth sailing when she tried to follow Jesus Christ? Oh, no. All who would live the life of tho Christian religion must stiffer persecution. If you do not find it in one way, you will get it in another way. The question was asked, "Who are those nearest the throne?" and the an- swer carne back, "Those are they who canna up out of groat tribulation"—great flailing as the original has it; great flailing, great pounding—"and had their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb." Oh, do not be dis- heartened. 0 child of God, take courage! You are in glorious oompanionship. God will see you through all these trials, and he will deliver you. My subject also impresses me with the fact that good people sometimes get very much frightened. In the tones of these disciples as they rushed into the back part of the boat I find they are frighten- ed almost to death. They say, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" They had no reason to be frightened, for Christ was in the boat. I suppose if we had been there we would have been just as muoh affrighted. Perhaps more. In all ages very good people get very much -affrighted. It is often so in our day, and men say: "Why, look at the bad lectures. Look at the spiritualistic societies. Look at the various errors go- ing over the church of God. We are go- ing to founder. The ohurch is going to perish. She is going down." Oh, how many good people are affrighted by tri- umphant iniquity in our day, and think the church of Jesus Christ and the cause of righteousness are going to be over- thrown, and are just as much affrighted as the disciples of my text were affright- ed. Don't worry, don't fret, as though iniquity were going to triumph over righteousness. The Religious Gale. Throw all overboard because there is a peck of chaff, a quart of chaff, a pint of chaff I I say, let them stay until the last day. The Lord will divide the chaff from the wheat. • No Danger in Revivals. 0h, that these gales from heaven might sweep through all our churches! Oh, for suoh days as Richard Baxter saw in England and Robert MoCheyne saw in Dundee l Oh, for suoh days as Jona- than Edwards saw en Northampton! I have often heard . my fahter tell of the fact that in the early part of this century a revival broke out in Somerville, N.J., and some people were very much agi- tated about it. They said, "Ob, you are going to bring too many people into the church at once!" and they sent down to New Brunswick to get John Livingston to stop the revival. Well, there was no better soul in all the world than John Livingston. He went up. • He looked at the revival, They wanted him to stop it. He stood in the pulpit on the Sabbath and looked over the solemn auditory, and he said: "This, brethren, is in reality the work of God. Beware how you try to stop it." And he was an old man, leaning heavily on his staff, a very old man. And he lifted that staff and took. hold of the small end of the staff and began to let it fall very slowly through, between the finger and the thumb, and ho said, "O thou impenitent, thou art falling now—falling away from life, fall- ing away from peace and heaven,falling as certainly as that oane it falling through my hand—falling certainly, though per- haps falling very slowly." And the cane kept on falling through John Living- ston's hand, The religious emotion in the audience was overpowering and men saw a type of their doom as the cane kept falling and failing until the knob of the cane struck Mr. Livingston's hand, and he clasped it stoutly and said, "]3ut the grace of God oan stop you as I stopped that cane," and then there was gladness all through the house at the fact of pardon and peace and salvation. "Well," said the people after the service, "I guess you had better send Livingston home He is making the revival worse." Oh, for the gales from heaven and Christ on board the ship. The danger of the church of God is not in revivals. Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that Jesus was God and man in the same being. Hero he is in the back part of the boat. Oh, bow tired he looks, what sad dreams he must have! Look at his countenance; he roust be thinking of the cross to oome. Look at him, he is a roan—bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. Tired, he falls asleep; he is a man. But then I find Christ at the prow of the boat. I hear him say, "Peace, be still," and I see the storm kneeling at his feet, and the tempests folding their wings in his presence; be is a God. If I have sorrow and trouble and want sympathy, I go and kneel down at the back part of the boat, and say, "O Christ, weary ono of Gennesaret, sym- pathize with all niy sorrows, man of Nazareth, man of the cross." A man, a man. But if I want to conquer my spirit- ual foes, if I want to get the victory over sin, death and hell, I come to the front of the boat and I kneel down and I say, "e) Lord Jesus Christ, thou who dost hush the tempest, hush all my grief, hush all my temptation, hush all my sin." A man, a man; a God, a God. I learn once more from this subject that Christ can hush a tempest. It did seem as if everything must .go to ruin. The disciples had given up the idea of managing the ship, the crew were en- tirely demoralized; yet Christ rises, and he puts his foot on the storm and it orouohes at his feet. Oh, yes! Christ can hush the tempest. The Safe Harbor. A lion goes into a cavern to sleep. He lies down, with his shaggy mane cover- ing the paws. Meanwhile the spiders spin a web across the mouth of the cav- ern, and say, "We have captured him." Gossamer thread after gossamer thread is spun until the whole front of the cav- ern is covered with the spiders' web, and the spiders say, "The lion is done; the lion is fast." After awhile the lion has got through sleeping. He rouses himself, he shakes his mane, he walks out into the sunlight, he does not even know the spiders' web is spun, and with his voice he shakes the mountain. So nien come, spinning their sophis- tries and skepticism about .Jesus Christ. He seems to be sleeping. They say: "We have captured the Lord. He will never come forth again upon the nation. Christ is captured, and captured forever. His religion will never make any conquests among men." But after awhile the "lion of the tribe of Judah" will rouse him- self and come forth to shake mightily the nations. What is a spiders' web to the aroused lion? Give truth and error a fair grapple, and truth will come off victor. But there are a great many good peo- ple who get affrighted in other respects. They are affrighted in our day about revivals. They say: "Oh, this is a strong religious gale. We are afraid the church of God is going to upset, and there are going to be a great many people brought into the church that are going to be of no use to it." And they are affrighted whenever they see a revival taking hold of the churches. As though a ship captain with 5,000 bushels of wheat for a cargo should say, some day, coming upon deck, "Throw overboard all the oargo," and the sailors should say: "Why, captain, what do you mean? Throw over all the cargo?" "Oh," says the captain, "we have a peek of chaff that ` has got into this 5,000 bushels of wheat, and the only way to get rid of the chaff is to throw all thewheat overboard." Now, that is a, great deal wiser than the talk of a great many Christians who want,. to throw overboard all the thousands and tens of thousands of souls who have been brought in through great awakenings. •hild to pluck them. WHAT ALCOHOL DOES tion "of a state of mental exhilaration l 11 1 1 Ul arising from the increased flow of blood to the brain. s. IMPAIRS DIGESTION AND REDUCES Dr. Kellogg summed up theresultof s experiments in the following words:— MUSCULAR POWER. "The result of the administration of. Many Strange Tragedies - 1 one ounce of alcohol internally are as Whiskey Paralyzes the Action of the Gas- °'r''irsfollows:-- In t—To diminish nerve activity. trio Glands ---muscular strength. pima,.I by diminish cerebral aotiv- /shed One -Third Two Hours AtterTaking itirlhfrd-To impair the co-ordinating Two Ounces or spirits. power of the brain. "Fourth—To lessen muscular strength. Dr. John H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, • "Fifth—To decrease digestive activity Mich., is recognized as one of the great to a notable extent. est surgeons and medical authorities. in "Both my experience as a physician,". America, a member of the British Gy- , concludes Dr, Kellogg emphatically, naecologioal society, of the Society of "and laboratory experiments which I Hygiene of France, of the British and have conducted, to my mind, demon- American Associations For the Advance- strate very clearly that alcohol as not went of Science, of the American Society only of no value as an aid to digestion, of Miorosopists, of the American Electro but is in the highest degree detrimental." Therapeutic association, etc., and press- dent of tho Medical Missionary college.` THE PINT OF ALE. Dr. Kellogg has conducted investiga- I tions upon 2,000 different persons, to note the effects of alcohol upon the di- gestion and upon the muscular system. I Ise makes it his business to examine stomachs, and upon his skill and wis- dom in this depends in great degree his reputation. He has spent years in per -1 footing a mercurial dynamometer for testing the strength of each group of muscles in the body. He has a chrono- meter designed by Verdin of Paris, ' which measures time in hundredeths of a second. Dr. Kellogg gives to the New York Voice the result of his investigation of You hare bad trouble. Perhaps it was the little child taken away from you— the sweetest child of the household, the ono who asked the most curious ques- tions, and stood around you with the greatest fondness—and the spade out down through your bleeding heart. Per- haps it was an only son, and your heart has ever since been like a desolated castle, the owls of the night hooting among the falling rafters and the crum- bling stairways. Perhaps it was an aged mother. You always went to her with your troubles. She was in your home to weloome your children into life, and when they died she was there to pity you; that old band will do you no more kindness; that white look of hair you put away in the casket or in the locket did not look as well as it usually did when she brushed it away from her wrinkled brow in the home circle or in the country churoh. Or your property gone, you said, "I have so muoh bank stock; I have so many government securities; I have so many houses; I have so many farms;" all gone, all gone. Why, all the storms that ever tram- pled with their thunders, all the ship- wrecks have not been worse than this to you. Yet you have not been completely overthrown. Why? Christ hushed the tempest. Your little one was taken away. Christ says, "I have that little one. I can take care of him as well as you can, better than you can, 0 be- reaved mother!" Hushing the tempest! When your property went away, God said, "There are treasures in heaven, in banks that ever break." There is one storm into which we will all have to run the moment. when we let go of this life and try to take bold of the next, when we will want all the grace we oan have. We will want it all. Yonder I see a Christian soul rocking on the surges of death. All the powers of darkness seem let out against that soul— the swirling wave, the thunder of the sky, the soreaming wind, all seem to unite together, but that soul is not troubled. There is no sighing, there are no tears. Plenty of tears in the room at the departure, but he weeps no tears, palm, . satisfied, peaceful. All is well. Jesus hushing the tempest! By the flash of the storm you see the harbor just ahead and you are making for that har- bor. Strike eight bells. All is well. Into the harbor of heaven now we glide. We're home at last, home at last. Softly we drift on its bright, silv'ry tide. We're home at last, home at last. Glory to God, all our dangers are o'er. We stand secure on the glorified shore. Glory to God, we will shout evermore. We're home at last, horse at last. By Deeds of Kindness. The more of Jesus in the soul the sweeter will be our flavor, and herein shall other people know that Jesus abidoth in us because we have some good measure of His unselfish spirit. It is not to be demonstrated by the mere expressions of loyalty to Him, or even by remembering Him at the sacramental table only,: but by deeds of kindness toHimthose who represent Hiin His human- ity. The grapes on a Christian's branch ought to hang low . enough for a poor How John's Wife Laid the Foundation of a Fortune. It is a difficult matter to one accus- tomed to small daily indulgences to real- ize the expense thus incurred. A Manchester calico printer was asked on his wedding day by his shrewd wife to allow her two half pints of ale a day as her share of home comforts. John made the bargain cheerfully, feeling it hardly became him to do otherwise, in- asmuch as he drank two or three quarts a day. Tho wife kept the home tidy, and all went well with them, but as she took the motion of alcohol on the human atom- the small allowance eaoh week for house ooh. He says:— ; hold expenses she never forgot the "pint "In the first year of insurance between of ale, John." the abstainer and the nonabstainer there When the first anniversary of their is a difference of 27 per cent., from the wedding came, and John looked around second to the fourth year a difference of on his neat home and comely wife, a 26 per cent.; after the fourth year only longing to do something to celebrate the 10 per cont. Again, taking persons born day took possession of him, in the United States by themselves, the ' "Mary, we've had no holiday since we maximum expected loss on abstainers were wed, and only that I haven't a after the fourth year of insurance was penny In the world we'd take a jaunt to $2,219,207 and on nonabstainers $3,542,- the village and see mother. 671, and the actual losses respectively I "Would thee like to go, John?" she were 81,869,850 and $3,256,307, the per -asked. centages being 84 for abstainers, a differ- I There was a tear with her smile, for ence of 8 per cent. only." , it touched her heart to hear him speak Mr. McClintock has carried his exam tenderly, as in the olden times. ination still further and compared the "If thee'd like to go, John, I'll stand relative longevity of American born and treat." foreign born abstainers, and he reports' "Thou stand treat, Mary! Hast got a that the foreign born abstainers are fortin left thee?" longer lived, which suggests that perhaps' "Nay, but I've got the pint of ale," teetotalism is better suited to the oli- said she. matin and other conditions of life in "Got what, wife?" European countries than to those of the,"The pint of ale," she replied. United States. Whereupon she went to the hearth, .Actuary McClintock sums up the out- and from beneath one of the stone flags coupe of his researches in a cold, matter drew out a stocking, from which she of fact way and says:— poured upon the table the sum of 65 "There is no reason to distrust the threepenees ($22.81), exolaiming:— general result of this investigation. It I "See, John, thee oan have the hall- does not show that those afho drink only day." occasionally and not to intoxication or , "What is this?" he asked in amaze. those who drink habitualy, but lightly, I "It is my daily pint of ale, John." are in any way injured. It does not show He was conscience stricken as well as that all of those who drink heavily • amazed and charmed. must therefore necessarily die prerna-' "Mary, hasn't thee bad thy share? turely. It does show, however, that there Then I'll have no more from this day." is enough injury done to a sufficient And ho was as good as his word. They number of individuals to make the death had the holiday with the old mother, loss distinctly higher on the average. ' and Mary's little capital, saved from Mr. J. G. Van Cise, actuary of the "the pint of ale," was the seed from Equitable Life Assurance society, also which, as the years rolled on, grew shop, avid:— factory, warehouse, country seat and "All insurance records indicate that carriage, with health, happiness, peace abstainers from alcoholic beverages live and honor.—Selected. longer than nonabstainers. It is a fact 1 of nniversal experience that the highest I death rate is among persons engaged in I the liquor trade, while the lowest death rate is among clergymen, who, as a body, use less liquor than the' men of any other occupation. Another fact of the same general bearing is that in Great Britain and France the governments sell' annuities in large numbers to persons well along in life. For a certain sum they agree to pay the annuitant a fixed yearly incoine as long as he or she lives. In issuing these annuities those govern- nrents charge two rates. "It is an error to suppose that the proper means of determining the effects of alcohol upon digestion is by experi- ments performed by artificial digestive mixtures outside the body. Digestion in the flask is a very different thing from digestion in the stomach. Digestion in the stomach involves not only the so- called chemical action of the gastric juice, but also the formation of gastric juice. An agent which so paralyzes the activity of the gastrio glands as to pre- vent the formation of gastric juice must necessarily be equally efficient in dis- turbing digestionas an agent which neutralizes or inhibits the action of the gastric juice after it has been formed. Professor Chittenden's experiments thor- oughly show that alcohol roost decidedly I interferes with the paralytic or dissolv- ing action of the gastrio juice upon the blood. My own experiments, which I have many times confirmed by repeated observations upon different persons, show that alcohol prevents the formation of gastric juice in the stomach. Placing these two facts together, we find that alcohol, instead of being an aid to diges- tion, interferes with it in a most decided manner." Equally interesting with the expert- nrents upon the influence of alcohol upon ' digestion are the experiments made by Dr. Kellogg upon the effects of alcohol upon the muscular system. "A healthy young man of 18 years was carefully examined with reference to the effect upon the muscular system of two ounces of pure whisky, with the following result: Strength without stim- ulant, equivalent to lifting 4,881 pounds: strength two hours after taking two ounces of whisky, 3,385 pounds. "The experiment was repeated in different persons and with essentially the same result in each one. "The result shows that alcohol, in- stead of acting as a stimulant, or in- creasing the muscular and nervous energy of the body, as it is generally supposed to be capable of doing, statue ly diminishes both, and in a notable de- gree. It shows the actual strength to have been diminished nearly 1,500 pounds, or about' one-third. "The only apparent exception which could be taken to this conclusion was in a test taken 15 minutes after the ad- ministration of the aloohol, which showed a small increase of muscular strength, but a repetition of the test two hours later showed a diminution of more than 900 pounds, and ten hours later the pa- tient's muscular strength was still 800 pounds below his normal standard. The explanation of the apparent increase of strength immediately after taking the brandy is found in the remark made by the young man, that he felt more ready, for work than he did before and lifted with greater ease. ',He thought ho could lift as muoh again, but the result of his effort fell far short of his expeotations. This first effect was evidently due, not. to any strength derived from the alcohol, but to the benumbing infiuenceof alcohol beton the nerve centers, and the, produce. Kept His Pledge. Tho lodge of Good Tenrplars at Basle, Switzerland, has its meeting room pro- vided free of cost by the local govern- ment, and in addition it receives the sum of 80 francs per annum to assist its work. Several members of the lodge are re- formed men. One very remarkable ex- ample was employed as an agent for a wine merchant and was regarded as a hopeless drunkard. In a sober hour he sought the help of the Good Tenrplars, signed the pledge and was planed upon probation. Before he could become a member it was necessary that he should quit his employment. He did so, and was assisted by some of the lodge mem- ber to an inferior position in the office of a merchant. He kept his pledge, ad- vanced in his business, and it now a respectable member of the community. Soon after he joined the order he met with an accident and was carried to a hospital. His condition was critical and his weakness extreme. The attending physician ordered brandy and was about to place it to the patient's lips when he strnck the glass from the doctor's hand, exclaiming, "No, I would rather die than ever touch again the stuff which made me so vile I"—Banner of Gold. Drink and Disease. A man who drinks alcohol in any form to excess injures almost all of his organs. It is found that he is affected with rheu- matism and with serious stomach diffi- culties, his heart is likely to be affected, his liver thoroughly disordered and dis- eased, nerves in a fearful condition, be- sides other ills too numerous to mention. These diseases are either caused directly by the excessive use of alcohol or else they are greatly aggravated by the use of intoxicants, but they do not in any sense constitute the diseat,e of inebrity. Abstinence from liquor for a long enough period will restore these organs probably to their normal condition. The rheumatism will disappear, the eyesight become all right, and the disorders, if they are due to excessive drinking, will gradually disappear.—Banner of Gold. How to Keep Out of Prison. A mild mannered inmate recently asked the writer what he considered the "best way to keep out of prison." It may be inferred that the answer to this was easy—to remain honest. After looking carefully over the many easy routes to prison we have concluded that one way to keep out is to cultivate the habit of drinking water. There is no danger of your becoming an excessive water fiend. If you acquire a strong love for water, it will be as easy to keep out of prison as it is now to slide in on a beer keg. Water and honesty `nix as easily as do whiskey and crime. There is no more danger of a constant water drinker Doming to prison than there is of a cigarette smoker living to the age of 50.—Stillwater Prison 11i irror. No Barley for Halt.. The Christian Sootsman, Glasgow. stated that one day the late Mr. Joseph Sturge, a dealer in grain, mot a drunken man and questioned him as to his con- dition. The man replied that he got drunk at such and suoh a public house, and he added. "The beer was made from your barley." This statement startled him, and the next, issue of The Mark Lane. Express contained a notice from his flrni that under n6 circumstances would they supply barley for malting purposes. It cost them $4,000 a year, but they had a clear oonooience, and God blessed them.. Occurred Have This Dwelling, RULED BY MARRY PLEASANT. I>a It Sarah Althea Hill Began Her Ca- reer, Millionaire Bell Tet His Strange Death and His Son Just Escaped a Sire - liar Fate. San Francisco's house of mystery is opening at last. " • The old Bell mansion on the west side of Octasia street, between Sutter and Hush, is about to give up its secrets. For s quarter of a century this old house or its tenants have been mixed up in almost ev- ery sensation that has stirred the Pacific coast. It has always been the house of mystery. The Bell house is no tumble down, rat- tletrap of a ruin, with shattered corners for ghosts to crouch i u, or crumbling walls for the wind to howl through. On the contrary, says the New York Journal, it is a magnificent modern dwelling, one of the most commodious and beautiful in San Francisco, which is noted for its mag- nificent homes. Obviously it is the home of wealth and taste. It looks like a sign for respectabil- ity and conventionality, and yet the story of that house is interwoven with roan killing and suspected murder, fraud and crime, scandal and family quarrel. Just now it is ruled by an old negro woman, who somehow exercises tyrannical power over the widow of the roan who owned it and his children. This woman was once a slave, the story goes, She is now on her deathbed, and possibly that faot gives courage to the eldest son of the dead man to bring suit against his mother that the darkness of that household may be dissipated and the old black bag be forced to loosen her grip upon the divided family and its fortunes. Everybody in the west knows this negro woman, who has trailed through the courts like a blaok shadow in case after case in- volving the richest families on the Paoifio coast. Mammy Pleasant is the name they aU )snow her by, How she Dame to California is lost in the mazes of the tangled stories that are told of early days on the coast. It is enough to date her back to the time when Senator William Sharon was in the flush of his fortune, squandering millions in his evil pleasures. It was boom time HAMMY PLEASANT. on the coast. Tho Comstocks bad yielded up their 8500.000,000 worth of bullion, and it was his share of this that enabled old Sharon, the most vicious probably of a oir- cle of rich mon the like of which had not existed since the ancient regime, to defy every law and conventionality. Thomas Bell, who owned the house of mystery, was another of this ilk. It was in this house that the saddest and most dramatic romance of the west began. Senator Sharon brought to the house a beautiful, delicate, refined young southern woman who was then known as Sarah Althea Hill, and who later became the wife of Judge Terry. She was the girl who claimed Sharon as her husband and produced the contract of marriage that the California courts decided was written by him. It was in this house, according to the testimony, that the contract was drawn up, and Mammy Pleasant was a witness to it. One morning in October, 1892, Thomas Bell was found dying at the foot of the great staircase. Somehow he had fallen over the baluster rail at the head of the stairs. He died without telling how it hap- pened. It seemed impossible that it should have been an accident, yet Bell was reputed to be worth $12,000,000, and nobody could understand why he might have thrown himself over the railing to the marble floor. There were dark whispers of a still more terrible explanation, but nobody knew and nobody dared voice an accusation. Four years later bis oldest son, Fred Bell, went over the same baluster rail on the third story and fell to the hall below, where his father was killed. Fred Bell did not die, but broken limbs and bruised joints kept him a cripple for eight months. He finally recovered, but he never ex- plained the accident. There was a story of a midnight bunt for burglars, during which the young roan stumbled over the railing, but the Bells never told any details. The fall is as much a mystery as the other one four years be- fore, though Fred Bell is not naturally a close mouthed fellow. Nobody knew that there was strife in the big house until the other day, when Fred Bell filed a petition in the superior court praying for the removal of bis mother as the guardian of the persons and estates of her children. Ho asked to be appointed in her stead, and charged his mother with "drunkenness and in- decency." He had much to say about the domination of the old nogress in the household. There are other stories connected with the old place, tales of extraordinary orgies. that made the big house infamous 20 years ago. Mammy Pleasant knows them all, but Mammy Pleasant does not tell. Crookes' Experiments With Spiritualism. Professor William Crookes, the eminent English scientist, in the midst of all his regular work of investigation, still finds some time to devote to a study of the pe- culiarities of spiritualism. He is credited With baying accumulated a long array of facts which seem to contravene all the known laws' of nature, but does not Ven fere map aVanatiaa as y