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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1894-8-9, Page 3eeeee' ' • TRH SKIN OF HIS TEM BEVDR TALIYIAOR ON THE SUB • JECT " NARROW ESCAPES." Another (Arent ltesson Prom the Book o • ./on and From an Incident in the 1.1t or the Prennet-Other ExpreSSienti 0 tite Beteonevie, July 29th, 1804.-aRev• Talmage has selected as the subject of hi semen for to -day, through the Foe "Narrow Escapes," the text being take from Job 19 : 20, "I am escaped with th skin of my teeth," Job had It hard. What with bone, and bereavements, and bankruptcy, and a fool of a wife, he withed he was dead ; and I do not blame him. Ma flesh was gone, and his bones were dry. His teeth wasted away until nothing but the enamel seemed left, He cries out, "I am cooped with the akin of my teeth." .There has been some differences of opin- ion about this passage,• St. Jerome and Schultens, and Doctors Good, and Pool, and Barnes, have all tried their forceps on Job's teeth. You deny my interpretation, and say, What did Job know about the enamel of his teeth ? " He know every. thing about it. Dental surgery is almost as old es the earth. The mummies of Egypt, thousands of years old, are found to -day with gold -filling in their teeth. Ovid, and Horace, and Solomon, and Moses wrote about these important factors of the body. To other provoking complaints I think, has aided an exasperating tooth- ache, and, putting his hand against the in- flamed face, he says, "I am escaped with 'the skin of my teeth." A very narrow escape, you say for ,Job's body and soul ; but there are thousands of men who make just as narrow escape for their soul. There was a time when the partition between them end ruin was no thicker than a tooth's enkinet, but, as Job finally escaped, so have they. Thank God I thank God 1 Paul expressos the same idea by a differ- ent figure when he says that some people are "saved as by fire.' A vessel at sea is in flames. You go to the stern of the yes. sel. The boats have shoved off. The flames advance ; you can endure the heat no longer on your face. You slide down on the side of the vessel and hold en with your fingers, until the forked tongue- of the fire begins to lick the back of your hand, and you feel that you must fall, when one of the' lifeboats comes back and the passengers say that they have room for one more. The boat swings under you -you drop into it -you are saved, So some men are pursued by temptation until they are partially consumed, but after all get off - saved as by fire." But I like the figure of Job a little better than that of Paul, be- cause the pulpit has not worn it out ; and I want to show you, if God will help, that some men make narrow escape for their souls, and are saved as "with the skin of their teeth." It is as easy for some people to look to tke Cross as for you to look to this pulpit. Mild, gentle, tractable, loving, you expect them to become Christians. You go over to theeatore and say, "Granclon joined the (Murcia yesterday." Your business com- rades say, "That is just what might have been expected; he always was of that turn , of mind." In foals, this person whom I ne describe was always good. He never broke ethingsee He never laughed when it was improper to laugh. At seven he could sit an hour in church, perfectly quiet, looking neither to the right nor to the left, but straight into the eyes of the minister, as though he understood the whole discussion about the eternal decrees. He never upset things, nor lost them. He floated into the kingdom of God so gradually that it is uncertain just when the matter was decid- 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 balance himself. There was no horse he dared not ride - no tree he could not climb. His boyhood was a long series of predicament ; his man- hood was reckless • his midlife very way- ward. 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 1 You must be joking 1" You say, "go; I tell you the truth. He joined the church." Then they reply, "There is hope for any of us if old Ark- wright has become a Christian !" In other words, we all admit that it is more difficult for some men to accept the Gospel than for others. I may bb addressing sore who have cut loose from churches; and ible, and Sun- days, and who have at present no intention of becoming Christians themselves, but just to see what is going on; and yet you may find yourself escaping, before you hear the end, as "with the skin of your teeth." I do not expect to waste this hour. I have seen boats go off from Cape May or Long Branch, and drop their nets, and after a while come ashore pulling in the nets without having caught a eiagle fish. It was not a good day. or they had not the right kind of a net. But we expect no such excursion to -day. The water is full of fish; the wind is in the right direction ; the Gos- pel. net is strong. 0, thou who didst help Simon and Andre tie to fish, show us to -day , how to cast the net on the right side of the Ship! Some of you in coming to God, will have to run against sceptical notions. It is use- less for people to say sharp and cutting thing e to those who reject the Christian religion. 1 cannot say such things. By what proem of temptation, or trial, or be- trayal, you have come to your present state I know not. There are two gates to your nature; the gate of the head and the gate of the heart. The gate of your head ift looked with bolts and bare that an arch- -angel could not break, but the gate of your heart swinge easily on its hinges. If I assaulted your body with weapons, you would meet nee with weapons, and it would be sword -stroke foe sword -stroke, and wound for wound, and blood for blood. But if I come and knoek at the door of your house, you open it, and give the the best jest in your parlor, If I ehoulci come at you to -day with an argument, you would answer ins with an argument; if with sar- casm, you would answer me with eereastre; blow for blow, stroke for stroke; but when I come and kuook at the door of your heart you open it and Say, "Come in,'my brother, aud tell me all you Itnew e'en= Christ and heavesn7 • Lis toll l'e?, letl'e Or three queetiene Are Ybet tie happy as, you used to be when you believed iii the truth of the Cheistian ligion ? Would you like tl have your emici, ren travel on in the road in Whielt you are now traveling? out had a relatiote erlio professed to be a eihrietiee, and was thor- oughly coneistents living and dying in the felt!). of th (kaye7 Would you not like • to live the same (inlet life, awl die the same peaoeful death? I re0e4Ved a letter sent pi e by one who 'has rejected the Ohrietian religion, It says, "I nut; old enough to know that the joys and pleasures of lite are evanescent, and to realize ,the fat that it must be comfortable it: old ago to believe in something relative to the futere,eaqd to have a faith in some system that Proposes to save. I am free to elm. fens that I would be happier if I could exeeeise the simple and beautiful faith that IS possessed by many whom I know. I am not willingly out of the Church or out of the faith. My state of uncertainty is one of unrest. Sometimes I doubt my immortality, wed look upon the death -bed as the closing evene, after which there is nothing, What shall I do that I have not done?" Ah I scepticism is a dark and dole- ful land. Let me say that this Bible is either true or falee. If it be false, we are as well off as you; if it be true then which of us. is safer Let nie also ask whether your trouble has not been that you tonfouncled Christianity with the ineoneistent character of me who profess it. You are a lawyer. In your profession there are mean and dishonest men. Is that anything against the law? You are a doctor. There are unskilled and centemptible men in your profession. Is that anything against medicine? You are a merchant There are thieves and de- frauders in your business. Is that any. thing against merchandise? Behold, then, the unfairness Of charging upon Christian- ity the wickedness of its disciples. We ad- mit some of the charges against those who profess religion, Senile of ttie most gigantic, ;swindles of the,preseet day have been car- ried on by members of the Church. There are men in the churches who would Opt be trusted for five dollars without good colla- teral security. They leave their business dishonesties in the veetibule of the church as they go in ated 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 in their regular work ; to Serve God it sort of play -spell, With a Sunday sponge they expect to wipe off from their business slate all the past week's in- consistencies.'you have no more right to take suoh a man's life as a specimen of re- ligion than you have 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 between religion and the frailties of thote who profess it. Do you not feel that the Bible, take it shin all, 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,eupori the whole that its influence has been beneficent? I come to you with both hands extended towards you. In one hand I have the Bible, and in the other I have nothing. This Bible in one hand I will surrender forever just as soon as in my other hand yoe can put a book that is better. To -day I invite you, back into the good old fashioued religion of your fathers -to the God whom they worshipped, to the Bible they read, to the promises on which they leaned, to the cross 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 91 you who, in the attempt after a Christian life, will Frave to run against powerful passions and appetites. Perhaps it is a disposition to anger that you. have to contend against; and perhaps, whenin a very serious mpod,you hear of something that makes you feel that you must swear or die. I know of a Christ- ian man who was once so exasperated that he said to a mean customer, "I cannot swear at you myself, for I am a member of the Church ; but if you go down stairs my partner in business will swear at you." All your good resolutions heretofore have been torn to tatters by explosions of temper. Now there is no harm in getting mad if you only- get mad at sin. You need to bridle and saddle those hot -breathed passions, and with them ride down injueticeand wrong. There are a thousand things in the world that we ought to be mad at. There is no harm in getting red hot if you only bring to the forge that which needs hammering. A Men who has no power of righteous in- dignation is an imbecile. But be sure it is a righteous indignation, and not a petu- lancy 'that blurs, and unravels, and de- pletes the eoul. There is a large class of persons in mid- life who have still in them appetites that were aroused in early manhood, at a time when they prided themselves on being a "little fast," "high livers," "free and easy," "hail fellows well met." They are now paying in compound interest for troubles collected twenty years ago. Some of you are trying to escape, and you will - yet very narrowly, "as with the skin of your teeth." God and your 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. If you this day turn your, back on the wrong, and start anew, God will help von. Oh, the weakness of fehman help! Men will sympathize for a while and then turn you off. If you beg for their pardon they will give it, and say they will try you again; but falling away again under the powerof eemptation,they castyou offforever. But God forgives seventy times seven; yea, seven hundred times ; yea, though this be the ten thousand th time He us more earnest, more sympathetic, ntore helpful this last time than when you took your first mis- step. • If, -with all the influences favorable for a righeelife, men make so many mistakes, how nifich harder it is when, for instance, some hpfietite thrusts its iron grapple into the roots of..Athe tongue.; and pulls a man down with hands of destruction. If, under such oireumstances, he break away, there will be no sport in the undertaking, no holiday enjoyment, bat a struggle in which the wrestlers move from side to side, and bend, and twist, and watch for an oppor- tunity to get ire a heavier stroke, until, with one fleet effort;, in which the muscles are distended and the veins stand out, and he blood startes the swarthy habit falls lacier the kfiees, of the viotor-eseaped at AO, as with the skin of his teeth. The ship "Emme " bound from Gotten- btirg to Harwich, was Sailing on, when the Ian on the look.out saw something that he renounced a vessel bottom up. There was something on it that looked like a sea - but was afterward found to be In wav- e handt...”ninef. in the mall hoot the 1 ml 7: Plifi Otit fotild tourid hat it was a capsized vessel, and that three ien had been working their way out hrough the bottom of the ship, When Is veseel capsized they had no Means of edghe e. Tcaptain took hie penkuire.arld ug away through the plank until hie knife relit), Thee an old nail was found, with which they attempted to :weep° their way ut of the darkneee, tete!), one working mitil is hand was Well high paralyzed, and he n sank back faint and efek. After lexi an tedious Work, the light broke through th bottom, of the ship, A handkerchief ava heistered. Iffelp came. They were take on board t4 vessel and saved. Did eve matt 00nie so near a watery grave wit -lion dropping Into it /low narrowly the ethseesirpetdoe-i,he.s,c,aped only. "with the skin a There are men Who have been capsized 0 evil passioes, and capsized nild-oceen, and they are a thousand miles away from arty shore of help. They have for years been trying to dig. their way out,. They hay been digging away, and digging away, bu they can never be delivered urilese now they will hoist some signal of distreee HoweVer weak and feeble it may be Chris will see it, and bear down upon the helpies craft, and take them on board ; and it be known on earth and in heaven how nar- rowly they eseaped"-"escaped as with the skin of their teeth. There are others who, in attempting to Come to God, must run between a, great many business perplexieiee. If a man toes over to business at 10 o'clock in the morn- ing and comes away at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, he has some time for religion'; but how !shall you' find time for religious contemplation when you are driven from sunrise until sunset, and have been for five years going behind in business, and are frequently dunned by creditors whom you cannee pay, and when, from Monday morn., Mg until Saturday night you are dodging bills that you cannot meet 1 You walk day by day in uncertainties that have kept your brain on fire for the past three years. Some, With less business' troubles than you, have gone crazy. 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 ha sheard the bang of a pistol in the beak parlor, and gone in, stumbling over the dead body of her husband -a suicide. There are in this house to -day three hundred men put -sued, harass- ed, trodden down, and scalped of business perplexities, and which way to turn next they do not know. Now, God will not be hard on you. He knows what obstacles are in the way of your being a Christian, and your first effort in the right direction He will crown with success. Do not let Satan, with cotton -bales and kegs, and hogsheads, and counters, and stocks of unsaleable goods, block up your way to heaven. Gather up all your energies. Tighten the girdles about your loins. Take an agonizing look into the face of God, and then say, "Here goes one grand effort for life eternal," and then bound away for heaven, escaping "as with the skin of your teeth." In the last day it will be found that Hugh Latimer, and John Knox, and Huss - and Ridley were not the greatest martyrs, but Christian men who went up incorrupt from the contaminations and perplexities of Wall Street, Water Street, Pearl Street Broad Street, State Street, Third Streeta Lombard Street and the Bourse. On earth they are called brokers, or stock -jobbers, or retailers, or importers; 'but in heaven, Christian heroes. No fagots were heaped about their feet; no inquisition demanded from then i recantation; no soldier aimed a tortures, compared with which all physic - el consuming is as the breath of a spring mspoirkneianttheir heart; but they had mental g. I find in the community a large class of men who have been cheated, so lied about, So outrageously wronged that they have lost faith in everything. In the world where everything seems so topsy-turvy, they do not see how there can be any God. They are confounded and frenziedeand misanth- ropic. Elaborate argument to prove to them the truth of Christianity, or the truth of anything else, touches them nowhere. Hear me, all such men 1 I preach to you no rounded periods and ornamental discourse ; but I put my hand on your ehoulder, and invite you into the peace of the Gospel. Here is a rock on which you may stand firm, though the waves dash against it harder than the Atlantic, paching 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 hundred's of years He has been coaxing the world to come back to Him ; but the more He has coaxed the more violent have men been in their resistance, and they have stepped back, and stepped back; until they have dropped into ruin. Try this God, ye who have had the blood- hounds after you, and who have thought that God had forgotten you. Try Him and see if He will not help. Try Him and see if Be 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. The sun bath no warmth compared with the glow of His heart. The waters have no refreshment like the foun- tain that will slake the thirst of thy soul. At the moment the reindeer stands with his lip and nostril thrust into the cool mountain torrent, the hunter may be coming through the thicket. Without cracking a stick under his foot, he comes close by the stag, aims his gun, draws the trigger, and the poor thing roars in its death agony and falls backward, its antlers crashing on the rocks ; but the panting heart that drinks from the water -brooks of God's promise shall never be fatally woundee, and shall never die. - This world is a poor portion for your soul, oh, business man? An Eastern king had graven upon his tomb two fingers, re- presented as sounding upon each otherveith a snap, and under them the motto, "Allis not worth that."Apicesus Cceli us hanged him- self because his steward informed him, that he. had only twenty thousand pound e ster- ling left. All of this world's riches make but a small inheritance for a soul. Robespierre attempted to win the applause of the world; but when he was dying a woman came rushing through the crowd, crying to him, " Murderer of my kindred, descend to hell, ocid v,erewith the curses of every mother in France I" Many who have expected the plaudits of the world have died under its Anathema Marauatha. Oh, find your peace in God. Make one strong pull for heaven. No half -way work will do it. There sometimes comes& time on ship -board when everything must be sacrificed to save the passengers, The car- go ie .pothing, the rigging nothing. The baptam puts the teumpet to his lip and Omuta, "Cutaway the mast 1" Some of you have been tossed and driven, and you have, in your effort to keep the world, well-nigh lost your soul. Until you have decided this matter, let everything else go. Over - with all ell .thoee othee enxieteeti and tmr-clens 1- You Will hai)e to di,. Op the sails of your pride, and cut away the mast I With One earnest or for help, put your came into the hand of Min who helped Paul out of the breakers of Monte, and who, above the shrill blast of the wrathiesb teiapest that ever blaekened the sky or hook the :mean, oan hear the faintest lea ploration for mercy, • I shell conclude, feeling that some of you, who heve eon- sidered year ease hopelees, will take heart PROM ELM (MAT'S TELAIJTOGAArl,r. AS SENT. Russian Military Secret. There seems to be no doubt that the Russian Government is in possession of a shell which has extraordinary powers of penetration. This was proved by the result of some recent trials of English armor plate. at the artillery polygon at Okhta, near St. Petersburg. All the shells treated by the secret Russian process penetrated the targets entirely, and sped some thousand yards to he rear, while the other shells, under similar conditions, though obtaining greater penetration than has ever yet been reached by any projectiles known in England, were stopped and broken up. The secretly im- proved shells passed right through a wood- en screen erected a short distance from the backing of the plates, so that there could be no . doubt that they went through the plates undamaged, although no one was allowed to see them afterwards. The message can be made of any length by means of rolls of paper, both at the transmitting and receiving ends, which are AS REOEIVED. fed off as fast as the pencil and the pen re- cord the words. Prof. Gray, who invented the telephone, thinks that in time the telautograph may supplant the telephone in usefuleese, and that telautograph stations, where a man can write a letter to his wife or sweetheart and have it sent by electricity instead of using the lees expeditious method of the mails, will be scattered thoughout the big cities. In a thousand and one ways the telautograph could be made useful in busi- ness and social life, but in none more so, possibly, than in th e instantaneous transmis- sion of sketches for newspapers. This achievement is not yet definitely reaChed, but it is in the air. A writer in the Pall Mall Budget is authority for the statement that remarkable results in this direction have been accomplished, and sev- eral of these sketches as transmitted by telautograph, are printed in the Pall Mall Budget and here reproduced. The sketches as received, to be sure, are mere line draw- ings of a crude character, and are not as clear as those transmitted, But the further development of the machine may yield bet- ter results. again, and that with a blood -red earnest- ness, such as you have never experienced before you will start for the good land of the Gospel -at last to look back, saying. " What a great risk I ran Almost lost, but saved! Just got through, and no more! Escaped by the skin of my teeth." THE SUNDAY SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL LESSON, AUG. 12. renontatrou. desns.-Matt. 41: 1 -II. Time.--A.D. 26, July to January. Tib- erius Cmsar, Emperor of Rome ; Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea; Herod Antipas, Governor of Galilee and Perea. Place. -The wilderness of Judea, border- ing on the Dead Sea and the Jordan, :pro- bably not far from the place where Jesus was baptized. Between the Lessons. -The temptation occurredatonce after the baptism. Mark says, "Immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness." He was now about to enter on his public ministry. He had just been set apart to his work by John's baptism, by the anointing of the Spirit, and the Father's approving testimony. This consecration to his public ministry was followed by his temptation. The events recorded in this lesson were actual tempta- tions by a personal devil. That there is such a person, the enemy of God and man, the Scriptures clearly teach. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and the devil made this effort to defeat him at the very outset and destroy his work. It was necessary, too that Jesus should be tried and proved before be began his public work. Jesus, doutbless, during his thirty years in Nazareth, endured many tempts- tatious and overcame them, as he lived always without sin, but; this period of temptation has special reference to his work as the Messiah, and was a prepara- tion for it. Hints for Study. -Read the other ac- counts -Mark 1 : 12, 13 ; Luke 4 : 1-13. Also the story of the temptation of our first parents -Gen. 3 : 1-15. The "Home Read- ings," also will throw light on this lesson. • ITEM'S IN LEARNING TUE LEsSoN. 1. There -Immediately after the baptism. See Mark 1: 12. Led up of the spirit. - Luke says, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led." Mark, "The Spirit driveth him." The meaning of the words may be better understood if we remember how the old prophets and others were said: to be "lifted up," or "caught away" by the Spirit. Let the scholar read Fzek. 8 : 3 ; Acts 8:39,for illustration. Jesus had received the Holy Spirit at his baptism and was now under his complete mastery as he was led to this great conflict. Wilderness. -The wild, uninhabited region bordering on the Jordan. According to tradition the place was Mount Quarantenio., not far from . Jericho, This le not certain, however. Mark says, Jesus was "with the wild beast." See Mark 1 : 13, The presence of the wild beasts made the place seem still snore lonely and more awful. Their headings and their glaring eyes in the darkness made the place hideous. 2 Fasted,--Ltike (4: 2) Says he "ate nothing." Forty days and forty nights. - We are reminded of the similar fasts of Moses and Elijah. Ex. 34 : 28; I Kings 19, 8, Luke says the temptation went on during all these forty days. Was afterward an 11111404 -When the period sof fasting was over the pangs o hteger began to be i felt,' It was n these cravings that the first temptation found its point of attack. A hungry man is more easily tempted to do wrong to get bread that one who is mm 3. The tempter cee-Making his as - seta when Jesus was exhausted from long fasting. If thou be the Sou of Goci.-As it La declared Us him at this baptise. Sec last lesson, Command that these stones be ramie breacL-Pointing to loaf.t,ham,:o. stones lying all about. The hunger of Jesus was intense as if he would die. He had just been told from heaven that he was the Son of God,the Messiah. If so, had he not power over nature, and could he not satisfy his hunger? The tempter's suggestion was that he do this. 4. It is writtene-The words are quoted from Dent. 8: 3. By every word. -The wants of the body are not the highest wants. There is also a spiritual life, and this can be sustained only by obeying God's words. God could take care of his body, and his duty was to leave the matter wholly to him. To work a miracle to pro- vide bread for himself at this time would have been to take out of his father's hands the care of his life. He would do nothing that implied doubt of God. Besides, Christ must meet life just as we must meet it, and if he had wrought a miracle to re- lieve his hunger he would not have met hunger as we must do, for we cannot work miracles. 5. Taketh him up. -Either literally or in thought. Compare Ezek. 37 : 1; 40 2. See also II Con 12 ; 2. The holy city. - Jerusalem. Luke 4 : 9. Pinnacle, - "The pinnacle." Probably Herod's portico, overhanging the valley of Jehoshaphat is meant. The depth into the valley was very great. 6. Cast thyself down. -A temptation to test the declaration thathe was the Son of God and thus also convince the Jews that he was their Messiah. Itis written.-Pealm91: II. Satan having been vanquished by Scripture now uses Scripture at his weapon of assault. These words were familiar to Jesus. No doubt he had often been com- forted by them in his earlier years in Nazareth. 7. It is written again. -Deut. 6: 16. Tempt the Lord.- Trifle with his care, rashly test his promises, presume upon his protection, by rushing recklessly into anger. There was no necessity for doing such re thing; and therefore the promise could not be used to meet it. We may not claim God's promises in danger into which he does noticed us. 8. Taketh him up. In spirit: He was not literally taken to any mountain. It was by a supernatural vision. Showeth him. -Made them appear before his view. Luke 4 5. 6. All these things will I give thee. - Compare Luke 4 : 6, Satan claimed to have all the world to offer. The tempt -shun was a swift way to the kingdom he had come to win. Instead of a life of humiliation, end- ing at the cross, he could have the power at once, so the tempter told him. If thou wilt fall down and worship me. -Yielding homage to him as to a king. Re Get thee hence. -"Begone." Jesus here names the tempter, who thus boldly shows his purpose. It is written. -Deut. 6 : 13. To God only should any knee bow, 11. Leaveth hint -For a time. Luke 4; 13. Satan was vanquished, but he did not give up the contest. Angels came and ministered. -Supplied him with food. He who would not turn stones into bread is now fed • he who would nob in rash con& dence calupon angels to uphold him is now oustained by them; he who demanded worship for God alone received homage from those servants of God. Rat Catching Extraordinary. The ancient and infallible plan of catch big rata with apiece of cheese and a pail of water is improved upon by a French humanitarian, whose patent is scoured by virtue of a narrow shelf running round the the inside of the bucket, amid carrying a number of lead blocks with hooks and lines attached. Rats will struggle for a long time before they finally sink, and this de- vice is evidently actuated by a feeling of compassion, for -when the rodent tries to hoist himself on to the ledge he bites one of the hooks, and, the piece of metal failing to the bottom, drags him down and holds hint there. Men love to nurse their cares, and seem uneasy wit -bent roam fret as as old friar would be without his hair girdle, --IL W. Beecher, TUB FUROR IN NEQUD, rouble Itetween the Newifourifflandi rind Vrench Idshermen-,4. Itertor of4 Cause or the tinnteasantnes% There have, it appears, been fresh roa'r. rels between the Newfoundland and French fishermen on the north shore of Newfound- land, The trouble is the old One over the lobster fisheries." The French secured from the British Government by treaty the right to land on the west shore of New- foundland for the purpose of drying and curing fish. They were allowed to erect drying stages of wood, and shelters for the fishermen attending the curing of the fish. Afteward quarrels arose between French and British fishermen on this part of the coast, and the English king, going a good deal further than the treaty, interfered with the operations of the British fishermen on that part of the coast in order to gratify the French. The privileges thus extended the French have been since claimed as rights, and have even been made a vantage ground for claiming and exercising new rights. At the time the treaty was made allowing the French to land on the oast to dry and cure fish, the fish taken were IIRXtR/NG Olt =GIMBEL. Since then the lobster fisheries on the coast have become valuable, and the French ex- ercise the right to take lobsters, and even go so far as to claim that the Newfound, land fishermen should not be allowed to fish for lobsters on the same part of the coast, on the strength of the English king's undertaking not to allow the British fishermen to interfere with the operations of the French fishermen. The British Government has not gone so far as to give the French fishermen a mon- opoly, but they have compelled Newfound- land fishermen to give way in all disputes over fishing arounds. And awhile the French men-of-war have interfered with Newfoundland fishermen in defence of French fishermen, the British men-of-war have not defended the Newfoundland fishermen'out of consideration proba- bly for the sensitiveness of the thin- skinned French Government, with which Great Britain has disputes the world over. The lack of firmness on the part of the British Government has only had the effect of encouraging the French to go farther and father in the way of pushing new claims and establishing new rights. Now the French Government claim the right to land all sorts of goods, provisions, supplies, etc., for French fishermen at any port of Newfoundland. They tried it at St. John's and happily the Newfoundland Government took the matter into its own Mende and exacted customs duties in spite of the rage of a French admiral who with his warship was present at the time in port. BE ACTED RUDELY, sailing off without attending a banquet for which he had accepted invitations, but his anger and impoliteness had no effect, and that claim of the French has not since been heard of. But the French now go so far as to claim sovereign rights or joint sovereign rights with Great Britain to the somalled French shore, which is really the part of the coast affected by the French treaty. Of course, this claim is a ridiculous one, and is not listened to by Great Britain, but the French still affect to seriously uphold it. In a few years the railway to the north shore, which is now being constructed in connection with the Avalon peninsula.system of railways, will be completed, and then it is to be hoped that Newfoundlanders will settle along the treaty coast, and their presence will soon result in the extension of the obvious ex- ercise of all rights on the coast by the New- foundland Government. The lobster fisher- ies are unhappily being rapidly fished out, and then the French lobster fishermen will no longer want the coast. MORE WOMEN THAN et EN Norway and Scotland Hare the Greater: Relative Number or 'women. Statistics prove that taking the world as a whole the number of men and women are about equal -the best argument against polygamy -but this relationship varies greatly when individual countries are con- sidered. According to the last estimate of the world's population, made up from the censuses in single states, Norway and Scot- land are the countries with the greatest relative number of women. In these coun- tries there are to every 100 men respective. ly 107.5 and 107.2 women. The excess of women is also large in Sweden, there being 106.5 to every 100 men; in England, where there are 106; in Denmark with 105.1, and in Switzerland with 105.6. The countries of the north in general show a larger pop. ulaotliotnhoef lands wen. ith a more temperate cli- mate, Austria has 104.4 women to 100 men, Hungary, 101.5 to 100, and France 100.7 to 100. Farther toward the South men become the more numerous. Spain, almost alone of the Southern European countries, num- bers more females than melee, the propor- tion being 104 to 100. Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria are more masculine, so to speak there being for every 100 men re- spectively, 96.4, 94.8, and 96.1 women, In Italy the percentage is almost equal, the relationship being 99.5 to 100 in favor of the women. In the United States, say the authorities, the older States show a small excess of women, and the new ones an excees of men. There are in the Atlantic and Eastern States 100.5 women to 100 men, while in some of the Pacific and Western States there are only 69.8 women to 100 men. In new countries there is invariably an excess of men -a fact natural and easy of explanation. The promised land of women is still Australia, where even in the oldest colonies the stronger sex far outnumbers the weaker. In Vietoria,,New South Wales, and South Australia the re. lationshipis respectively 90.6, 54.9, and 92,1 in favor of the men.. In West Australia there are only 67 women to 100 men. In India, in every places except the govern. merit- of Madras, the men outnumber the women. A Polite Request, lEfe have something to say to you - permit Me to take you apart. She-Certainlye-if yen will put -ole togeth- er again. The flesh of &Peet rats is esteemed A military delicacy in parts of Cuba. Their main artiele of diet is Brazil nut, which impart a good flavor to them,. B' LES •ORTEE1N WIOONSIIt444, Theyowns orPbhIiips anul 54sokke54reir- wt-nour reotge �rewsmucd tat the Lake afl0170113:11:0T11701:1 gbi:LEaffrCgitt:e."."6 »44314 age Wilt Probblikr be *0,000,000-lbe Z.it special frown Phillips, Wis,, says s.,0 people bare been made homeless there by the fors* tree, Not building is loft at in i5 tohe,t000 town oa0000,00 anaduprsopsrtyvoalz tbIs been swept away. All day yesterday the fionlea surrounded the villagkAundreds of 1 parchmentmen succebsttl iTi igal' en with e forests f ialmeaeebr euedt' s e*04W 17Y11:eit e to tree withsuchrapidxty thatthe air seem. ed on fire, The baking soil sent up a gas that ignited and. the atmosphere itself seemed to blaze. When the tire reached the place it swept from house to house, and ; in an hour had wrapped the entire Village' in flames, The people fled to the railway where trains were etakeding, and they Were hastily conveyed to neighboring towns. Nothing but e. few personal effect's Wag saved. There are rumors of losses of life, but in the confusion they cannot be con- firmed, Families are separated, some ntedmbotehresr ah ta ingb another, e ltaken t s one, impossibleplaeei to learn whether or not all have escaped, The heaviest losses by the Are are thoee of 1 the John It. Davis Lumber Company, $500,. 000, and Fayette Shaw, tanner, 20%000. Twenty persons are reported drowned in the lake at Phillips in endeavoring to as. cape being burned to death by forfeit fires. Four gales of fire, following each other as soon as one had accomplished its work of destruction, cut four swaths 'through Phillips, leaving standing :only the Lutheran church and some dwellings near the southern limits. The volunteer Ere department, consisting of 3e men, and having 3,000 feet of hose, had been working two days in the swamp west of the eity to prevent the flames coming into the town. Across the maps of swamps, where the eee -.ter was from 6 inches to 8 feet deep, there oould be heard roaring a sound that rendered the people panic-stricken, The firemen fought it until driver:, back with blistered hands and feces,vvithout being able to check the flames. It was during the first fire that the loss of life occurred. Driven frantic by the rushing sheet of flames., the families of James Lock and others gather- ed hurriedly in their hoe:Les-a floating boat house. The ropes were cut, in the hope that the gale would blow them across the lake. The raft was a rickety affair, and the fire seemed to contain a dreft of air, which pulled them right towards the flames. Fearing death by fire on one side, and drowning on the other, they were un- decided what to do, when of a sudden the raft capsized, drowning those on board. e HEAVY LOSS Or LIFE resulted in Phillips from the fire. It is ; estimated that between 15 and 25 persons were either burned to death or drowned in their efforts to escape from the flames that destroyed the town. The only refuge from the fire was the lake, and hundreds of, people flea to the water. In the rush the weaker ones fell down or were carried into • the deep water and perished. Others, over- come by the heat and smoke, fell in the 0 streets, and were burned to death where they lay. The entire northern part of the state is a sea of flames. The country is dotted with homes of farmers and home- steaders and 'with lumber camps. There is no doubt that hundreds of these buildings have been burned, while the fate of the people is in doubt. It is probable that many of these people have also lost their lives. Of those who perished here three bodies have been found. The citizens who escaped the fire are homeless and without food or clothing, and are in a state of the most serious destitution. The operator sending the news from Phillips tapped the telegraph wire in the woods, and with a board for a table and the earth for a seat, sent his messages with a pocket telegraph instrument. MEASURING ELECTRICITY.' An Englishman Has Invented a Simple Sort or Neter. One of the greatest trials of the central station superintendent is the erratic nature of the record of his "diagram," or, in other words, the irregularity of the demand for current on the part of his customers, says the Pittsburg Dispatch. A "demand indie cater" has been introduced, a correct meanr of ascertaining the actual call each consume. makes upon the generating plant of the cen tral station. The influence of this Matra merit on the habits of the consumer is said to be most salutary for himself as well as for the station. Instead, of burning a great many lamps at a time for short periods he is induced to burn a normal number of ; lamps for long periods, thereby uncon- sciously "flattening" the station load dia- gram and equalizing the work of the plant over an extended period. At the same time a generous provision is made whenever the consumer wishes to have a special blaze of light. Once a month he gets an electric light "bonus." He gives twenty-four hours' notice in writing to the station, and the indicator is short circuited for the space of time he desires. He can then burn any number of lamps in excess of his usual maximum, and the demand is not register- ed. Another meter for the recording of current used is the invention of an En- glishman. It is said to measure the supply of electricity to consumers with as much simplicity and accuracy as can now ho obtained in the use of gas. Its aetion is , obviously simple. It is well known that when an electric current is applied to water it generates ; the gas thus generated 0 is collected in a receiver, tend by ingenious mechanism the discharge of this gas cull. time it fills the receiver moves the record- I ing dial similar to that ma a gas meter. All the attention the meter requires itt said to be the addition of a little water in the course of three or four menthe, Precious Pie. Binge -Noe thank you, dear I don't believe I care for any mince pie. Mrs. Bingo -But, letenry, / have put in a lot of that brandy you brought home the Other night. Bingo (aghast)--Wheb I Not that brandy that I paid. $8 a quart fort tire. Bingo-e'Zas, dear. Bingo -Great Gams, give me the tele p` 1:1411 ia as ubiquitous as eonderne toience.-4`. W, Boberteet '