HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1894-11-8, Page 2e
EXBTES TI1V1S
TIE LOOKING CrLASS
THE REAT BROOKLYN DIVINE'S
14.4.TEST SERMON.
Reese aelteli Rusin or rolifilled Oran
Mule From Women's Brazen alirrors
-1,esson9 ittrawn Thererront-see roar
teIW and Then Wash Them Away.
Bnooxrarer, Oct. 28, 1894. -,-Rev. Dr.
Talmage, who lom left India, aud ia now
on his homeward journey, has iseleoted as
the aubject of his sermon to -day, though
the press--" The Looking -Glass," his text
being Exodus 118:8--s" Aud he made the
lover of brass, and, the foot of it wee of
brass, of the looking-ghtssea of the women
aeserabling."
We etften hear about the. Gospel in John,
and the Gospel in Luke, and the Gospel in
Matthew; but there. is just as surely a. Gos-
pel of Mose, mad a Gospel of Jeremiah.
and. a Gospel of David. In other words,
Christ is as certainly to be found in the
Old Testainent as ha the New.
Wheu the Israelites were marching through
the wilderness, they carried their church
with them. They called it the tabernacle.
It was a pitohed tent; very costly, very
beautiful, The frarne-work was made of
fortymight boards of aceniewood set in
sockets ot silver. The curtains of the
plate were purple, and scarlet and blue,
and fine linen, and were bung with most
artistic loops. The candlestick of that
tabernacle had shaft, and branch, and bowl
of solid gold, and the figures of cherubim
that stood. there had wings of gold; and
there were lansps of gold, and rings of gold;
•eo that scepticism has sometimes asked,
• Where did all that pronsioue material come
froin ? It is not my place to furnish the
precious) stones, it is only to tell that they
were there.
I wish now more especially to speak of
the laver that was built ir& the midst of
that anciene tabernacle. It was a great
basin from which the priests washed their
hands and feet. The water came down
• from the baein itt spouts and passed away
after the cleansieg. This laver or basin
was made out of the looking -glasses of the
womett who had. frequented the tabernacle,
and who had made these their contribution
to the furniture. These looking -glasses were
not made of glue, but they were brazen.
The brass was of a very superior quality,
and polished until it reflected easily the
features of those who looked into it. So
that this laver of looking -glasses spoken of
in my text did double work; it not only fur-
nished the water in which the priests wash-
ed themselves, but'it also, on its shining,
polished surface, pointed out the spots of
pollution on thefaee which needed ablution.
Now, my Christian friends, as everything
in that ancient tabernacle was suggestive
of religious truth, and for the moat part
positively symbolical of truth, I shall take
that laver ef looking -glasses spoken of in
the text a • all -suggestive of the Gospel,
which firm, ehows us our sins as in a mirror,
and then washed them away by divine ab-
lution.
Oh, happy day. happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.
7 have to say that this is the only look-
ing -glass in which a man can see himself as
he is. There are some mirrors that flatter
the features and make you look better than
you are. Then there are other mirrors that
distort your features and make you look
worse than you are ; but I want to tell you
that this looking -glass of the Gospel shows
a man just as he is. When the priests
entered the ancient tabernacle, one giallo':
at the burnished side of this laver showed
them their need oteleansing ; so this Gos-
pel showed the soul its need of divine
washing. "Alt have sinned, and come
short ei the glory of God." That is one
allowing. "All we, like sheep have gone
astray." That is another showing. "From
• 'the orown of the head to the scare of the
foot there is no health in us." That is
• another showing. The world calls these
• defects, imperfections, or eccentricities, or
erratic' behavior, or "wild oats," or "high
• living ;" • but • the Gospel tans them
*in, transgressions, filth -the abominable
thing •that God. hated. It was just one
glance at that mirror that made Paul cry
out, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this
• death?" and that made David ary out.
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean ;" and that made Martin Luther ory
out, "Oh, my sins, my eine 1" I am not
talking about Pad habits, You and I do
not need any Bible to tell us that bad.
• habits are wrong, that blasphemy and evil -
speaking are wrong. But I am talking of
a sinful nature, the source of all • bad
thoughts, as well as of all bad actions.
The Apoetle Paul calls their roll in the first
chapter of Romans. They are a regiment
of death encamping around every heart,
holding it in a tyranny from whioh nothing
but the graoe of God can deliver it.
• Here, for instance, is ingratitude. Who
has not been guilty of that sin? If a man
hands: us a glass of water, we say, "Thetik
you," but for the ten thousand mercies
that we are every day receiving from the
band of God, how little expression of grati-
tude -for thirst slacked, for hunger fed,
for shelter and sunshine, and sound sleep
and clothes to wear -how little thanks 1
I auppose there are men fifty roma of age
who have never yet been down on their
• knees in thanksgiving to God for his good.-
ness. Besides that ingratitude of our hearts
there 18 pride (who has not felt it ?)-pride
that will not submit to God, that wants its
own way -a nature thFit prefers vicrong
• eometimes instead of right -that prefers to
wallow instead of rite up. I do not care
what you oall that; I am not going to guar-
• rel with any theologian, or say man who
makes any pretentions to theology. 1 do
not cote whethee you call it "total de-
pravity," or nomething else- I simply make
• this announcenaent of Gocrs'Word, affirmed
• and confirmed by the • experienee ef huh-
dreds of Christian people; the imagination
of the heart of man is evil froin youth.
4'There is none that death good; to not
Oe." We have 8, bad nature, We were
born with it We got it from our parents,
they got it from their parents. Our
thoughts are wrotig; our action is wrong;
our whole life is obtioxioue to God before
aonversioh; and after aonveraion, not Or1B
•100a thing in US but that which the vane of
God has planted awl fasteted, "Well," you
say, "I can't believe that to be so." Alt !
My dear brOther, that lit beee.use you never
It you could emtelt a glimpse of your
natural heart before God, you wonId cry
out in ainezereeet and aletm. The very &at
thing this gospel does is to out down our
pride aud aeltdolffloienoy. If a Man doea
not feel his lost and ruined co:sat-Me before
God, he loea not want any Gospel. I think
the reason that there are so few conversions.
in this cloy. is beettuse the tendency of the
preaohing to to make men believe that they
are pretty good anyhow -quite °lever, only
wanting a little fiting up -aa few touottes of
divine graoe, and then you will be all right a
instead of proclaiming the broadaleep truth
that Payson and WMteneld thundered to a
race trembling on the verge of infinite and
eternal disaster. "Now,' says some one,
"can this rattily be true? Have we all gone
astray? Is there no good. in us't" itt
Hampton Court I saw a room where the
four walls were (moored with looking -glass -
ea; and it made no difference which way you
looked, you saw yourself: And so it is in
this Gospel of Christ. If you onoe step
within its full precincts, you will find your
whole character reflected; every feature of
moral deformity, every spot of moral taint.
If I understand the Ward of God, its first
announcement is that we are lost. I care
uot, my brother, how magnificently you
may have been born, or what may have been
your heritage or ancestry, you are lost by
reason of sin. "But," you say, "what is
the use of all this -of showing a, man's
faults when he can't get rid of them ?"
None( 'What was the use of that burnished
surface to this laver of looking -glasses
spoken of in the text, if it only stiovved the
spots on the counterianee and the need of
washing, and there was nothing to wash
with ?" Glory be to God, I find that this
laver of looking -glasses was filled with fresh
water every morning, and the priest, no
sooner looked on its burnished side and saw
his need of cleansing, than he washed and
was elean-glorious type of the gospel of my
Lord Jesus, that first shows a man his sin,
and then washes it all away 1
I want you to notice that this laver in
which the priest washed -the laver of
looking -glasses -was filled with fresh
water every morning. The servants of the
tabernacle brought the water in buckets
and poured it into the laver. So it is with
the Gospel of Christ it has a freeh
salvation every day. It is not a stagnant
pool filled with accumulated corruptions.
It is living water whioh le brought from
the eternal rook to wash away the sins of
yesterday -of one moment ago.
says SOM8 one, "I was a Christian twenty
years ago 1" That does not mean anything
to me. What are you now ? We are
not talking, my brother, about pardon ten
years ago, but about pardon now -a fresh
salvation. Suppose a time of war should
come, and I could show the government
that I had been loyal to it twelve years
ago, would that excuse me from taking the
oath of allegiance now? Suppose you ask
me about my physical health, and I should
Bey 1 was well fifteen years ago -that does
not say how I am now. The gospel of
Jesus Christ comes and domande present
allegiance present fealty, present, moral
health ;and. yet how many Christians there
are seeking to live entirely in past experi-
ence, who seem to have no -experience of
present mortar or pardon 1
I remark, further, that this laver of
looking -glasses spoken of in the text was a
very large laver. I always thought, from
the fact that BO many washed there, and
also from the feet that, Solomon afterward,
when he copied that laver in the Temple,
built on a very large scale, that it was
large, and so suggestive of the Gospel of
,Tesus Christ and salvation by Him-vastin
its pro visions. The whole world may come
and wash in this laver and be Mean.
When our civil war had passed, the
Government of the United States made
proclamation of pardon to the common
soldiery in the Confederate army, but not
to the chief soldiers. The Gospel of Christ
does not act in that way. It says pardon
for all, but especially for the chief of
sinners. I do not now think of a single
passage that says a small sinner ernay be
saved, but I do think of passages that
say a great sinner may be saved. If
there be sins only faintly hued, just a
little tinged, so faintly colored that you
can hardly see them, there is no special
pardon promised in the Bible for those
sins; but if they be glaring, red like orims
son, then they shall be as snow. Now, my
brother, I do not state this to put a pre-
mium upon great iuiquity. I merely say
this to encourage that man, whoever he is,
who feels he is so far gone from God that
there is no mercy for him. I want to tell
him there is e, good chance. Virhy, Paul
was a murderer ; be assisted at the execu-
tion of Stephen; and yet Paul was saved.
The dying thief did everything bad.
The dying thief was saved. Richard
Baxter swore dreadfully ; but the grace
of God met him, and Richard Baxter
was saved. It is a vast laver. Go and
tell everybody to =me and wash in
it. Let them come up from the
penitentiaries and wash away their
crimes. Let them come up from the alms-
house and wash away their poverty. Let
them come up from their graves and wash
away their death. If their be any one so
worn out in sin that he cannot get up to
• the laver, you will take hold of his head
and put yoor arms around him, and I will
take hold of his feet, and we will plunge
him in thia glorious Bethesda, the VaSC
laver of God's mercy and Selo:Won. In
Solomon's Temple there were ten lavers
and one molten 883 -this great reservoir in
the midst of the temple filled with water -
these lavers and this molten sea adorned
with figures of palm-branoh, and oxen,
and lions, end cherabirn. • This fountain of
God's mercy is a vaster molten sea than
that. It is adorned, not with palm branch.
es, but with the wood of the cross, not
with cherubim, but with the wings of the
Holy Ghost; and around its great rim all
the race may 001110 and wash in the molten
sea. I was reading the other day of Alex-
ander the Great, who, • when he was very
thirsty and standing at the head o. his
army, had brought to him a oup of water.
He looked off upon his • host and said, "I
cannot drink this, my men are all thirsty;"
and he dashed it to the ground. Blessed
be God! there is enough water fot all the
host -enough for captains and. host. "Who-
soever will may come and take of the water
of life freely" -a laver broad as the earth,
high as the heavens, and deep as hell.
But I notice alto ie regard to this laver
of looking-glaaaea apelten of in the text,
that the wastiing in it was itaperatIve, and
not optional. • When the priests come into
thetabernaole (you will find this in the
thirtieth chapter of Exodus), God tells
thorn that they must wash in that laver or
die. The priest might have said, "Can't I
wash elsewhere? I washed iti the laver at
home, and now you want me to wash here,"
God es,os, "Oro matter whether or not you
hese washed before. Wash in this laver
fie die." "Bat" says the priest, "there is
water just as . clean as this -.why won' t
that ?" "W'ssli here," say e God, or•rerher.-13itc
• So it it; with the Goepel of dthriet much,
.13 imperative . There is only this al.. Van Pelt -That's all right. That's
ternatiVe: keep our sins and perish, or it tip for not asking me if I wanted a
one, "Why cotd4 uot God have made more
svaya to heaven than one?" I do not Lwow
but ale could lieve made halt St dozen. I
know He made but one. You say, "Why
not have a long line of boats miming
from here to heaven 1" I eannot isay,
bet I simply know that there ia only
one 'met You my, " Axe there not
trees as luxuriantas that on UelVaryl.
-more luxuriant,tor that heal neither bode
nor blossom, it was stripped and barked!"
Yes, yes, there have been taller trees than
that and more luxuriant; but the only path
to heaven im under that one tree. Inateed
of quarreling because there are not more
waye, let us be thankful to God thete 10
ones-oue name given taut° men whereby
we eau be saved -one laver in which all
the world may waah. So you see what a
radiant Gospel that is I preach. 1 do not
knowhow a nom oan stand stolidly and pres
sent it, for it is such an eithilarant Gospel. It
is not a more whim or caprice; it ia heaven
or hell. You mime before your ohild, and,
you have a present in your hands. You put
our hands behind your back and. say,
"Which hand will you take? In one band
there is a treasure in the other there is
not." The child blindly ohooses. But God
our Father does not do that way with us.
He spreads out both hands, and says,
"Now this shall be very plain. In that
hand are pardon,and peace, and life, and
the treasures of heaveu; in this hand are
punishment, and sorrow, and woe. Choose,
choose for yo rselves1" "Be that believeth
and is baptised, shall be towed, but he
that believeth not shall be damned."
Oh, my dear friends, I wish I could eoax
you to aocept this Gospel. If you could
just take one look iu this laver of looking.
glass= spoken of in the text, you would
begin now spiritual ablution. The love o
Christ -I dere not toward the close of my
sermon,
begin to tell about it. The love
of Ohrlatt Do not teak to me about a
mountain; it is higher than that. Do not
talk to me aboue a sea; it is deeper than
that.
An artist in his dreams saw suoh a splen-
did dream of the transfiguration of Christ
that he woke and seized his pencil, and
said, "Let me paint this and die." Oh, I
have seen the glories of Christ I have
beheld something of the beauty of that
great sacrifice on Calvary, and I have
sometimes felt I would be willing to give
anything if I might just sketch before you
the wonders of that saoritice. I would like
to do it while I live'and I would like to do
it when I die. "Letine paint this mid die 1"
He cornea along, weary and worn, His face
wet with tears, His brow crimson with
blood, and He lies down on Calvary for
you. No, I mistake. Nothing was as
comfortable as that A stone on Calvary
would have made a soft pillow for the
dying head of Christ. Nothing so comfort-
able as that. He does not lie down to
die. His spiked hands outspread as if to
erabrace a world. Oh, what a hard end
for these feet that had travelled all over
Judea on ministries of mercy 1 What a
hard end for those hands that had wiped
away tears and bound up broken hearts !.
Very hard, oh dying Lamb of God ! and
yet there are those who know it and do not
love Thee. They say, "What is all that to
me? What if He does weep, and groan,
and die? I don't want Him." Lord Jesus
Christ, they will not help Thee down from
the oross I The soldiers will mime and they
will tear Thee down from the cross and put
their arms around Thee and lower Thee
into the tomb ; but they will not help.
They see nothing to move them. Oh, dy-
ing Christ ! turn on them Thine eyes of
affection now, and see if they will not
change their minds 1
I saw one hanging on a tree,
In agony and blood,
Who fixed his languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.
Oh. never till my latest breath
Will I forget that look!
He seemed to charge me with His death
Though not a word He spoke.
And that is all for you! Oh, can you not
love him? Come around this laver, old and
young. It is so burnished you oan see your
sins ; and so deep you ecu wash them all
away. Oh, mourner, here bathe your
bruised soul; and, sick one, here cool your
hot temples in this laver. Peace 1 Do not
cry any more for all thy afflictions. The
black aloud that hung thundering over
Sinai has floated above Calvary, end burst
into the shower of a Saviour's tears.
I saw in Kensington Garden a pieture of
Waterloo a, good while atter the battle had.
passed, and the gates had grown all over
the fisld. There was a dismounted cannon,
and a lamb had. come up from the pasture
and lay sleeping in the mouth of that can-
non, So the artise ho,d represented it -a
most suggestive thing. Then I thought
how the war between God and the soul had
ended: and instead of the announcement,
"the wages of sin Is death," there came the
vvords, 'My peace I give unto thee ;" and
amidst the batteries of the law that had
once quaked with the fiery hail of death, I
beheld the lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world.
• 'I went to Jesus as 1 was
Weary., and worn, ancfsad;
• I found in Him a resting place,
And Re has made me glad.'
The Most Gruesome Calling
Tleyond all questiou that of a deep-sea
diver employed in examining and clearing
away aunken wrecks. Putting aside the fant
that his life is in constant danger from the
assaults of submarine enemies or accident
to his diving dress and apparatus, the
sights that he is called uponsto see, and to
see moreover amidst the most horrible sur-
roundings, exceed in ghastliness even those
which the hospital or the army surgeon
is called Upon to confront. Nowhere else
on land or sea are so many accumulated
horrors to be found as itt the hull of a ship
whioh has sunk with crew and passengers.
The hideous condition in which the diver
Ands the victims of the wreck; some hell
devoured by fish, some standing upright
and floe ting to and fro with a ghastly parody
of living motion, some abill looked together
aathough yet in the last agony of the ilea th
struggle, each fighting for Some real or
fended coupe, and some swollen to twice
their natural size, floating about the inter.
ler of a ship, and knocking or rubbing up
against him with it hideous life -likeness
that is utterly indescribable --these are
some of the horrible sights whioh deep sea
divers have to work amidst when they are
employed on sunken wrecks, When to all
these are added. the awful gloom and
silence amidst which the work has to be
performed, there will not seem to be much
doubt that of all modern oeilinge that of the
deep-see.diver is the most gruesome.
ROMarded.
you have paid me 100 too
looked into thin laver of leoking-glaanea wath them ewe,' arid live: But, Salta -some 1 shampoo.
TOLD IN THE EVER tADES,
" What day of the month and year Is ida
"ay 8, 18110." "Is it possible 1 So I
hove beeulu thie dreary region leas than
fifteen months. It =ems a oentery
mutt leave soon,'±4 mind is clearer this
evening, Albert. Memory is at work.
oan recall -my • God 1 what does it
mean ?" •
Albert Giovanni leaned over kis• sick
friend tintil their eyes met.
"It means, Leon, that death is even new
at your elbow 1 I knew that before you
passed away reason would resume her
tarmac: and that you would suffer great
mental torture as a panishment or ein and
crime."
The sick man wed° no answer. Be lay
perfeotly still, his eyes gradually assuming
a look of agony as a tide of memory swept
through his erstwhile clouded. brain.
Outside the rain was softly falling ; a
gust of Wind now and then shook the door
and windows of the cabin. It was a rude
struoture made of rough, pine boerds run
-
meg up and down, with a mud and stick
ohimney at one end. The one room was
nearly devoid of furniture. Nowhere in
all that wild twamp region of Florida could
there be found a more oomfortlese habita-
tion.
The occupants were in keeping 'with
their surroundings. The sick man lay on
a pallet at one aide of which was a table
• containing vials of medioine, including a
curimisly shaped bottle partially filled with
a white powder, and at the other a bed
similar to the one be occupied. He had one
day been a man of fine physique and ex-
tremely handsome, but) a wasting disease
had reduced him to a mere skeleton, and
his sunken cheek, pallid features and gen-
eral appearance indicated that the candle
of life was rapidly burning out.
His oompanion was tall and sinewy. He
looked like a college professor just from a
German university with his dark glittering
eyes and his hair falling in unkempt locks
around his shoulders. Quiet and self-
liontained, there was that about him whiclr
disclosed •that his capacity for love or hate
was unbounded.
• Sitting upright in the bed, Arnosi said
feebly but resolutely :
"Toll me everything --everything 1"
"With pleasure. Fourteen months ago,
Arnosi, you a, leader in New York society,
member of • the most popular city club,
courted for your wealth, caressed for your
• handsome face, the glass of fashion and
the mould of form,' suddenly disappeared.
All your world wondered; no one could do
more, for you left neither trace nor word
behind you,
"Doctor Albert Giovanni, the celebrated
physician, the famous savant, also disap-
peared at exactly the same time. The New
York dailies printed columns about us, the
magazines published various theories, re-
porters and detectives vainly eearohed for
us; end to this hour our disappearance is
one of the mysteries of the metropolis,
never, perhaps, to be explained. Yet one
of the papers ehat employed a oorps of de-
tectives to find us gave the key to it in a
ittle eight -lino item stating that the lovely
Marie Gordon, stepsister of Dr. Giovanni,
had lost her mind, and was to be sent to a
private sanitarium, in the interioxeof Fier -
with the hope that change of scene and
clunitte might restore mental and physical
health.
" Amos% yn br. ke her heart, wrecked
her love 1 e love teat I would aave given
the wes t t os the is o Id to win--saorificed
honor- ay, even life itself to possess -you
threw aside as a oh Id NI° td cast away a
broken toy 1 I loved her seere:ly,it is true,
yet tioae the less passionately t and when
she told me that she could love no one but
yomeven though you spurned her affection,
I ewore to avenge her. From that moment
I hated you. I determined to ruin you
pecuniarily, destroy your reason, and final-
ly your life.
"My hobby in my profession was the
concoctions of poisons and the study of their
operation. I prepared a subtle powder
which, when administered, saps reason,
destroys vitality, and stealthily carries its
victim to the grave, defying detection in
the event of a inedicalsinvestigation being
made. Marie, loveorazed though she was'
begged for your craven life when 1 made
her understand my purpose. But I was
inexorable. My plans were al' carried to it
successful termination. • First you were in-
duced to speculate, and in one of the finan.
oial storms that passed over Wall street
last year the fortune you inherited from
your father was swept away, leaving you a
pauper. On the night ot the day that
brought this disaster you were, drugged,
reinoved secretly to a ship, and tarried to
Pensacola, thence to this spot at the north-
ern extremity of the everglades of Florida.
Around us the foot of man has seldom trod;
in the vast jungle beyond no human being
has over fully penetrated. Everywhere is
gloom, desolation, isolation. Hunters rare,
ly visit thesewastes. In the fourteen men ths
I have been here I have seen no human be-
ing, heard no human voice other than your
own, Ttelee I fancied" -
He paused, wiped his forehead, and Went
"MY revenge ia complete. Your death
ie only the mutation of hours, perhaps
minutes. I have given you deity a dose'
of that white powder'a-pointing to the
ouriouely shaped bottle- and it has ful-
filled the mission I created it to perform."
Arnosi still sat upright in his pallet
ataring at iovanti, grasping his meaning
little by little, while drope of sweat rolled,
down his lace.
" Snd Marie ?" he Whispered.
"She is deed. The institution in which
she wee tionfined is hot far from here.
Sheasoaped from it, and periabed in the
everglades."
A a; range Smile °teased Leon' t face,
Vcn liee-murderer , Marie Well lives -
Listen 1" /
If)
The sound of Immo tine singing floeted
eto ache, ibeibin:gl
oat the lake, G iov mil
Stertecl ; look of terror eae into bit
yls,rh
"Maria lfsZia4rnt
80 Irehearethevmcebeotbutuernet4hu.
Listeu 1"
Ile gazed eogerly toward, the lake.
Above the patter of atm rain, boy= on the
light wind, oar= the 'words of an bowie
titan pronounced in mesh thin, weird not=
that they seemed to be uttered by an in-
visible spirit lather than a creature of flesh
and blood, Giovanni listened an instant,
ttehrernoir,c1 adri st ienpigp eft:ruled tibiae t Isheiu7gi leh. a "Y of
Left alone, Arnosi still sat upright, his
eyes fastened on the lake, Nearer and nea8.
es came the voice. • Another instant and
a light skiff oame in sight, seemingly danc-
ing on the bosont of the water. In tbe
frail craft, standing ereot, a paddle in her
hand, was a young girl, who, thinly and
fantastically clad, with sprays of Spanish
moss floating around her, her hair stream-
ing down her shoulders, and it crown of
water libes on her brow, appeared like an
inhabitant of this waste when it existed at
the fproeglbaoo.idaftly.time rad or than a Immo.
b
Arnosi bad strength enough left) to strike
on the windows with his hand. She ob-
served the signal. Mooring the skiff, she
sprang on the beaoh and ran up to the
cabin. She recognized Arnoai, bounded to
hiomrar,knelt by his side, and flung her wasted
arms abont his neck without uttering a
w •
"Forgive me Marie 1" he whispere
• Perhaps at that moineut reason was et -
stored to the darkened mind. • But if eo,
the excess of joy was too much. The rain
pattered on the roof of the hut, the wind
swayed the open door to and fro, but the
two figures clasped in eaeh other's arms
never stirred. Soon darknese enveloped
them as in a shroud.
In October of that year •a party of
hunters who chanced to wander into that
quarter of the everglades •found three
dead bodies -two in the hut a,nd one outs
side. Li rusty pistol lay near the latter,
indicating suicide ; but who they were or
how they oame in that dreary waste the
hunters could only conjecture. Moved by
a humane instinct they hollowed out a rude
grave, and placed the remains in it. Then
they went their way.
PERSONAL.
Everyone of England's royal princes
wears a facsimile of his bride's wedding
ring.
Krupp, the great iron founder of Essen,
Germany, is to, sapply Italy with 10,000,-
000 nickel coins.
The Queen inourred a, fee of 7s ad for hav-
ing allowed six weeks to elapse before
registering the birth bf the present Duke of
Edinburgh.
Paul Lindau, the well-known German
novelist, has been appointed intendant of
the famous court theater at Meiningen.
He will assume his duties next spring.
According to the last wishes of Rev.
Asbury 0. Clarke'who died last week in
New York, his body was laid out for
burial in white broadcloth.
• Miss Braddon has now been writing for
over thirty years with undiminished repu-
tation. She usually oornmencies work soon
after breakfast 8,nd considers her task com-
pleted when she has composed some 3,000
words..
Franoisque Saroey writes in • a recent
feuileton that he never replies to attacks
made on him, because he is convinced that
the publio judges a man by the sum total of
his own work and not by what a casual,
enemy may any about him,
• Signor Crispi is writing a history of the
Marsala Thousand, or an account of
Garibaldi's expedition at the head of 1,000
followers against the two Sicilies in 1860
The expedition was planned by Crispi
himself, who has many unpublished docu-
ments bearing on it in his posseemon. •
Beerbohm Tree recently, transported his
whole company of sixteen people from
Balmoral to Dublin in time for an evening's
performance. The distance of 561 miles,
inolading the passage of the Irish Chan-
nel, was made, in less than seventeen hours.
This list calling upon oaten: in Italy to
prove their profieienoy in reading and
writing before their names can be entered
upon the register contains the mamas of
His Majesty liumbert I. Suffrage in Italy
is dependent upon an educational
tion.
Dr. Ehlers, of Copenhagen, has made a
speolal inspection tour of Southern leeland
to aecertain the number of lepers, and
foued fifty-three, or twice as many as ex-
peoted. A hospital is to be built to pre-
vent further spread of the dieeete.
John W. Hutchinson, one of the famous
family of eingers to whom our fathers nod
grandfathers listened, is defetulant in a
suit, brought.by a widow, aged 28, who
alleges brearta of promise of marriage.
Mr. Hutehiheon, who as 74 years old, dent=
the charge.
M me. Coquelin, the mother of the two
great actors, died recently at the age of
84. Aftet her husband'a death she carried
on the bakery at Boalogna.suMer for a
long time, When her mobs became success-
ful they established her in a comfortable
house at Seeaux,
Lecly 'Randolph Chtirchill has weitten to
a friend in langlaed that hor husband shows
no signs of iteprovement, ; that hie physical
weakness is actions and frequently alarm-
ing, and that it is'itnprobable that ho will
be able to fulfill the engagement whioh he
made in anticipation of his recovery.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERNATIODIAL LESSON, NOV. 11.
"leho Twelve choten," Marlc 3.6-19-001den
'rev, John 1536.
GallEnat swArgatENT.
The festive monstry of Christ watt eow
half over, toad yet hardly it step had been
taken in the dev,eloputent of his kingdom
He has not yet told operable, or ohosen an
apostle, or, so far as we know, ina.de ate/
formai and canner:tett statement of the
fundamental principles of the kingdom of
God. It, is midsummer; tale enemies of
Jesus art actively plotting his death ia
the oommon hatred of the innocent Saviour
the antagonism of Pharisees and Herodians
is forgotten., Before the rising • danger
Jesus retires from the city to the seashore.
But the masses do not Rime the enmity of
their leaders, and larger .orowds than ever
before follow. About twelve miles west of
the Sea of Galilee, and about seven miles
southwest of Caperna,um, there rises a
mountain oalled " The Horns of Rattan"
because of a peculiar little horn or cone
that rises at eaoh end. It is a picturesque
mountain, and is soon to become pre-
eminently saored,,becsause on its sides was
preached the Sermon on the Mount, Hence.
forth it is to be known ELS the Mountain of
Beatitudes. To this mountain as the night
falls Jesus retires. All night he spends in
prayer. In the mcruing he calls from hls
iittle crowd of followers those whom he
deems fittest to become hie messengers, and
the twelve are organize.1-apostles to the
people, builders of the Church. In their
company we find the impulsive fisherman,
the two tervent sons of Zebedee, a tax gath-
erer, and others whose names, unknown to
earth, shine on the twelve foundations of
the Jerusalem above. •
ExELANATonv /torn.
•Verse 6. The Pharisees went forth. It
was plain now that there wan nothing in
common between them arid Jesus. Took
co asset with the Herodians. The political
party which favored the rule of Herod
Antipas. As a consequence they were
friendly to the Roman power and to the
iatroduotion of Gentile customs generally.
So far as they were a bo iy in any sense
they were political rather than religious ;
but they were natera.1 and bitter antagon-
ists of the Pharisees, who were intense
• nationalists. A council of Pharisees and
Herodians was an alliance of religious
fanaticism and worldly policy against Je-
sus. How they might destroy him. Many
silly wonders have been expressed that the
Jews could have killed such a character as
Jesus. The real wonder is that they per-
mitted his public lifa to last three years.
Not only was their wickedness arrayed
against his goodness (and they were wicked
-for the Pharisees were bigoted, hard-
hearted hypocrites, and the Herodians
skeptical, licentious, cruel, and cowardly),
but both therie parties were interested in
the perpetuity of the prevalent social and
ecclesiastical conditions. So far as they
understood Jesus, he advocated the things
they hated, and SO far as they indorsed our
Lord's doctrine, they did not know he held
it. (1) Thus would the world destroy its'
best friend.
7, 8. Jesus withdrew himself. Not
from fear of his enemies, but to gain time
• before the death which b*e knew awaited
him for proclaiming his Gospel through the
land, and for -the training of his disciples
for their work, To the see. The sea of
Galilee. Agreat multitude. . . fol-
lowed. It would appear that the hatred of
the leaders was not shared by the people,
neither at this nor at any time during the
life of Jesus. His ministry was now at the
height of its popularity, From Judea.
Though Jesuit had titught but little in
Judea, the news of his works and words
had been borne thither by the pilgrims from
every part of the lona, to the great annual
feasts. Idumea. The country of Edom,
south of Paleetine. Beyond Jordan. The
province known as Peres. About Tyre
and Sidon. The Jews living on the west.
ern borders of Palestine, near these two
cities, which were great marts ot commerce
for the ancient world.
9, 1.0. A small ship. "A little boat"
(Revised Version). It was probably pro-
pelled by °are. Wait on him. To carry
him from point to point on the lake shore
for preaching, and to suable him to escape
from the crowd when needing rest. "All
rich ships from the Indies were not to be
compared with this." --Leighton. He had
healed many. Another ot Mark'sincidental
allusions to miracles of which we have no
detailed report. Pressed . . . to touch
him. They possessed faith sufficient to be-
lieve that Jesus could heal them by a touch,
but not sufficient to seek for healing with-
out the actual contact,. (2) How narrow,
at best, is the range of 'human faith 1 At
many as had plagues. Literally, "scourges."
11, 12. Unclean spirits. That 18, persona
possessed by evil spirits or demons. Thou
art the Son of God. Thus showing that
them trouble was not mere derangement of
mind, for this would not give them power
to recognize his divine nature. Straitly
charged them. "Charged them much '
(Revised Vetsion). (3) Christ will hFsve sav-
ed men, and not lost demons, for his mes-
sengers.
13. He goeth up into a mountain. This
may have been Kum liattine "the Horns
of Ilattin," a double -peaked mountain west
of the Sea of Galilee, but it is not certainly
known. He went there for prayer, accord-
ing. to Luke 6. 12, who oftener than the
other evangelists mentions Jesus' pray.
era. (4) The greater a purpose, the
greeter need of beginning it with prayer.
Calleth unto him. Out of the great body
of his professed followere. larhom he
would. 'Whom he himself would" (Re-
vised Version), an expression showiag that
the choice was thoroughly his own. They
came unto him. Showing in their prompt
and steadfast obedience the wisdom of his
choice. (5) Let us be as quick at our Mas-
ter's call.
14, 15. He, ordained. "Appointed"
(Revised Version). It was an appointment,
not an ordination in arta form. Should be
with him. For companionship, for pre-
tection, for serviee, for training and in-
struction in the gospel. (6) While enemies
combine against Jesus, he prepares preach-
ers to perpetuate his kingdom.
(7) There is no achool of theology
so good as personal dwelling end
learning from Jesus. Might send them
forth. After sufficient training. Power
to heal. (8) note Whom Christ calla to
his work he teidoWs for it. Concerning the
call of the %potties note: (I) He °hoe
men Of the people ; (2) he ohoee easeed
men ; (3) he ehoae iron: earmeg hie peofein
tied followers.
16, 17. Simon ho eutnanied Peter. .That
AM. IMO g,
" Rook," referring to Ilia streugth, bold.
nese. Mid force of oliareeter rather then to
firmnese or steadfastness, Jane. Tam die,
mine who Iv= first of the apoetlee to die
(Acta 12). joho the brother ot Jaynes, The
beloved dieciple and writer of the fourth
gospel. Most, faithfal of all, ho remained
with Jesue during his trial, anct received
the virgin mother itito hie family after the
o uciexioe. Boatierges. Perhaps refereing
to the fervent temperarnent of the brothere,
perhaps to tbe eareestness of their preeeh-
ing,
18, 19. Andrew. The firat of the disci"
plea to become ecquainted with Jesus (tee
John 1.40), Philip. His early acquaintance
With Jesus la related in John 1.43.
Bartholomew. Probably the same with
Natlianael, au the first and last chap-
ters of Jobe. Thomas. The disciple whose
fidelity was strong, bet whoite faith was
&ow. Comp. John 11, 16, and 20. 24, 25.
James'the on of Alpheus. Sotnethnee
called James. the Less. Thaddeus. Called
in Luke 6, 16, Judas, and in Matt 10, 3,
Lebbeus. It is uncertain whether he
was identical with Jude, who wrote the
epistle. Simon the Canaanite. This Oilfield
probably be "the Zealot," a member of
sect faoatioally adhering to Jewish institu-
tions, and opposing all coinpromise with
heathenism. Judas Iscariot "Judas of
Keri th," a town in Judah. He m y have
been at this time a simper- believer and a
devoted follower, though afterward the
betrayer of his Lord, Into a house. Means
simply, "they came home," This clauee
belongs properly to the next paragraph and
the uext lesson. ,
PEMBROKE'S MARRYING SEASON.
A Buse' Calladiall TONVA with a Reputation
tor Interesting. Weddings. .
The fall marrying season is in full swing
in Pembroke, Ont., says an American
paper. This is the bustling town that
porters on the railroad say has more
weddings than any other in proportion to
its population. It has about 5,000 real
-
dents and probably more pretty girls than
any other town of its • size in Canada.
Scores of its young men have gone away
to get a start ip life, but it seems an in.
variable rule that they shall come back to
Pembroke to get married.
Travellers get a glimpse of these young
women ofteu as the trains go through
Pembroke, now that the time tables on the
road have been changed so that the ease
and west bound through trains pass that
place in the daythne. The young women
often come down to •the station,sand one
sees at a glance that they area merry
bright -faced lot, with ruddy cheeks and
overflowing with good nature. They,
laugh and even romp some, as well as
occasionally cast sheep's eyes &fettle train
whiie it waits. • The town looks li1e monis
of the flourishing places in northern
New York and is in the heart of the beau.-
tiful Ottawa valley, which resembles the
Mohawk valley to some extent, and in
• certain times of the year seems even more
fertile. The young women of the town
are in keeping with the please, It is said
that few of the young men who leave there
ever marry in the towns or cities to which
they go, and that nine times out of ten
they come to wed their former sweethearts.
June and October,of course,are the marry-
ing months, In those menthe the platform
of the station is often crowded with friends
of some newly wedded couple, come down
to give them a send-off on their wedding
trip. Frequently three, or four •et theae
wedding, parties are at the stallion, andlhe
whole town seems to be Were with th em.
At such times ....the conductor has it hard
time to get the train off on schedule tinie,
/n addition to the showers of rice that fall
• the trainis almost always bomber ded with
old shoes, and it keeps the regular pas-
sengers at well as Mae bridal couples dodg-
ing the missiles of good lack.
A colored porter who has been running
over the road for five years explained it to •
a reporter the other day in this way:
"1 have been a porter on sleeping
oars in the United States and in Canada for
years, and have run all over both countries.
This beats any.other town in both countries
for weddings. The girls are prettier here
than in any other town I was eVgi in. You
• can see that by looking at those girls out
there now and you don't wonder that tha
young men come back here to marry them.
Of couree I have a good deal of sweeping
to do when we get a bridal party on board
to get clear of all the rice that is thrown
into the oar, but we don't mind that for the
bridegroom always takes pity en us and sees
that we are liberallyrewarded for our work.
• " But there is another side to it You
will notice that these people here are
pretty well shod. Now it is a feat the
shoes that they throve here are not old as a
rule. Some of them have been worn only
shcrt time. I suppose it is because they
pinch their owners' feet or something like .
that; the young people want to get rid of
them. • Perhaps its is -.because they, • are
ashamed to throw a shabby shoe at their
friends down at a station. At any. rate I
seldom have to buy any shoes for ruyeelror
family. When I get it pretty •good shoe
only partly worn I put it oue side, and the
chances are that in a week or two its mate
will Some along. If I don't get the mate
some other porter will and when nenseary
we exchange. If we cannot use the shoes
oarselvee there are ways of disposing of
them, and so you see, we are glad when
the marrying rush 'tete .11 BB Pembroke.
It's a great wedding town, the best in the
country." •
As Ills Mother Used to Do.
Efe oriticised her puddings and he found
fault with her cake;
He wished she'd make such biscuit as hie;
mother used to =AO
She didn't wash the (belief, and she didn't .
make a Stew,
Nor even mend his stookings, as his mother
• used to do.
tale mother, had six children, but by night
her b rk was done;
Ilia wife seemed drudging always, yet she
• only had the ono.
Ilia mother always wise well dressed, his
• Wife would 18s�, too,
If only ehe would manage as his mother
used to do.
Ah, She was hot perfect, though she
tried t� do her host,
Until at length she thought her time had
come be have a rest;
So when one day be want; the imam old rig.
marole all through, ,
She turned and boxed hie ears, just sot his
mothee esed to do.