The Exeter Times, 1895-1-17, Page 2"TOEU3 AND TENIPLE"
TALMAGE DESORIBES THE WONDER,.
FUL TM MAHAL OF INDIA.
Vivid Word Pleturee or the Most Wonder -
red or Idolatrous Temples—Ail to Cover
Ilandrvil or letiet—Iilie Great Cam_
reign ot tise Gospel.
Beccnermes, Jan. 6.—Tn continuing his
lieriee of round the world sermons through
he press. Revs Dr. Teltnage to -day chose
to hie subjeot, "Tomb. and Temple," ham
ring reference to that Most famous and
beautiful of mausoleums, the Taj Mahal,
The text selectee was, "From India even
entre Ethiopia" (Esther I, 1).
In MI the Bible title is the only book in
which the word India occurs, but it stands
for a realm of vast interest in the time of
Esther, as in our time. It yielded then, as
now, spices and silks and cotton and rice
and indigo and ores of all richness and
preoious stones of all sparkle and had a
sivilization. of its own as marked as Egyp-
tian or Grecian or Roman oivilization.It
holds the Nattiest tomb ever built and the
most unarm and wonderful idolatrous
liemple ever opened. For practical leesons
'in this my sixth discourse in round the
World series I show you that tomb and
temple of India.
In a journey around the world it may
not be easy to tell the -exact point which
divides the pilgrimage into halves. But
were all the time travelling, and having
seen that we felt that if we saw nothing
more our expedition would be a success.
That one object was the Taj Mahal of In-
dia. It is the crown of the whole earth.
The spirits of architecture met to inthrone
king, and the spirit of the Parthenon
of Athens was there, and the spirit of St.
Sophia of Constantinople was there, and
the spirit of St. Izaak of St. Petersburg
was there, and the spirit of the Baptistry
of Pisa was there, and the spirits of the
great pyramid and of Luxor Obelisk, and
of the Porcelain tower of Nankin, and of
St. Mark's of Venice, and the spirits of all
the great towers, great cathedrals, great
mausoleums, great sarcophagi, great capi-
tols for the living and of great necropol.
Nes for the dead were there. And the
presiding genius of the throng with gavel
of Parian marble smote the table of Rus-
sian malachite and called the throhg of
spirits to order, and called for a vote as to
svhich spirit should wear the chief crown
and mount the chief throne and wave the
chief scepter, and by unanimous acclaim
the cry was "Long live the spirit of the
Taj king of all the spirits of architecture 1
Thine is the Taj Mahal of India 1"
The building is about aix miles from
Agra, and as we rode out in the early dawn
we heard nothing but the hoofs and wheels
that pulled and turned us along the road,
at every yard ot which our expectation
rose until we had some thought that we
might be disappointed at the first glimpse,
as some say bhey were disappointed. But
how can any one be disappointed with the
Taj is almost as great a wonder to me as
the Taj itself. There are some people al.
ways disappointed, and who knows but
that having entered heaven they may oriti-
oise the architecture of the temple and the
out of the white robes and say that the
river of life is not quite up to their expec-
tations, and that the white horses on which
the conquerors ride seem a little spring -
halt or spavined? •
My son said. " There it is." I said,
"Where?" For that which he saw to be
the building seemed to me to be more
like the 'morning cloud blushing under
the stare of the rising siin. It seems not
so much built up from earth as let down
from heaven. Fortunately you stop at
an elaborated gateway of red sandstone one-
eighth of a. mile from the Taj, an en-
trance so high, so arched, so graceful, so
four -domed, so painted and ablated and
scrolled that you come very gradually
upon the Taj, which struotere is enough
to intoxioate the eye and stun the imagi-
nation and entrance the soul. We go up
the winding stairs of this majeetio
entrance of the gateway and billy a few
piotares and examine a few curios, and
from it look upon the Taj and descend to
the pavement of the garden that raptures
everything between elle gateway and the
ecstasy of marble and precious stones.
You pass along a deep stream of water in
which all manner of brilliant fins swirl
end float. There are eighty-four fountains
that spout and bend and arch themselves
to fall. in showers of pearl in basins of
snowy whitenessBeds of all imaginable
flora, greet the nostril before they do the
eye and seem to roll in waves of color as
you advance towards the vision you are
soon to -have of what human genius did
when it did its best. Moon flowers, lilacs,
marigolds, tulips, and almost everywhere
the lotus; thickets of bewildering bloom:
on either Bide trees from many lands bend
their aboreseence over yonr head, or seem
with convoluted branches to reach out
their arm towards you in welcome. On
and on you go amid tamarind and cypress
and poplar and oleander and yew and
eyeamore and benyan and palm and trees
aueth novel. branch and leaf and girth you
°ease tomedt their mimeo or nativity.
As you approach the door of the Taj one
experienoes a strange sensation of awe and
tenderness and humility and,worship. The
building its only &grave, but what a gravel
Built for a queen, who, according to some,
Was very good,and aocording to others was,
very bad. 1 ohoteee to think she was very
goo -d. At any rats, it makes me feel better
to think that thismormnemorative pile was
act tip for the immortalization of virtue
rather than eke. The Taj ta a mountain
of white marble but never suoh walls faced
each other with exquisiteness • never such
a totrib wet mit from block of alabasters
never such a congregation of preoiousstones
brightteeti and gloomed and blazed and
chattened and glorified a building since
sculptor's chisel cut it firsb curve,or paint-
er's penoil traced its first figure, or mason's
pluMbline measured itri Bret wall or archi.
tea* oompass swept its first drab,.
The Taj hail sixteen greet arched Windows
(our at tiaoh °oilier; MN at Noll of the our
corners of the Teti standee minaret 137 feet
high I also at ODA Aide �f this befitting is a
Splendid MOSetie of red sancletone. Two
hendred and Aft: years has the Taj etood,
dind yet, net" welt ir creaked, net at Moak
loosened, leer an arch sagged, nor e. panel
delled, The *Sterne; of 250 winters have
not marred, nor the heats of 250 summers
diefeetegreted a marble, There is no otory
of age writteu by moues on iN white sur-
face. Montaz, the queen, was beautiful
and Slush 3 sham the kiug, here proposed
to let all the centuries of time know it.
She was married at twenty years and died
at tweutyeniue. Her life ended as another
life began. As the rose bloomed the rose
bush periehed.
To adorn this dormitory of the dead at
the ciommand of the king Bagdad sent to
this building its eornelian, and Ceylon
lepis lazuli, and Punjab its jasper, and
Persia its amethyst, and Tibet its turquoise,
and Lanka its sapphire, and Yemen its
agate, and Panne its diamonds, and blood
atones and sardonyx and chalcedony and
moss agates are as common as though they
were pebbles. You find one spray of vine
beset with. 80 and another with 100 stones.
Twenty thousand men were 20 years in
building it, and although the labor was
slave labor and not paid for the build-
ing coat what would be $60,000,000 of our
American money. Some of the jewels have
beea picked out of the wall by iconoclasts
or oonquerers, and substitutes of less vela°
have taken their places, but the vines, the
traceries, the arabesques, the spandrels,
the entablatures are ao wonderous that you
feel like dating the rest of your life from
the day you first saw them. In lettere of
black marble the whole of the Koran is
spelled out in and on this august pile. The
king sleeps in the tomb beside the queen,
although he intended to build a palace as
black as this was white on the opposite aide
of the river for himself to sleep in. Indeed
the foundation of such a necropolis of black
marble is still there, and from the white to
the blaok temple of the dead a bridge was
to cross, but the son dethroned hina and
imprisoned him, and it is wonderful that
the king had any place at all in whir& to
be buried. Instead of windows to let in
the light upon the two tombs there is a
trellis work of marble—marble cut so del-
icately thin that the sun shines through it
as easily as through glees. Look the world
over and find so muoh translucency—
canopies, traceries, lacework, embroideries
of stone.
We had heard of the wonderful resonance
of this Taj, and so I tried it. I suppose
there are more sleeping echoes in that
building waitism to be wakened by the
human voioe that in any building ever con-
struoted. I uttered one word, and there
seemed descending invisible choirs in full
chant, and there was a reverberation that
kept on long after ono could have ex-
pected it to cease. When a line of a hymn
was sung, there was replying, rolling, ris-
ing, falling, interweaving sounds that
seemed modulated by beings seraphic.
There were aerial sopranos and bassos—
soft, high, deep, tremulous, emotional,
commingling. It was like an antiphonal
of heaven. Bat there are four or five Taj
Mahals. It has one appearance at sunrise,
another at noon, another at sunset and an-
other by moonlight. Indeed the silver
trowel of the moon, and the golden trowel
of the eunlight, and the leaden trowel of
the storm beild and rebuild the glory, so
that it never seems twice alike. It has all
moods, all complexions,all grancleurs. From
the top of the Taj, which is 250 feet high,
springs a spire 30 feet higher, and that is
enameled gold. What an anthem in eter-
nal rhythm 1 Lyrics and eleaies in marble.
Sculptured hosanna 1 Masonry as of sup-
ernatural hands 1 Mighty doxology in
stone! I shall see nothing to equal it tilt
I see the great white throne and on it Him
from whose fa,ce the earth and heavens flee
away.
The Taj is the pride of India especi-
ally of Mohammedanism. An English
officer at the fortress told tie that when,
during the general mutiny in 1857, the
Mohammedans proposed insurrection at
Agra the English government aimed the
gene of the fort at the Taj and said, " You
make insurrection, and that same day we
will blow your Taj to atoms," and that
threat ended the disposition for mutiny at
Agra.
But I thought while looking at that
palace of the dead, "All this constructed
to cover a handful of dust, but even that
handful has probably gone from the mau-
soleum." How much better it would have
been to expend. $60,000,000, which the Taj
Mahal cost, for the living. What asylums
it might have built for the sick, what
houses for the homeless 1 What improve-
ment our century has made upon other
centuries in lifting in honor of the depart-
ed memorial churches, memorial hospitals,
memorial reading rooms, memorial obser-
vatories. By all possible means let us
keep the memory of departed loved ones
fresh in mind, and let. there be an appro-
priate headstone or monument in the cem-
etery, but there is a dividing line between
reasonable commemoration and wicked
extravagance. The Taj Mahal has its uses
as an architectural achievement, eclipsing
all other architecture, but as a memorial
of a departed wife and mother it expresses
no more than the plainest slab in many a
country graveyard.- The best monument
WO can any of us have built for us when
we are gone is in the memory of those whose
sorrows we have alleviated, in the wounds
we have healed, in the kindnesses we have
done,in the ignorance we have enlightened,
in the recreant we have reclaimed, in the
souls we have saved. Such a monument is
built out of material more lasting than
marble or bronze and will stand amid the
eternal splendors long after the Taj Mahal
of Indi& shall have gone done in the ruins
of a world of which it was the costliest
adornment. But I promised to show you
not only a tomb of India, but a unique
heathen temple and it is is temple under-
ground.
With miner's candle we had seen some-
thing of the underside of Australia, as at
Gimpie,and with guide's torch we t ad seen
at different times something of the under-
bid° of America, as in !Mammoth cave, but
we are now to enter one of tho sacred NI.
tars of India, commonly called the Eleph-
ant& eaves. We had it all to ourselves—
the steam etecht that was to take us about
fifteen miles over the harbor at Bombay
and between enchanted islands and along
shores whose.ourves and gulches and pic-
tured rooks gradulally prepared the mind
of appreciation of the most unique spec-
tacle in India. The morning had been full
of thunder and lightning and deluge, but
the atmospheric agitations had oeased, and
the °totem ruins of the storm were piled
up in the heavens, huge enough and darkly
purple enough to make the skies as grandly
pieturesms as the earthly scenery amid
which we moved.. After an hour's (setting
through the waters we came to the Meg
pier reaching from the island u1Icd Elm
plumb,. It is en island smell of girth, but
600 feet high. It declines itito the marshes
of Mangrove. But the whole !eland is one
tangle of foliage and verdure—convolvel.
us creeping the ground, mosses climbing
the rooks, vines sleeving the long antis of
the trees, red flowers here and there in the
weeds like ineendiery'e tetra trying N ebb
the groves on fire, moths and exams, vying
AS to which ean most charm the beholder.
THE EXETER, TIMES
And new we come near the famous temple
hew)) from one rook of porphyry at least 800
yore ago. On either side of the (thief tem-
ple ie a ohapel these out out of the same
stone. So vast was the undertaking and
to the Hin,doo was so great the human
possibility that they say the gods
s000ped' out this structure from the
rook and carved the pillars and hewed its
shape iuto gigantic, idols and dedleated it to
all the geandeurs. We climb many stone
steps before we get to the gateways. The
eutrancte to this temple has soulptured door-
keepers leaning on sculptured devil& How
strange! But 1 have seen doorkeepers of
churohea and auditoriums who seemed to be
leaning on the demons of bad ventilation
and asphyxia. Doorkeepers ought to be team-
ing on the angels of health thud comfort and
life. All the sextons and janitors of the
earth who have spoiled sermons and lec-
tures an poisoned the lungs et audience
by inefficiency ought to visit this cave of
Elephant& and beware of what these door-
keepers are doing, when instead of leaning
on the angels they lean on the decnoniao in
their Elephant& eaves everything is on the
Samsonia.n and Titanian scale. With chisels
that were dropped from nervele's hands at
least eight centuries ago the forms of the
grahma, and Vishu and Stye, were out into
the everlasting rock. Siva is here repre-
sented by a figure 16 feet 9 hitches high, one-
half man and one-half yeoman. Rua a line
from the centre of the forehead to the iloor
of the rook, and you divide this idol into
masculine and feminine. Admired as this
idol is by many, it was to me about the
worst thing thatwaes ever out into porphpry,
perhaps because there is hardly anything
on earth so objeotionable as a being half
man and half woman, Do be one or other,
my hearer. Man is admirable, and woman
is admirabie,but either in flesh or trap rock
a compromise of the two is hideous. Save
us from effeminate men and masculine
women.
Yonder is the King Raven& worshipping.
Yonder ia the sculptured representation of
the marriage of Shiva and Parhati. Yon-
der is Dakaha, the son of Brahma, been
from the thumb of his right Land.lffe
had sixty daughters. Seventeen of those
daughters were married to Kasyapa and
became the mothers of the human race.
Yonder is a god with three heads. The
centre god has a crown wound with neck-
laces of skulls. The right hand god is in
a paroxysm of rage, with forehead of
snakes, and in its hand is a cobra. The
left hand god has pleasure in all its fea-
tures, and the hand has a flower. But
there are gods and goddesses in MI direc-
tions. The chief temple of this rook is 130
feet square end has twenty-six pillars
rising to the roof. After the conquerors of
other lands and the tourists from all lands
have chipped and defaced and blasted and
carried away curios and mementos for
museums and homes there are enough en-
trancements left to detain one, unless he
is cautions, until he is down with some
of the malarias which encompass this is-
land or get bitten with some of its snakes.
Yea, I felt the chilly -dampness of the
place and left this congress of gods, this
pandemonium of demons, this pantheon
of indifferent deities, and came to the
steps and looked off upon the waters which
rolled and flashed around the steam yacht
that was waiting to return with us to
Bombay. • As we stepped aboard our minds
filled with•the idols of the Elephanta caves,
I was impressed as never before with she
thought that man must have a religion of
some kind, even if he has to contrive one
himself, and he must have a god, even
though he make it with his own hand. I
rejoice to know the day will come when
the one God of the universe will be ac-
knowledged throughout India.
That evening on our return to Bombay I
visited the Young Men's Christian associa-
tion with the same appointments that you
find in the Young Men's Christien associa-
tions of Europe and America, and the
nighb after that I addressed a throng of
native childrenwho are in the schools of the
Christian missions. Christian universities
gather under their wing of benediction a
host of the 'young men of this country.
Bombay and Calcutta, the two great com-
mercial cities of India, feel the elevating
power of an aggressive Christianity. Epis-
copalian liturgy and Presbyterian West-
minster cateohism and Methodist anxious
seat and Baptist waters of consecration
now atend where once basest idolaters had
undisputed away. The work which Shoe.
maker Carey inaugurated ab Serampore,
Imam translating the Bible into forty
different dialeots and leaving his wornout
body amid the waives whom he had come
to save and going up into the heavens from
which he can better watch all the field—
that work will be completed in the salva-
tion of the millions of India'and besides
him gazing from the same high places,
stand Bishop Heber and Alexander Duff
and John Scudder and Mackay, who fell
at Delhi and Moncrieff, who fell at COWII.
pore, and Polehempton who fell at Luck -
now, and Freeman, who fell at Futtigarh
and all heroes and heroines who, for
Christ's sake, lived and died for the
Christianization of India, aud their heaven
will not be complete until the Ganges that
washes the ghats of heathen temples shall
roll between churches of the living God,
and the trampled womanhood of Hindooism
shall have all the rights purl:Masted by Him
who amid the outs and stabs of his own as•
sassination cried out, "Behole thy mother!'
and from Bengal bay to Arabian ocean aud
from the Himalayas to the coast of Coro-
mandel there be lifted hosannas to Bins
who died to redeem all nations. In that
day Elephant% cave will be one of the
places where idols are "oast to the moles
and bats."
If any clergyman asks me, as an unbe-
lieving minister of religion once asked the
Duke of Wellington, "Do you not think
that the work of converting the Hindoos
is all a practical farce ?" I answer him as
Wellington answered the unbelieving
miniaser, "Look to your marching orders,
sir." Or if any one homing joined in the
gospel attaok feels like retreeting I say to
him, as General Havelock said to a retreat-
ing regiment, "The enemy are all in 'front,
not in the rear" and leading them again
into the fight though two horses had been
shot under him.
So in MIN gospel campaign which prepotese
capturing the very last citadel of idolatry
and sin and hoisting over ib the banner of
the cross we may have hurled upon us
mighty opposition and Nora and obloquy,
and many may tall before the work is done,
yet at every call for new onset let the cry
of the church be "Aye, aye, great captain
of our salvation. We stood by thee in
other onnfliets, and we will stand by thee
to the, last." And then, if not in this world,
then from the bettlements of the next as
the last Appolyonic fortification shall crash
into ruinove will joie itt the shout: "Thanks
be unto God, wile giveth as the victoryi
Hallelujah, for the Lord God orrinipotent
teigne th I"
Night refuges in ,Paris shelter the arts.
The nine establishtnente last year were
tesed by 137 aotore, 43 singers, 71 musioiane,
12 pianists, 20 architects., 98artists (paint*
ere) 14 aethoee, and 28 jourriellete.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
INTERNATIONAL LESSON, trane 20:
"Christ the Bread or lLite" John 6,215-35.
(Witten Text John 0,311. '
Gasmen STATuluENT.
The thousande who at Bethsaida ate of
the divinely furniehed bread were eager to
throw off the yoke of Rome ad to brown
Christ King of Israel. On the very next
dey they forsook him and became Ws fOSS.
The oause of this remarkable revulsion of
feeling is shown in the sixth chapter of
John, Those who had. fed upon the five
loaves expeoted that a new era was now to
begin, when they would no longer be com-
pelled to work for their bread, but should
receive it as manna from heaven. In the
morning they sought Jesus but could not
find him; so they quickly journeyed. to
Capernaurn. There they found the Master
and eagerly flocked around him. But he
who read their inmost thoughts rebuked
them for their eagerness to obtain physical
bread while forgetting 'the true heavenly
manna. Re delivered a discourse partly
uttered in the streets of Capernaum, parity
in the synagogue, and interrupted through.
out by the inquiries and remarks of the peo
pis, in which he showed the deep purpose
of the miracle wrought on the day before.
That purpose was more than to feed the
bodies of men; it was to‘reveal Jesus as
himself the Bread of Life. He showed
them that the object of his ministry was
not to found an earthly kingdom, but to
bring men into fellowship with God by
faith in his Son. These thoughts were too
lofty for the carnal minds of the people;
with one accord they bit him. The year
of popularity was over, and the year of
opposition now began. As we read and
study the aocounb of this turning point in
our Lord's life, let us not fail to see the
practical bearing of it lessons. At the
close of the nineteenth century, as early
as in the beginning of the first, the earliest
and latest demand of the human heart is
for physical needs; and he who lives a
vigorous secular life, and who at the same
time feels the most imperatively the needs
of the spiritual life, is, in the truest sense,
a disciple of Josue.
ExalAttSTORY AND PRAOTWA.T., NOTES,
Verse 25. When they had found him.
Ile had lauded on the plain of Gennesaret,
a few miles south of Capernaum, and
wrought a number of miracles, and. then
went on to the city. On the other side,
The other side from theplace of the miracle.
The same expression in verse 22 and here
refers to opposite sides of the sea. Rabbi.
Meaning ' Master," or "Teacher," a. title
of respect. When earnest thou hither?
They were surprised to meet at Capernaum
the one who had fed them on the previous
day beyond Bethsaida, when they saw no
means by which he could have made the
joarney.
26. They saw One who could satisfy
earthly needs and fulfill earthly ambition.
They therefore saw the "signs' of the
loaves and of the beatings, but yet did
not see them in their full sense.
27. Labor not for the meat which perish.
etti. This does not mean that people
should give up secular employment and
live in idleness, trusting in God to support
them, for that was the very sin for which
Christ was rebuking the people. It meana
that our first thought should be for the
spiritual nature and its needs, not for the
physical, for which most men live. That
meat which endureth. The food of the
soul, vvhich is divine truth, apprehended
not by the intellect, but by the spiritual
nature. Unto everlasting life. Revised
Version, "eternal life." Eternal life is
more than an .endless life. It is the life of
God, in which men may share, becoming
partakers of the divine nature. • It is the
life in Christ- the real life which endures
when tims shall be no more. The Son of
Man shall give. Christ, as the Son of Man
or the complete representative man, the
man in communion with God,is the channel
through whom this life oomes to men.
Him hath God the Father sealed. Set
apart to his work, and approved by miracles
as a divinely appointed worker.
28. What shall we do? This is the first
question of every enquiring soul. The
answer which .Tesue gave drove' many from
him. They expected to have .some Phari-
saic forms prescribed, some outward works
set before them. (le. How many ask this
question bur go no further in the way of
salvation 1
29. This is the work of God. They ask
about "works," and. Jesus tells them that
the true work ia "faith." That ye believe
on him. This is the primal requirement,
to accept Christ as our Master, to rest upon
him implicitly as our Saviour, to believe
his worths as our teacher. He who does
this will do the works of God, for he will
do what Christ, who ia God, wills him to
do, (2) The sum of all the gospels is be
lieving in Christ.
30. They said therefore. Take notice
that some of these who were now asking
Jesus for a sign were the very men who
had eaten of the "five loaves" on the day
before, and the rest were people who had
heard of the miracle. What sign showest
thou? The miracle of yesterday was to
there a "dinner," and signified nothing
beyond physical comfort. That we may
see, and believe. Just ao (3) there are many
who now querulously demand "the evi-.
denims of Christianity," when there are
abundant evidences before them in the lives
of Christians.
31,32. Our fathers did eat manna. This
was a direct appeal to him to work again
the miranle of feeding the five thousand.
Moses gave ynu not that bread, They im-
pudently anti ungratefelly contrast him as
a leader of the people with Moses. Christ
anassters, "The manna was not given by
Moses, but by my Father, who ,giveti you
now the true bread from heaven.' The true
bread from heaven. That which satisfies
the nee& of the spirit, as bread satisfiee
those of the body.
33. The bread of God is ho The manna
in anoient time God gave through Moses,
this bread he gives directly ; that was for
the perishing body, this is for the imporish.
able spirit that was only for a time, this itt
for eternity. %%itch cometh down from
heaven. The Son of God, who was with
God, and came from God to redeem men;
34. Lord, evermore give us this -bread,
They spoke withoet hypoorisy, hutwithout
understanding the meeting of their own
*pHs. They did not deeire spiritual bless.
ings, but temporal; earthly, not heavenly ;
bread Was in their minds. Jett so the
Semaritat yeoman said, ," Give ma this
water;" bet tele went on to (fleeter Weight,
while they remained blind So, too (4),
there O.re mealy who say, "1 would like to
be a Obristiain' while iu their inmost hearts
they rejeot the GoepeL
Sti. I em the broad of life. Ile ia to the
soul what bread is to the body; he is insetted
by all; he is adapted t all; he supplies all;
he &Yee eternal life to all. He thet cometh to
rne. He who comes to Christ, who seekhim
wit h the sineere purpose of belie ving on 11110'
Shall never hanger. For ha Shall find the
springa of life in Ohritt. (5) One may be
very poor in this world's goods, but rich in
Quint; very hungry for physioal food but
have a team, in one's Saviour.
APOLOGIZED FOR INTRUDING.
The teashrut Student Thought the VOWIIIS
Of Media was a laving nattier.
A funuy story of a modest MOM IS tQld
by Aubrey de Pere. After fifty years'
seclusion within the walls of his college a
certain venerable fellow of Cambridge -Un-
iversity thought it wits time for him to see
a little of the world, and he accepted an
invitation from an early pupil who was
entertaining a large party in a great
country house. At dinner he Mt next to
the young lady of the house. Their con
versation fell upon baths, and she happened
to mention that she took a shower bath
every eveniog to invigorate her system,
adding, when he inquired what a shower
bath was, that it resembled a very emelt
round room; that the bather took his or
her stand in the centre of it, and upon
pulling a string was drenobed by a sudden
flood of water frorn above.
Next morniag the recluse rose at his
usual hour, 6 o'clock, and being of an in.
quisite temper thought it well to explore
carefully what he had never seen before, a
large country house. On pulling open a
door he found himself at the entrance, of a
very small circular apartMent, one of those
in which housemaids store away old
brushes and household 'satiates past their
work. In the centre of it stood a. plaster
cast of the Venus of Medici. The vener-
able man recoiled, closed the door and
walked in the park till summoned by the
breakfast bell. He took his seat and the
host asked whether he would have tea or
obffee. But he had reflected on what good
manners iinperatively required, and his
renewer was:
"My Lord I can neither partake of tea
not coffee,nor any other reflection, until I
have first tendered my humblest apologies
to the interesting young lady whom I now
see dispensing the chocolate, and on whose
sanitary ablutions this morning, as she
stood in her shower bath, I was so unfortu-
nate as unwittingly to intrude."
THE EARTHQUAKE PROPHET.
The Prophetic Tendency Ottslitt To 'Be
Suppressed With a Illeavy Hand,
Herr Falb, the earthquake prophet
Vienna,suddenly aehieved fame last spring.
He said Greece would ba shaken by an
earthquake on April 20, and the event
actually came off according to Falb's pro-
gramme. There was a slipping of the
tn-
stable rooks underlying the Atalanti Chan-
nel. A terrible shook buried. some hun-
dreds of Phocians in the ruins of their
homes, shops, or churches All Greece
was shaken, Italy felt the tremors, and.
seismic instruments a.s far away as southern
England recorded the disturbance. It was
a sad day for Greece and a great day for
Falb. The prophet had hit the nail exactly
on the head. The chance that he would
do so was rather less than that he would
draw a prize in a lottery, but he did it.
If Berr Falb had now retired on his lau-
rels they would not have faded so rapidly,
aud he would have saved Greece no end of
anxiety and distress. Unfortunately the
spirit of prophecy was upon him and could
not be suppressed. The Viennese eeer open-
ed his mouth again and told the world that
on May 5, Greece once more would be
shaken, and Athens would be destroyed.
Poor Greece had not yet buried all the
dead who had been crushed under the
falling walls of April 20, and Hens Falb's
new prophecy sounded in her ears like the
amok of doom. Not only ignorant people
but also men and women of intelligence and
education, were overwhelmed with nervous
apprehension. In his report on the earth-
quakes in Greece in 1893 and 1894, which
Prof. Mitzopulos of Athens has just pub-
lished, he gives s. short but graphic account
of the needless sneering which Falb's words
inflicted upon the people of the ()what.
Twelve days before the data fixed by Falb
for his next earthquake, the details of his
prephecy were telegraphed to Athens.
Evsry effort of scientific men to reassure
the public was in vain. They wrote to the
newspapers that Falb's alleged omniscience
as to seismic phenomena was pure humbug
and that his prophecy was based upon no
knowledge or theories that entitled it to
consideration. They might as well have
talked to the winds, for one stubborn fent
overtopped all other considerations in the
public mind. Herr Falb had predicted the
,earthquake of April 20, and what he had
done once he might do again.
Business was largely suspended some
days before the, dreaded May 5. On the
night before the expected catastrophe few
people in Athens and Paves slept. Most
of tne people had abandoned bheir houses
and were in the streets and fields. Many
others took refuge in berks and ships, and
awaited from minute to =Mute the ex-
pected destruc tion. Marty wtsre f righ tened
into sickness, some died, and a number of
puede-stricken women suffered from prema-
ture childbirth. The scare did not entire-
ly subeide for days after Falb had been
proved to be a talge prephet. A great
earthquake is usually followed by a period
of frequent earth treinortiTuntil equilibrium
sla restored among the disturbed rock
strata. As long es these tremor % centime
ed, thousands of people believed thatFalb's
second ear hquake had been only delayed,
and wag sure to come,
Seismologists have for yearbeen giving
the most earnett attention to the question
of predicting earthquakes, It with the
delicate instruments new in use for record-
ing earth tremore they could discover lin-
failing signs of the approach of a great
catastrophe, a wernittg mni4ht be sounded
whieh Would tend to minimize the fright-
ful lose of life. It canilot be said that any
eractical progress has yet been made in
this direction. Any ono who, iti our pre,
sent state of knowledge,' setil up in beet,
tress ea an earthquake prophet, itt it hunt-
ing, ancl big prophetic tendeney ought to
be suppresse I with a heavy band, before,
he has wrought tinepeekeble inieehlef
among the inhabitante of the earthquake
regions,
STORY OF AN OPAL
ariHnoa::,wIDeoobrI.(1:1:bi neeyv.. vitelsoitehleipioeepielb:niediailcogfveetin,tutointf i I ilis.nOuinda dear
io my soul? Let me Nil you a 'story for
itTlien let ue go out and stroll ou the
ePti:rulelvdz:or.8fadtiai; gB.,raides, I think you are
ha the ball room, and vaetly better for
oie.inpleaeanter there than here
"No, I never tire of that ; the waltz is
the path to paradise for ine. But I will go
outside with you, for it is very warm here."
The long piazze faced the beach, and
the music of the lapping waves mingled
with the strains that °eine floating out
from where the idanccirs gayly -cireled. The
air from the eta, blew Boit and, warm, and
the moon and stars shone down with a soft
radianoe. Yet Miss Merton shivered
a little as the salt wind touched her, and
drew her filmy mantle closer about her
white shoulders.
"We will go inside if you are cold," said
her companion, noticing the movement.
"Perhaps you are not used to the night
"No. It always makes rne cold to think
of an opal. They call the light in them
'fire,' but it ohills me Instead of warming.
They are as ohanging and treaoheroueras the
sea yonder."
"The sea has been my good friend,":said
the other; "I have found that its change a
rest me."
"That is all very well for a man, lieu-
tenant. But a woman needs .something
different from men. There should be no.
biting in their lives to disturb its calm.
That is why I hate opals—one did that for
a friend of mine."
The young officer laughed gently,
"Fancy will do much—for a woman," he
remarked,
"If you are going to laugh and fling at
our sex, I have done, said Miss Merton.
"I can find better amusement than being
laughed at in the ball room." •
"I beg your pardon. I will be very good,"
he answered, contritely.
For a few momenta they walked on silently
until they were at the farthest end of the
piazza. Then MISS Merton began her story.
Her voice was low and musical, and at
first Lieutenant Phelps—who had long been
beyond the sound of any woman's voice
whatever, was •content simply to listen to
its smooth flow. But she had only spoken
a few worda before he began to find her
story of absorbing interest. ,
" This opal," said Miss Merton, "was
given by a man td the woman whom he
said he loved. The man believed in the
s ;re
at_
t
evil power of the stone. Now, sir, you
may laugh, and have your fling at us.
He was afraid of it, hut ehe was not.
When he told her to choose she asked for
that, and he gave it to her, with many a
caution.
" 'If any harm comes to it harm will
come to us,' he told her, 'You must never
let it be upon the hand of another, for then
that one will opine between us.'
"She promised, of course, but she was
young and careless, and did not believe in
looking at the serious side of life when
there was a brighter and better one to see.
"The stone was very beautiful. In its
depths it held all the glowing colors of the
furnace. It was changeable as the ohamel-
eon. It'faseinated me when I looked at
it, but frightenedme because it was so
inconstant. As I told you my friend was
young. She had not yet learned how very
serious a matter life is. The ring kept
other men away from her, curtailed her
pleasures, her freedom."
Her companion began some protest, but
Miss Merton stopped him.
"Yes, I know what you are going to say
—that she thould have reckoned upon that
—that she would not have cared if she
really loved him. But you cannot change
tee nature of a girl in a day. She found
that the ring narrowed her life, and so one
clev she put it away."
hlf she was not willing to wear it she
should have given it back to the man who
gave it to her," said the lieutenant.
"He would have misunderstood it," said
Miss Merton. "He would have said that
she did not care for him, that shb had never
loved him, that she had played 'him false,
and all the other nice things inen toll the
women they love whenever their point of
view hripperts'to be different. So the poor
girl did what she thought was best and laid
the ring away and met him one day without
it on henhemd. 1 don't know' what he said
to her, Mit he wag so brutal about it that
the poor girl's proud spirit rebelled, as it
Should have done. Then she brought the
ring to me.
Helen,
' she said, I know you love
me. I can ttust you. He said that, if any
other wore it that no Wmild come bebw.een
us. Now I warm to show him how billy his
superstition is. I want the ring, but I do
not want it to be my tyrant. Take it and
wear it to -night and let him see it on your
hand. And (MIN Merton's voioe,grew very
weft) you won't dome between us, will you,
sweetheart 1' she asked, kissing me."
'Alm Merton paused and they both stood
eilently and looked out upon the gea
lathed iu its glorious moonlignt, for a long
time. The lady stole a glance at the inen't
face, tb see if he took any interest' in her
story, But ft told no more Watt the white
walls of the great hotel in whom° eihedow
they stood.
When she regumed her voioa had lost its
mellow sWeetneeti and had taken Witted a
hard worldliness' that grated on hie tit
like musks out of tune.
"1 did not mean to be false to her. ;
ehmild not be telling you this now if 1
could not !say that honestly. But when
she gave me the opal she tempted me,
She said .
• ,
'1 ' Seehow it glows, Helen, like fire. I
think he is like that. If I am not eareful
I will get singed in the flame,'
" I' hod never been without ,men ebou
i
me, but they were little nien. There wa
no ire ins them and I thought I should a,
last like to play with the flame—although
I knew ifs burned for another. That even*
ing I wore the ring and Harry Germain
saw it on my head. I told him whose it
was and why I wore it.
" ' This is capital,' he said ; let me
wear it and it will serve its purpose better
still. If he sees me have it he will be
insanely jealous.
"1 hesitated for a moment, and then
gave it to him."
Perhaps it was because Lieutenant
'Phelps was absent.minded, that he drop.
ped the hand that had been resting on his
arm and leaned back against one of the
pillars of the piazza.
"I knew," continued Miss Merton, "that
if he were jealous tlie flania would be easily
kindled for me to play with, but I did not
think of what might follow. He saw the
ring and went at once to Agnea.
" 'You have given the ring to Harry
Germain!" he said.
"She was frightened at his brusqueness
and she faltered in her speech.
" 'Oh, don't trouble to deny it,' he said,
have seen it on his hand. I thought
there was some one between us. I know
now.'
"Then, without another word, he turned
away from her. • Har first impulse was to
follow him, to call out, to ory to him that
it was all a mistake. But then her pride
revolted, and when Harry Germain came
up and asked her to dance she went off
with him, laughing as brightly as she ever
had. And he saw them together and saw
that Germain still wore his ring."
"And you," queried the lieutenant. "I
hope you won that for which you played7'
"He went away that night," she re.
plied. "I never saw him again until' to-
day."
Again they stood silent and looked at
the sea and sky, but not at each other.
Presently the man spoke.
"Where is she now?" •111 .
"In the ball room by this time. She
said she would come down later."
"Did she know that you were going to
tell me this."
He turned and left her without a word
—walking rapidly down the long piazza
and she saw him disappear within one of
the low windows. Then she sighed wearily.
"I only told him half the truth," she
said. "1 wonder if it would have been
better to have told him all? I know she
COD never care for him as 1 do."
The lieutenant stopped to give one swift
about; then walked straight across the
polished floor. In front of Agnes Wilton
he stopped again and looked at her quietly
a Moment before he spoke. In that mo-
ment he had time to see that an opal
glowed like a coal of living fire upon her
hand.
She looked up and met his glance stead-
ily, but she was very pale.
"There is a legend," he said, bending to.
ward her, "blot if the love that gaie ib
grows col& the opal's fire will grow dint.
Do you believe it r
"Yes," she answered,so low that he could
just -hear the words, "but mine never has
grown dim. Its fire has warmed me through
all the long years—oh, so long," she said,
"each °tie longer than the other. But I
knew you would come—the opal told me."
A little later some one said.
"Why there is Jack Phelps dancing
with Agnes Wilton! They quarrelled des.
perately three years ago and she sent him
away. But he is back, like a,moth to the
candle."
"The candle," said another, "Is that
magnificent opal ring that she wears. Jack
gave it to her and it has never left her
hand since he went away."
"Nevertheless," said Miss Merton, ti
whom the conversation was half addreasedi •
"the opal is a stone of evil omen. 1 would
not wear one for t he world." And although
the night was warm, she shivered.
41.
91
it
CEMENT :FOR BELTIN-
Recipe for Firmly Joinlatt the ieather
Edges.
The following are given In the Journal
of the Society of Chemical industry at
suitable cements for making joints in
leather driving belts. (1) Equal parts oft
good hide glue and sAmerican isin glass, gab
ened in water for ten heart), and then boiled,
with pure tannin until the whole mass is •
sticky. The surface of the jofnt should be
roughened and the content applied hot. (2)
Ono kilogram of finely Shredded gutta
perche digested over a water bath with 10
ktlograme of bonze.' until quite' dissolved,
when two kilograms of linteed oll varnish
are 'stirred in, (3) One and a half kilogramo
of finely ehredded India rubber' is complete-
ly dissolved in tee kilograms of (Arbon
bisulphide by heating. While hot, one
kilogram of shellac and one kilogram of
turpentine is added, and the eolution heated
until the two latter ingredients are also
dissolved. One kilogram of best glue k
dissolved at a moderate heat in l kb
grams of water, and thickened to the
consistency of syrup. One hundred grams
of thick turpentine and 5 in
of carbolic,
acid are carefully Stirted IR while hot. The
mixtute is poured into flat tin pans and
allowed to cool, then out into pieces and
dried in the air. The ceinent, is made liquid
With a little vinegar and applied to the
joint with a brush. The tiVo ends of the
joints Are then placed together and pressed
between WA iron plates heated to about 80
dermal P.
'
,n(
'Oi