The Exeter Times, 1895-3-7, Page 6TUE EXETElt TIMES
TRIAD OF_TROUBLES.
REV. DR, TAL111ADE PREACHES ON
RENAIAH'S GREA,T couRAGB.
The Christian May Overcome Sin and Mis-
fortune by the Swore of the Soirit—
WU Lion or ileretivensent—Tue lelairber
or Alleavell.
NRw 'resale, Feb, 24.—Uontinued winter
Storing seem to have no effect in diminish-
ing the great eudienoee that gather every
Sunday in and Around the Academy of
Music, To -day the crowds were as large
as ever, and the apacious A,eademy was
packed from pit to dome long before the
services began, Dr. Talmage took for his
eubject "A Snowy Day," the text selected
being 1 Chroniolea xi, 22, "He went down
Mad slew a lion in a pit on a stormy day."
Have you. eves heard of him? His name
was Benaiati. He was a man of stout
muscle and of great avoirdupois. His
father was a hero,and he inherited prowess.
He was athletics, and there was iron in his
blood, and the strongest bone in his body
was backbone. He is known for other
wonders besides that of the text. An Egyp-
tian five cubits in stature, or about seven
feet nine inches high, was moving around
In braggadooio and flourishing a great
spear, careless as to whom he killed, and
Benaiah of my text, with nothing but a
walking stiok, came upon him, snatched
the spear from the Egyptian, and with one
thrust of its sharp edge put an end to the
blatant bully, which makes as think of the
story in our Greek lesson, too hard for us if
the smarter boy on the sante health had not
helped us out with it,iu which Horatius the
Macedonian and Dioxippus the Athenian
fought in the presence of Alexander, the
Macedonian armed with shield and sword
and javelin, and the Athenian with nothing
but a club. The Macedonian hurled the
javelin, but the Athenian successfully
dodged it and the Macedonian lifted the
spear, but the Athenian with the club
broke it, and the Macedonian drew the
sword, but the Athenian tripped lum up
before he could strike with it, and then the
Athenian with his club would have beaten
the life out of the iVlacedonian, fallen among
his useless weapons, if Alexander had not
commanded, "Stop, stop 1"
But Benaiah of the text is about to do
something that will eclipse even that.
There is trouble in all the neighborhood.
Latebs are carried off in the night, and
children venturing only a little way from
their father's house are found mangled and
dead. The fact is the land was infested
with lions, and few people dared meet one
of these grizzly beasts, much less coruer or
attack it. As a good Providence would
have it, one morning a footstep of a lion
was tracked in the snow. It had been out
on its devouring errand through the dark-
ness, but at last it is found by the impres-
sion of the four paws on the white surface
of the ground, which way the wild beast
came and which way it had gone. Perilous
undertaking, but Benaiah, the hero of the
text, arms himself with such weapons as
those early days afforded, gunpowder hav-
ing been invented in a far subsequent cen-
threugh bard. times she must quit eohool
before site graduates—three troubles 1
There it an author,hie inennecript rejected,
hie power of originatiou in deoadence,
numbustee in foreanger and thumb whieh
threatens paralysis—three troubles 1 There
is a reporter of &no tate seat to report a
pugilism instes,d,of an oretorio,the copy be
hands in rejected because the peper is full,
a tnother to support on small incorne—tlaree
trobleso 1
I could march right off these seats and
warm this platform, if they would come
at my. cell, 500 people with three troubles.
This la the opportunity to play the hero or
the heroiee,not on a smell stage with a few
hundred people to clap their approval, but
with all the galleries of heaveu filled with
sympathetic and applauding speettators, for
we are "surrounded by a great cloud of
witnesses."My brotheronysister,my father,
my mother,whab a chance you have! While
you are in the struggle, if you only have
the grace of Christi to listen, a voice parte
the heevens,saying, "My grace ie aufficient
for thee." "Whom the Lord loveth, he
ohasteneth." "You shall be more than
conquerors." And that reminds me of a
letter on my table written by some one
whom 1 suppose to be at this moment
present, saying : "My dear, dear doctor,
you will please pardon the writer for asking
that at some time when you feel like it you
kindly preach from the thirtieth psalms
fifth velem, 'Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning,' and
much oblige a down town business
man."
So to all down town business men and to
all up town business men I say if you have
on hand goods that you minuet sell and
•
debtors who will not or cannot pay, and
you are also suffering from uncertainty as
to what the imbecile American congress
will do about the tariff, you have three
troubles and enough to bring you within
the rens of the consolation of my- text,
where you find the triumph of Benaiah
over a lion and &pit and a snowy day. If
you have only one trouble, I cannot spend
any time with you to -day. You must at
least have three and then remember how
many have triumphed over such a trial of
misfortune. Paul had three troubles—
sanhedrin denouncing him—that was one
great trouble ; physical infirmity, which
he called "a thorn in the flesh," and
although we know not what the thorn wee
we do know from the figure he used that it
must have been something tnat stuck him
—that was the second trouble; approach-
ing martyrdom—that made the three
troubles. Yethear what he says "If I
had only one misfortune, I could stand
that, but three are two too many 1"
No, I misinterpret. He says: " Sorrow-
fal, yet always rejoicing. Poor, yet
making many rich; having nothing, yet
possesrang all things." Thanks be unto
God, who giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ."
Devid had three troubles—a bad boy, a
temptation to dissoluteness and dethrone-
ment. What does ht say? "God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help
in time of trouble. Therefore will not we
fear, though the earth be removed, and
though the mountains be oast into the
midst of the sea."
John Weslayhad three troubles—defam-
ation by mobs, domeetio infelicity, fa-,
tigue from more sermons preached and
more miles traveled than almost any man
of his time. What does he say ?" The
best of all is God is with us." Arad when
his poet brother, Charles Wesley, said to
him, "Brother John, if the Lord were to
give me wings, l'cl fly," John's reply was,
' Brother Charles, if the Lord told me to
fly I'd do it and leave hip to find the
wings."
George Whitfield had three troubles—
rejection from the pulpits ot England be-
cause he was too dramatic—that was one
trouble; strabismus, or the crossing of his
eyes—that subjectell him to the caricature
of all the small wits of the day; vermin and
dead animals thrown at him while he
preached on the commone—that made
three troubles. Nevertheless his sermons
were so boyamt that a little child dying
soon after hearing him preach said in the
intervals of pain. "Let me go to Mr. Whit -
field's God l' Oh, I am so glad that Ben-
aiah of my text was not the only one who
triumphed over a lion in a pit on a snowy
day.
Notice in my texb a victory over bad
weather. it was a snowy day, when one's
vitality is at !ow ebb, and the spirits are
naturally depressed, and one does not feel
like undertaking a great enterpr.se, when
Renaiah rnbs his hands together to warm
them by extra friction or thrashes his arnis
around him to revtve circulation of the
blood, and then goes at the lion, which was
all the more fierce and ravenous because of
the sharp weather. Inspiration here admits
atmospheric hindrance. The snowy day
at Valley Forge well nigh put an end to
the struggle for American independenue.
The snowy day demolished Napoleon's
army on the way from Moscow.
tury by the German monk, Bertholdus
Schwarz. Therefore, without gun or any
kind of firearms, Benaiah of the text no
doubt depended on the sharp steel edge for
his own defense and the slaughter of the
lion as he followed the week through the
snow. It may have been a javelin, it may
have been only a knife, but what Benaiah
lacks in weapon he will make up in strength
of arm and skill of stroke. But where is
the lion? We must not get off his track
in the snow. The land has many cisterns,
or pits, for catching rain, the rainfall being
very scarce at certain seasons, and hence
these cisterns or reservoirs are digged here
and there and youder. Lions have an in-
stinct which seems to tell them when they
are pursued, and this dread monster of
--which I speak retreats into one of these
cisterns which happened •to be free of.
water, and is there panting from the long
run licking its jaws after a repast of human
flesh and after quaffing the red vintage of
human blood.
Benaiah is all alert and comes cautiously
On toward the hiding place of this terror of
the fields. Coming to the .verge of the nit,
he looks down at the lion, and the lion
looks up at him. What a moment it was
when their eyes clashed 1 But, while a
modern Du Chaillu, Gordon Cumming or
Sir Samuel Baker or David Livingstone
would have just brought the gun to the
shoulder and held the eye against the bar-
rel and blazed away into the depths and
finished the beast, Benaiah, with only the
old time weapon, can do nothing until he
gets on a level with the beast, and so he
lumps into the pit, and the lion, with ;shin -
tog teeth of rage and claws lifted to tear to
shreds the last vestige of human life,springs
for the man ; while lBenaiah springs for the
beast. But the quick stroke of the steel edge
flashed again and again and again until the
snow was no longer white, and, the right
foot of triumphant Benaiah is half covered
with the tawny mane of the slain horror of
Palestine.
.Now you see how emphatic and tragic
and tremendous are the words of my text,
" He went down and slew a lion in a it on
a snowy day." Why put that, in the Bible?
Why put it twice in the Bible—once in the
hook of Samuel and here in the book of
ChronioIee ? Oh, the practical lessons are
SO many for you and for me 1 What a cheer
in this 'subject for all those of you who are
in conjunction of hostile circumstances.
Three things were against Banaiah of my
text in the moment of combat—the snow
that impeded his movement, the pit that
environed him in a small space and the
lion, with open jaVni and uplifted paw.
And yet 1 hear the shout of Benaiah's vic-
tory, 0 men and women of three troubles!
You say, "I could stand one, and I think
could stand two, but three are at least one
too many,"
There is a man in business perplexity and
who has sickness in his family and old age
is coming on. Three troubles—a Iloil,& pit
and a. eriowy day. There is a good woman
With failing health and a dissipated husband
and a wayward boy --three treublest There
la a young man,salary dub down,bad cough,
frowning future—three troubles 1 There
is e maiden with difficult school lessons she
taunt* gefe %feed that is not at attractive
aS sonic of 11.1r sohooImates, it prospect thab
it a lavelin Was it a knife T I cannot
tell but everything depended on it But
for that Beneieh's body uuder one crunch,
of the =flitter would. heave hetet limp and
tumbled in the ettow, and. whets you and
go into the fight with temptation, if we
have not the right kiud of weapon, instead
of our slaying the lion the lion will slay us.
The sword of the opirit 1 Nothing in earth
or hell can stand before that. Viotory with
that, or no victory at all. By that I mean
prayer to God, confidence in his resoging
power, saving vette, almighty deliverance.
I do not care tvhat you call it, I cell it
"sword of the Spirit," aud if the lions of
all the jungles of perditiou should at onoe
spring upon your soul by that weapon of
heavenly metal you can thrust them back
and out them dowmand stab them through,
and leave them powerless at your feet.
Your good resolution wielded against the
powers which assault you 15 a, toy pistol
against an Armstrong gun, is a penknife
held out against the brandished sabers of a
Heintzelman's cavalry charge. Go into
the fight against sin on your own strength,
and the resell, will be the hot breath of the
lion in your ble.nohed face, and his front
paws one on each lung. Alas, for the man
not fully armed down in the pit on a snowy
day, and before him a lion !
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,
INTERNATIONAL LESSON, VIAR. 10
Karma...
"The Melia Toting )(tater" mark 10. 17 -II
Golden Text, Matt, B. 38.
GENERAL STATEMENT.
Jaeua is atill passing through the province
of Perot, on Die way to Jerusalem, when a
young mau of noble family and abundant
wealth, of blameless oharaoter and a devout
worshipper, comes forth to meet hien. So
eager is the longing of his soul for eternal
life that he comes running, falls at the
Saviour's feet, and reverently asks him by
what good deed he wit win the joya,. of
heaven. The Saviour refers him back to the
Ten Commandments, as if to intimate that
in their fulfillment is room for the loftiest
virtue. With surprise at the answer the
youth declares and honestly, that he has
kept these from his childhood. A glance
iuto the ardent fosse through which
shines a sincere heerb awakens the
love of Christ, and seeing that the
deenest need of his nature was a full con-
arairatiop to God, and that his sole stum-
bling -block was his attachment to earthly
treasure, the Master bids him abandon his
possessions and henceforth follow in the
company of the disoiplee. It was an
opportunity to exchange earthly honor for
the high privilege of it place in the goodly
fellowship of the apostles and a name
among the twelve foundation stones of the
New Jerusalem (Rev. 21, 14), But his
heart clung to earth, and he could not make
the surrender; so he turned sadly away.
Then Jesus turned from his retreating form
to the twelve and surprised them by the
declaration that the most diffieult of all
divine works is the salvation of one whose
heart clings to worldly riohes.
EXPLANATORY AND PRACTICAL NOTES.
Verae 17. When he was gone forth. As
Jesus was starting upon his joutney from
the place of the last lesson. There came
one running. From the three accounts
(see parallel passaglilt) we learn that he was
a young man (Mat. 19. 22), that he was
very rich (verse 22), and that he was a
ruler (Luke 13. 18), probably in the local
synagogue. All this would indicate that
he was a faithful Jew, zealous in all the
observances of worship; while his coming
to Christ "running" with such a qv eation
indicates that he was not satisfied with his
spiritual condition, but was hungering for
a better salvation than the law could
promise. (1) There is a yearning of
the soul which no outward forms of
religion can content. Kneeled to him.
Showing thereby his reverence for Christ
and eonfidence in him as a religious teacher.
Good Master. He doubtless regarded Jesus
as an eminent rabbi, perhaps a prophet,
but was not quite ready to address him as
the Messiah of 'Brasil. (2)There are many
such now, who will call Jesus "Teacher,"
butnot "Redeemer." What shall Ido? Ife
imagined ehat eternal life was to be won
by some bold stroke, some grand act of
righteousness, and he considered himself
equal to the task, however hard. Inherit
eternal life. Salvation in the world to
come ; showing that,like most of the Jews,
he believed in a life hereafter. (3) The soul
of man wilt pay any price it it can buy its
own immortality.
A word to all who are in a snowy day.
Oh, fathers and mothers who have loet
chtldren, that is the weather that cuts
through the body and soul, But drive
back, the lion of bereavement with the
thought which David Rae of Edinburgh
got from the Scotch gravedigger, who was
always planting white clover and the
sweetest flowers on the children's graves in
the cemetery and when asked why he did
so replied : " Surely, sir, I oanna make
ower fine the bed coverin o' a little inno-
cent sleeper that's waitin' there till We
God's time to waken it and cover it with
the white robe and waft it away to glory.
When Ede grandeur is waitin' it yonder, it's
fit it should be decked oot here. I think
the Saviour that counts its dust sa3 preci-
ous will like to see the white clover sheet
spread ewer it Do ye no think so, too,
sir ?" Cheer up all disoonaolates. The best
work for God and humanity has been done
on the snowy day. At gloomy " Ma-
rine Terraoe," island of Jersey, the exile
Victor Hugo wroughtthe mightiest achieve-
ment of hie pen. Ezekiel, banished e nd
bereft and an invalid at Cornhill, on the
banks of the Chebar, had his momentous
vision of the cherubim and wheels within
wheels. By the dim light of a dungeon
window at Bedford, John Bunyan sketches
the "Delectable Mountains." Milton writes
the greatest poem of all time without eyes.
Michael Angelo carved a statue out of snow,
and all Florence gazed in raptures a.t its
exeuisitennes, and many of God's servants
have out of the cold cut their immortality.
Persecutions were the dark background
that made more impressive the courage and
consecration of Savonarola, who, when
threatened with denial of burial, said,
"Throw me into the Arno if you choose;
the resurrection day will find me,and that
is enough." Benaiah, on a cold, damp,
cutting,snowy day,gained leonine triumph.
Hardship and trouble have again and again
exelted anct inspired and glorified their
subjects.
The Bush itself has mounted. higher
And flourished unconsumed in fire.
Well, we have had many snowy days
within the past month, and added to the
chill of the weather was the chilling dis-
may at the nouarrival of the ocean steamer
Gascogne. Overdue for eight days many
had given her up as lost, and the most
hopeful were very anxious. The cyclones,
vahose play is shipwrecks, had been report-
ed being in wildest romp all up and down
the Atlantic. The oceun a few days before
had swallowed the Elbe, and with une.p-
peased appetite seemed saying, "Give us
more of the best shipping." The Norman -
die came in on the same track the Gascogne
was to travel, and it had not seen her. The
Teutonic, saved almost by the superhuman
efforts of captain and crew, came in and
heard no gun of distress from that missing
ateamer. There were pale faces and wring-
ing hands on both continents, and tears
roiled down cold cheeks on those snowy
days. We all feared that the worst had
happened and talked of the City of Boston
as never herd or atter sailing and the
steamship President, on which the brilliant
Cookman sailed, never reported and never
to be heard of again until the time when the
sea gives up its dead. But at last under
most powerful glass at Fire Island a ahip
was seen limping this way over the waters.
Then we all began to hope that it might be
the missing French liner. Three hours of
tedious waiting and two continents in
suspense 1 When will the eyeglasses
at Fire Island make revelation of
this awful mystery of the sea ?
There it is '1 ha 1 ha 1 . The Gascogne 1
Quick 1 Wire the iiewe to the city 1 Swing
the flags out on the towers. Ring the bells!
Sound the whistles of the shipping all the
way up from Sandy Hook to New York
Battery 1 "She's safe, she's safe 1" are the
the words caught up and passed on from
street to street. "Itis the Gascogne!" lathe
cry sound ing through all our delighted homes
and thrilling all the telegraphic wires of
the continent and all the cables under the
sea, and the huzze, on the wharf as the
gangplanks were swung out for the disem-
barkation was a small part of the hezza
that lifted both Hemispheres into exulta-
tion. The flakes of snow fell on the "extra"
as we opened it on the street to get the
West particulars.
Well, it will be better than that when
some of you are seen entering the harbor
of heaven. You have had a rough voyage
—no mistake about that. Snowy day after
snowy day. Again and again the machin-
ery of health and courage broke down
and the waves of temptation have swept
clear over the hurricane deck, so that you
were often compelled to say, "All thy
waves and thy billows have gone over me,"
and you were down in the trough of that
sea and many despaired of your safe ar-
rival. But the great pilot, not one who
must come off from some 'other craft, but
the one who walked storm swept Galilee
and now walks the wintry Atlantic, comes
on board and heads you for the haven,
wheu no sooner have you passed the nar-
rows of death than you find all the'banke
lined with immortals celebrating your ar-
rival,and while some breakoffps.lm branches
from the banks and wave them those stand-
ing on one eide will chant, "There shall be
no more sea," and those standing on the
other side will cheat, "These are they
which come out of great tribulation
and bad their robes washed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb."
OW the stormy sea into the smonth harbor.
Out of leoniee strintele in the pit to grad,
mice by the f,,m weo shall ',tad you to
living Ione tame of .‘v ,ter. Out of the
enowy day oi es r. h.y neverities into the
gsrilens of everlasting flora and into or-
oharda of aortal fruitage, the fall of their
white bloesoms the only snoW in heaven,
The inclemency of January and February
weather has for some years • bankrupted
thousands of merchants. Long succesmon of
stormy Sabbaths has crippled innumerable
churches. Lighthouses veiled by the snow
on many a coast have failed to warn off from
the rocks the doomed frigate. Tens of
thousands of Christians of nervous tempera.
ment by the depression of it snowy day
almost despair of reaching heaven. Yet in
that seyle of weather Benaiah of the text
achieved his most celebrated victory, and
let us by the grace of Goa become victor
over influences atmospheric. If we are
happy only when the wind blows from the
clear northwest, and the thermometcr is
above freezing point, and the sky is au
verted blue cup of sunshine poured all over
us, it is a religion 95 per cent off. Thaek
God there are Christians who, though their
whole life through sickness has been it
snowy day, have killed every lion of des-
pondency that dared to put its cruel paw
against their suffering pillow. It was a
snowyday when the pilgrim fathers set foot,
not on a bank of flowers, but on the cola
New England rook, anti from a ship that
might have been more appropriately called
after a December hurricane than after a
" Mayflower " they took 'possession of this
great continent. And amid more chilly
worldly circumstances many it good man or
it good woman has taken possession of a
whole continent of spiritual satisfaction,
valleys of peace, and rivere of gladness and
mountains of joy. Christ landed in our
world not in the month of May, but in the
stormy month of December,to show us that
we might have Christ in winter weather
and on a snowy day.
Notice everything down in the pit that
snowy day depended upon Benaiah's
weapon. There was as much strength in
one muscle of that lion as in all the mils.
&es of both arms of Benaiah. It fa the
strongest of beasts and has been known to
carry off an ox, Its tongue is so rough
thanit seta as it rasp tearing off the flesh
It lieks. The two great canons at each
side of the mouth make escape impoesible
for anything it has once seized, yet Ile.
naiah puts his heel on the neck of thfil
"king of boasts." Was it a dagger 1 Was
of earth,but the attaolurtent of the heart tO
them, hinders men from salvation. (9) One
may trust in riches who has very little
riches to trust in,.
26-27 Plasier for a camel, A saying over
which meal ingenious interpretation has
been wasted to make it literal. It
ie a proverbial expression given hi
a striking form to make it the more
striking, but, like figurative language,
not to be taken literally, aud means simply
that which is attended with great dam]:
ty. Astonished out of measure. All the
more surprised because they failed to
apprehend the spiritual idea involved. Who
then clan be saved ? "11 a rich man cannot
be aaved, how can anyone ?" was their
question •'eince in their view the rich man
was free from many temptations to crime
which the poorer classes meet meet. With
men . . . impossible. Impossible as it is
by any natural law or by human means to
change the heart, yet by &vine power even
this change may be wrought.
18,19. Why (Idlest .. me good. In this
answer Christ shows that he had read the
young man's heart, and observed his
studied respect which fell short of regard •
ing him as Uhrisa As if he had said, "Do
you know that your words mean that you are
not willing to adtnit, that I am God?" He
asks him, in effect, whether he is prepared
to recognize his divine authority and sub-
mit to his commands. Thou knowest the
commandments. According to Matt. 19:
17-19, after Jesus said to him, "Thou
knowest," ete., the young man answered
"Which ?" as if it could not be possible
that Jesus would refer him back tca the old
tables of the law which everybody was
supposed to keep, but must have some
higher precept of his own. Jesus, in
return, quoted in brief the commands
relating, not to God, but to man, testing
the young man by these simple require-
ments. (4) In the Ten Commandments
there is scope for the largest virtues. (5)
He who has fulfilled the law has met the
demands of the Gospel. Defraud not.
Perhaps a special application ot the tenth
commandment, "Thou shalt not covet."
20. All these have I observed. An
answer which showed his sincerity and
past faithfulness, so far as outward
acts were concerned; yet showed at
the eami time how utterly he failed to ap-
prehend the spiritual import of the law.
Christ would show him that there are
depths of meaning in these simple words
which he had never sounded.
Refinement creates beetity everywhere. --
nazi itt.
£650,00ia notv what the Prince of Weiss
is insured for.
'THE FEAR OF DEATH.
It is a Natural Instinct and Doubtless a
'Wholesome One.
• The fear of death in the abstract is a
natural instinct, and, being natural, is
doubtless a wholesome one. And this being
so, it constant realization of it is scarcely to
be desired. It is much to be questioned
whether, to use the imagery of. the hymn
the man to whose consciousness it was con
tinually present that his tent Was nightly
pitched a day's maroh nearer to his grave
would be a useful campaigner. But, in point
of faot, there is no clanger that it will be
so. The story is told of a priest who, under
sentence of death in days when the penalty
was more common than now, obtained the
privilege of preaohing to his fellew convicts
in like case. It is a scene which is repeated
in a thousand different places every Sunday
morning, but it is a hundred to one that the
situation does not strike either preaoher or
people unpleasantly, and you will find each
going home to dinner as cheerfully self he
earried a special exemption in his pocket.
It is best so.
Not to climb a hill till you come to it is
a homely maxim, but it is astonishing how
much, carried out, it simplifies life. You
imagine it to be an alp that is barring your
way, aud when you reach the spot it turns
out to be a gently -rising ground from which
you may view the surrounding country
before making a fresh start, And so with
death. Formidable as it appears from a
distance, the more one looks into the sub-
ject the more certain it becomes that man-
kind, when brought to a practical acquain-
tance with it have agreed in some blind way
to recognize in the enemy whose approaches
they have been so unremitting in their
efforts to wiird off something altogether
different from the terrible and hostile force
which they have been acoustomed to o00 -
eider it. 'We fall on guard, and after all,
it is a friend who comes to meet he."
21. Jesus beholding. Looking upon him
earnestly, and aeeing how ardent, how
sincere, how humble he was iu his
desire to know the truth and to
do the right, yet how ignorant alike
of his own heart and of God's law. Loved
him. A graphic touch peouliar to Mark,
who oftener than the otherevangelists
notes the looks and feelings of Jesue. Jesus
loved him because he aaw what glorious
capacities were in him if he could measure
up to the Gomel stanclard'of selfenterifice for
Christ's sake. -(61 So Christ sees divinepossi-
bilities in every soul. Otte thing thou leek -
est. "The one thing is a heart free from the
love of the creature."—Bengel. Sell what-
soever thou haat. Christ did not mean
this as a command to every disciple, but he
gave it as the need of tItat one soul which
had deolared itself ready to do "some great
thing" for eternal life. (71 Yet every
one who would follow Christ meet give up
all by holding his all under the command
of his master. Treasure in heaven. "Ex-
pecting your rewards not on earth, but in
that eternal life for which you claim to be
so desirous." Take up the crone. The
oross is whatever of trial or hardship one
may find in fellowship with Christ. Follow
me, As a disciple, perhaps an apostle. If
that was a call to become one of the twelve
what an opportunity he missed 1 "Almost
anybody can be it rich man, but how few
have the chance of becoming apostles 1"—
Dr. Whedon.
22-24. Sad at that saying. Showing that,
after alehis earthly possessions were dearer
to him than the heavenly rewards. Went
ltway. Unwilling to stand the test and
submit fully to Christ. How hardly—they
that have tiohee, Not because God's grace
is wanting, but beeesise their hindrances
are greater, (8) The stronger our ties to
earth the harder it is to get to heaven,
Astonished. "Amazed" (Revised Version.)
The Jew's believed that riches were a mark
of the divine favor,and that in the kingdom
of Messiah every form of prosperity would
abound. Trust in riches. Given asan explana-
tion of the former statementt and showing
that not the mere possession of the things
HE GOT HIS PAY.
An Odd Coincidence That Occurred Re-
tween Borrower and Lender.
"Here is one' of the odd coincidences of
life," said my friend Williams. "Some
time ago an acquaintance came to me and
told me he was in great need of $15, and
at conaiderable trouble to myself I let him
have it. He promised to return it in a few
days.
"When three weeks had elapsed I men-
tioned the matter to him casually, and he
was profusely apologetic—would send it to
me the following day, sure. It didn't
come, though, nor did I get any word from
him. About two weeks after that I met
him on the street. He declared it was a
shame I hadn't got my money, and vowed
he wouldn't let another day pass without
paying me.
"It went along, then, for it week or ten
days, and, as my expenses were very heavy
I was considerably embarrassed and needed
the money badly. One night, when I was
feeling par tioule.rly discouraged, I sat down
and wrote him a note. I said: 'My Dear
Sir: About six weeks ago 1 loaued you $15.
Lest the paying it should occasion you any
inconvenience allow me to hereby make
you a present of the money.'
"That will briug it, if anything will,
thought 1. Judge of my surprise when by
the next morning's mail I received a' letter
from the man, inalosing tbe $15. By the
same mail exactly he must have received
mine making him a present of it, and, by
the dates, both letters were evidently
written at about the same hour."
OEOIL RHODES OF AFRICA.
THE CHIEF FIGI.TRE IN WHAT WAS
THE DARK CONTINENT.
---
Interesting Talk About the Young Isk-
Man Who ilas Become linutistaltably
Ono or the Foreinwit Den or vie leinie,
It would be a mistake to suppose that
Mr. Rhodes is wholly immersed in what
Lord Beaconsfield oalled "affairs." He
enters with the fervor of a boyish enthus•
hum into the generous amusements of life.
With a ship lurching and rolling in the
Bay of Biacay he has led. a forlorn hope to
walk steadily along a plank of the deck
undisturbed by the heaving of the waters.
In the sports on board ship in the voyage
to and from the Cape, the Cape Premier
has taken it foremost place in the "tug of
war," and has vanquished in a feat of
strength a rustio Samson on his way to
dig a fortune in the gold fields. In the
oity of Kimberley—which is largely the
oreation of his genius—the chances are
that Mr. Rhodes would first direet the
attention of visitors from Europe, as has
actually happened, not to the De Beers'
Mine, but to the cricket ground to whioh
he would point with pride as an evidence
that the younger men seeking a fortune ia
the colony were of the right stuff.
Mr. Rhodes is a splendid specimen of an
Oxford man, and is devoted to the "Var-
sity." His career as an undergraduate
was broken by the
Two Pounds of Honey a Year.
A French naturalist with a mathemati-
cal turn of mind has been maculating the
work done by n hive of bees. When the
weather is favorable a "worker," accord-
ing to his estimate, makes, usually, six to
ten trips, visiting forty to eighty flowers,
and collecting about one grain of nectar.
Even when under extraordinarily good
conditions he visits 200 or 400 flowers, the
amount collected would not exceed five or
six grains, and the collection of a pound
would ocoupy several years. A hive con-
tains 20,000 to 50,000 bees of which only
half are occupied in preparing honey, the
rest caring for the young and theirquartera.
ln a good day 16,000 to 20,000 bees can, in
six or ten trips, visit 300,000 to 1,000,000
flowers. For this it would be necessary
that the locality should be favorable for
honey -making, and that the nectar -secret-
ing plants should grow near the hive. A
hive of 30,000 bees can then, under good
conditions, make about two pounds of
honey a year.
FORTUNATE ILL HEALTH
which first sent him out to South Africa.
Re returned, however, with characteristic
pluck, after several years' absence, when
already he had made his mark in South
Africa, to complete his course at Oriel, and
to take his degree. His conversation, if
flowing spontaneously, largely turns on
Oxford men, Oxford sport, and Oxford
ways; and when, approaching his fortieth
year, a Cabinet Minister and a millionaire,
his attire was not is special inspiration of
Poole's, but was ordered, even to his neck-
tieti, from his old tailor in " the Turl." On
one occasion, when be came over to Eng-
land on a hurried visit as Prime Minister
of the Cape, he was eagerly sought for and
feted by "the best people." He suddenly
disappeared, leaving no address. He had
slipped down to Oxford on a summer even-
ing to see the " trial eights."
Mr. Rhodes is not only of tall and well-
proportioned frame, he has also a physical
advantage which no doubt has greatly con-
trlbuted to his successful career—the
capacity for long, deep, and unbroken
sleep, which has never left him in the most,
anxious periods of his life. The gift belong-
ed to Pitt, and belongs to Gladstone. It
belonged also to Clive, to whose career of
its best and most indubitable aspeots the
career of Mr. Rhodes bears it close analogy.
Clive used to boast that his Bleep had never
left him save on one occasion, the night
before the battle of Plessey. Mr. Perruell
has been heard to say that it only took him
twenty minutes to discharge from his mind
any topic, however urgent or disagreeable.
Mr. Rhodes, too, has perfect command over
the current of his thoughts. Once, when
he had ventured on a hold and uncertain
stroke of policy, he started among his
friends
Advisa.bility of Dehorning.
If there is any doubt of the advisability
of dehorning cattle in general, there can be
no doubt of the advisability of dehoruing
he bad-tempered animal that is prone to
drive its fellows from the water or feed
trough, or the shelter. This animal does
not profit from the hurt it does othere. The
quarrelsome animal never tnekea 60 muoh
fat or milk from ite feed as it Would were
it quiet and peaceful ; and it reduces the
thrift of the animals it deprives of feed,
water, or shelter, if it does not does injure
them. In nearly every case such an anitnal
will be thoroughly refortned by dehorning;
ib will be among the most pesteful in the
herd. In the f ew eases in Which this effect
is not produced, the animal' capacity
to injure its fellovvit is much lessetied,
and 'hey will BOOB learn this and Will not
ho imposed upou by it.
gratification of aelash or luxurioue tastes,
but for the promotion a the greet politioel
ideale ou which he hes see hie hearth Before
he became Prime Minister hie etitabliato
ment at Kimberley was simplicity iteelf.
Re had not a, house of his Own. Re shared
a flat with Dr, Jameeon—the famous "Dr,
Jim" of IVlashonaland—and took hie meals
at the olub. He has now to supped the
dignity of his position as Premier. Hie
residence at Rondebosole near Cape Town,
was in former tirnes the seat of the Gov-
erament when the Cape was in the posses.
sion of the Dutoh, and more recently haa
been used as the summer Abode of the Gov.
emirs. Its Dutoh origin bus been much
effaced hy alterations in the English etyle,
and the interior of the house is splendidly
furnished and decorated after the fashion
of a luxurious English mansion. Old furni-
turs has been sought for in all. directiona,
and Chippendale and Sheraton sideboerds,
whioh were once in the homes of the
Huguenot weavers in the liberties of Dublin,
now adorn the residence of the Cape
Premier. Mr. Rhodes is
Ate EXTREMELY PLEASANT HOST,
One oau see, however, that the formal
stet° dinners necessitated by his position
are irksome to him. Matters of procedure,
etiquette. eto, he leaves to the managet e
ment of his Secretary, and doubtless Digits
for his unpretentious simplicity and goods
oomardeship of the happy days in the flab
at Kimberley. He preserves still his life-
long habit of early rising. His day begins
at 6 o'clock, and the bulk of his oorrespon-
dence and official heftiness is discharged
before noon. Re has a great love for
horses'and has introduced an Arab breed
to the Cape. Indeed, he regards no day
complete without, at least an hour's canter.
Mr. Rhodes's powers as a publio speaker
have been depreciated. He is, however,
highly effective, both on the platform and
in the Cape Parliament. His speeches are
never elaborated, but are plain, common-
sense pronouncements of a man who knows
his mind and knows how to express it.
Indeed, for clearness and terseness of speak..
ing and for the knack of making a public
speech resemble a highly intelligent personal
conversation Mr. Rhodesmuchresem bles Mr.
Chamberlain. His voice is not high toned,
but his utterance is clear and distinct.
His gestutes, though awkward, are natural
to him. His speeches are marred, however,
by:an abr upt and somewhat 'jerky transition
from one subject to another. Mr. Rhodes's
genius lies in his tact, business talents, and
knowledge of men. No one knew this
better than Chinese ho was him.
self a consummate judge of Gordon,Character. Mr.
Rhodes was with Gordon in Basutoland.
They differed on many methods of adminis•
tration. When they parted Gordon said to
Rhodes "You are one of those men who
never approve of anything unless you
originate ib yourself." Years afterward,
when Gordon was starting for Khartoum,
and when he felt himself in sore need of a
companion with resolution, promptitude,
and sagacity, he telegraphed. to Mr. Rhodes
asking him to join him at Khartoum as his
private secretary. Mr. Rhodes, who had
just accepted Cabinet office at the Cape,
was unable to accept that invitation—a
matter which has alwaye been a subject of
the deepest regret to him. He has often
been heard to aay : "Ah, if I had onitebeen
there I believe I could have saved Gordon,
and, whether or not, I am sorry I was not
with him."
Mr. Rhodes's tact in
THE MANAGEMENT OF DIEN
A SPELLING -BEE COMPETITION',
offering as is prize, subject to stringent
conditions, a dictionary, for which he stated
he had paid, some years ago, eighteenpence,
but vehicli he said he highly valued. Having
thus placed his possession of the dictionary
in jeopardy, he devoted hie ooncentrated
attention to the task of securing it by
rigorohely applying the hard rules he had
laid down, and dexterously foiling all the
competitors for the prize. There is no
doubt that this competition absolutely
absorbed his attention, and effectually van-
quished the most engrossing cares of state.
Mr. Rhodee lives consistently up to the
maxim, "Sufficient uuto the day is the evil
thereof." In 1891, toward the end of the
session, the Cape Administration was in
considerable difficulties in reference to
legislation on the native question. It was
known that at least two members of his
Cabinet differed seriously on a matter of
vital policy from the Premier. Matters
were bridged over by a compromise till the
opening of the next session. Mr. Rhodes
was asked a few days after the Cape Parlia-
ment had been prorogued bow he thought
he wotild fare next session. "Oh," he said,
"I never gave the matter a thought. It
would be sheer waste of time and strength.
So many th ings may happen in the interval."
Lord Dufferin some years ago, in an address
to young men, offered them advice on which
he stated that he himself had invariably
acted during life—to consider matters of
doubt and perplexity in all their bearings
with antundivided attention, and, having
once arrived at aconclusion, never to reopen
the question or to reergue it with others or
one's self unless some new development
should arise. Mr. Rhodes undoubtedly acts
on this principle. Raving once made up
his mind he never allows his resolution to
be shaken, and most uncompromisingly
crushes out the self‘persecuting practice of
redebating the pros and cons of arguable
matters.
Mr. Rhodes is avoracious but the same time
discriminating, reader, His taste leads him
chiefly to the perusal of political and his-
torical treatises, written in a popular style,
and to the study of introspective • novels,
si.n.which 'he takes the keenest delight.
m AN A.CCITRATE OBSERVER
of human characteraind loves to realize -the
surprise and watch the effeht of his own
coups on the public mind. Thus,for litigants,
he anticipated with the heartiest glee the
sensation his subscription of £10,000 for the
funds of the tome rule canoe would produce,
and pledged Mr. Parnell and Mr. Swift
MacNeil to observe the strictest secrecy in
this matter, and to refrain from the publi.
cation Of the cerrespondence till he had
embarked for South Africa. Mr. Rhodes
takes pleasure in placing himself occasion.
ally in intellectual environments widely
di: etent from his owe. He brought out
wi h in to South Africa, a few years ago,
a gen tleinan who was in many reepecte the
very antithesis of hitntolt, " What cat you
have in common with So and So?" be was
somewhat inquisitively asked. " Oh, well,"
said Mr. Rhodea, with a shrug, "hs amuses
me when dining." His bitterest enemy, if
he regarded his Word, would be compelled
to admit that pride of purse find no place
in Mr. Rhodes's disposition.
Heving Detained auddeoly to enormous
wealth, he ogee that wealth not for the
was never seen to better effeet than in 1891,
when, on his visit to Mashonaland, he in-
stantly, by the magic of his person allayed
discontent and appeased jealousies amoug
the settlers which threatened the peace of
the country. There is a strong element of
mysticism in Mr. Rhodes's character.
Horace \Walpole has said the first quality
of a Prime Minister in a free country is to
have more common sense than any man.
Mr. Rhodes attains very needy to the reali-
zation of this ideal, He has, however,
held his companions enthralled by the
recital of his experience', in a haunted
house, ending the narration of each inci-
dent by a remark of this nature: "1 do
not believe in ghosts. I have, however,
heard and seen those thinga, for which I am
wholly unable to account."
Mr. Rhodes's recent acceptance of a Privy
Councillorship is a matter of some surprise
to those who know that he has hitherto
declined all honorary distinctions. In 1884
he refused to be made a K. C. M. U., stat-
ing that he did not consider his work as
yet at all complete. Again, two years
ago, he refused practically on the same
grounds, with many expressions of ac-
knowledgment, and evidently after a hard
struggle with himself, what he must have -
dearly prized, the honorary degree alt. ,
C. L. at Oxford. He has probably now
accepted the honor of being sworn it
member of the Privy Council, not on pee-
sonal, but on public grounds. Imperial
Federation has been, to use his own ex -
premien, hie hobby, In his correspondence
with Mr. Parnell on the question of home
rule, he says that Mr. Parnell may perhaps
accuse him of desiring to make home rule
a "stalking horse" to imperial federation.
The Privy Council in some remote degree
represents the oolonies and colonial inter-
ests. Viewing the Privy Council in this
light, Mr. Rhodes has probably reconciled
himself to depart from his resolution to.
accept no distinction. He has taken a seat
in the Council when the seat has been
offered to him by a Prime Minister who is
himself an earnest believer in the doctrine
of imperial federation.
Well -Known Regiments.
r •
The origin of the famous Forty-second or
Black Watch is familiar to many. After
the rebellion of 1715 the Government, with
the view of bringing the Highlanders more
into touch with the rest of the people,
caused eix companies of them to be raised.
The command of emelt company Was given
•to the chief of a clan. Their *duties at first
were not strictly military, but more those
of an armed police, disarming the High.
lenders, and preventing depredations, on
the towlands. They exdented these duties
so much to the satisfaotion of the Govern-
ment that in 1739 the companies were form-
ed into ante regiment and enrolled it the line, ,
The name "Black Watch," by whiah this
distinguished regiment hes ever since been
known, arose from the dark color of their
uniform tartan. How the regiment would
have behaved during the rebellion of 1745
it is difficult to conjecturn,but,fortenately,
it was abroad at the time. Moat of the
other Highland regiments were raised in
1793 and the following year. Two well-
known Irish regiments were alao raised at
this time—the Eighty-aeventh (Royal Irish
Fusiliere) and the Eighty-eighth, (Con-
naught Rangers.) The Rangers* from their
plundering propensities in the Peninsula,
were styled by Gen. Picton " the greatest
blackguarda itt the army."
France is the only Rureperin country
that has fewer eble-bodiel seta dteday thins
it had thirty years ages