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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1895-8-8, Page 7TEE EXETER TIMES WONJARS OF TIIE EYE ianscrthoer ldiratinisagrertter or lees, mentract. REV, Dia TALMAGE PREACHES UPON ITS MARVELOUS CONSTRUCTION. Re Also Shows How lefuelt More Over.. wheitning is the Indescribably Search. - tug Eye a God -The Rios of the Resta- lentlan-Sight Restored, New Tori a anlY 2L—Re, Dr.' Tal- mage, who is still absent cm bis summer .Preaching tour in the west and south- west, has premixed for to -day a sermon on "The All Seeing," the text selected being Psalm adv., 9, "He that formed the eye shall he not see ?" The imperial organ of the human sys- tem is the eye. All up and clown the Bible God honors it, extols It, illustrates it, or arraigns it. Five hundred and thirty-four times it is mentioned in the Bible. Omnipresenee—"the eyes of the Lord are in every place." Divine care— "es the apple of the eye." The clouds— eethe eyelids of the morning." Irrever- ence—the eye that mocketh at its fath- er." Pride—"Oh, how lofty are their eyes 1" Inattention—"the fool's eye In the ends of the earth." Divine in- spection—"wheels full of eyes." Sud- denness—"In the twinkling of an eye at the last trump." Olivetic sermon— "the light cif the body is the eye." This morning's text—"He that formed the eye, shall he not see?" The surgeons, the doctors, the anatomists and the physiologists understand much a the glories of the two great lights of the human face, but the vast multitudes go on from cradle to grave without any appreciation of the two great master- pieces a the Lord God Almighty. If God had lacked anything of infinite wisdom He would have failed in creat- ing the human eye. We wander through the earth trying to see wonderful sights, but the most wonderful sight that we ever see is not so wonderful as the in- struments through which we see it It has been a strange thing to me for 40 years that some scientists, with enough eloquence and magnetism, did not go through the country with illus- trated lectures on canvas 30 feet square to startle and thrill and overwhelm -Christendom with the marvels of the human eye. We want the eye taken from all its technicalities and some one Who shall lay aside all talk about the pterygomaxillary fissures, and the sole- rotica, and the chiasma of the optic nerve, and in common parlance, which you and 1 and everybody can under- stand, present the subject. We have learned men who have been telling us what our origin is and what we were. Oh ! if some one should come forth from the dissecting table and from the class- .. ▪ room of the university and take the platform, and asking the help of the Creator demonstrate the wonders of What we are ! e If t refer to the physiological facts,, suggested by the former part of my text, it is only to bring out in a plainer way the theological lessons of the lat- ter part of any text, "He that formed • the eye, shall He not see?" I suppose my text referred to the human eye, sine it excels all others in structure eild in. adaptation.- The eyes of fish -• Sand reptiles and moles and bats are very simple things, because they have not much to do. There are insects with a. hundred eyes, but the hundred eyes have less faculty than the human eyes. The black beetle swimming the summer pond has two eyes under the water and two eyes above the water, but the four insectile are not equal to the two human. Man, placed at the head of all living creatures, must have supreme equipment, while the blind fish in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky have only an undeveloped organ of sight, an apology for the eye, which, if ,`.hrough some crevice of the ?mountain ey should get into the sunlight, might be developed into positive eyesight. In • the first chapter of Genesis we find that God, without any consultation, ▪ created the light, created the trees, created the fish, created The fowl, but when He was about to make man He • called a convention of divinity, as • though to imply that all the powers of Godhead were to be enlisted in the • achievement. "Let us make man." • Put a whole top of emphasis on that word "us." "Let us make man." And If God called a convention of divinity to create man I think the two great questions in that conference were how to greate a soul and how to make an • appropriate window for that emperor to look out of. See how God honored the eye before He created it. He cried, until chaos " was irradiated with the utterance, "Let • there be light 1" In other words, be: fore He introduced man into this tem- ple of the world he illuminated it, pre- pared it for the eyesight. And so, af- ter the last human eye has been de- • stroyed in the final demolition of the world, stars are to fall, and the sun is to cease its shining, and the moon is to turn into blood. . In other words, after • the human eyes are no more to be pro- fited by their shining, the chandeliers of heaven are to be turned out. God, • to educate and to bless and to help the human eye, set in the mantle of heaven two lamps—a gold lamp and a silver lamp—the one for the day and the other for the night. To show how God hon- ors the eye, look at the two hails built for the residence of the eyes, geven bones making the wall for each eye, , the seven bones curiously wrought to- gether. Kingly palace of ivory is con- sidered rich, but the halls for the resi- dence of the human eye are richer by so much as human bone is more eacred than elephantine tusk, See how God honored the eyes when he made a roof for them, so that the sweat of toil ehould tot smart them and the ram dashinig a.gainet the fore- • head should not drip into them, the eVebreetts not bending over the eye, but reaching to the right and to the left, so that the rain and the sweat should be compelled to drop upon the cheek, instead of falling into this 'divinely protected human eyesight. See how God honored the eye in the fact • presented by ertatorrests and physiolo- gists that there are 800 contrivances in every eye. For vvindow &butters, the eyelids Opening and closing 30,000 times a day. • The eyelashes so constructed that they have their selection as to What shall be admitted, saying to the • light, "Como in." For inside eortaine Lae Mims or retail of the eye, aecordnig The eye of the owl is blind in the day- time, the eyes of some Creatures are bliad at night, biet the human eye, so marvellously constructed, oan see both by day and by night, Many of the other creatures of God can move the eye only from side to side, but the hu- man eye, so marvellously constructed, has one muscle to lift the eye and an. other muscle to roll it to the bit, an- other muscle to lower the eye, and an- other muscle to roll it to the right, and another muscle to roll it to the left, and another muscle passing; through a, pul- ley to turn it round and round—an ela- borate gearing of six muscles as per- fect as God could make them. There also is the retina, gathering the rays of light and passing the visual im- pression along the optic nerve, about the thickness of the lamp wick— Passing the visual impression on to the seeso-o ' eeel. What a delicate lens, what an exquisite screen, what soft cushions, what wonderful chemistry of the human eye ! The eye washed by a slow stream -of... moisture whether we sleep or wake, rolling im- perceptibly over the pebble of the aye and emptying into a bone of the nostril. A contrivance so wonderful that it can sce the sun 95,000,000 miles away and the point of a pin. Telescope and micro- scope in the same contrivance. The as- tronomer swings and moves this way and that and adjusts and readjusts the telescope until he gets it to the right focus. The microscopist moves this way and that and adjusts and readjusts the magnifying glass until it is prepar- ed to do Its work, but the human eye, without a touch, beholds the star and the smallest insect. The traveler among the Alps with one glance takes in Mont 13Ianc and the face of his watch to see whether he has time to climb it. Oh, this wonderful camera. obscure which you and .1 carry about with us, so to -day we can take in our friends, so from the top of Mount Washington we can take in New England, so at night, we can sweep inte our vision the constellations from horizon ts. hori- zon. So delicate, so semi -infinite, and yet the light coming 95,000,000 of miles at the rate of 200,000 miles a second is obliged tohalt at the gate of the eye, waiting.. for admission until the port- cullis be lifted. Something hurled 95,- 000,000 of miles and striking an instru- ment which has not the agitation of even winking under the power of the stroke. There, also, is the merciful ar- rangement of the tear Wand, by which •the eye is washed and from which rolls the tide which brings the relief that comes in tears when some bereavement or great loss strikes us. The tear is not an augmentation of sorrow, but the breaking up of the arctic of frozen grief in the warm gulf stream of con- solation. Incapacity to weep is meedness or death. Thank God for the tear glands, and that the crystal gates are so easily opened. Oh, the wonderful hydraulic apparatus of the human eye. Divinely constructed vision ! Two light- houses at the harbor of the immortal soul, under the shining of which the world sails in and drops anchor. What an anthem of praise to God is the hu- man eye ! The tongue is speechless awl a clumsy instrument of expression as compared with it. Have you not seen • it flash with indignation, or kindle with enthusiasm, or expand with devotion, or melt with sympathy, or stare with fright, or leer with villainy, or droop with sadness, or pale with envy, or fire with revenge, or twinkle with mirth, or beam with love ? It is tragedy and comedy and pastoral and lyric in turn. Have you not seen its uplifted brow of surprise, or its frown of wrath, or its contraction of pain ? If the eye say one thing and the lips say another thing, you believe the eye rather than the lips. The eyes of Archibald Alexander and Charles a Finney were the mightiest part of their sermon. George White- field enthralled great assemblages with his eyes,though they were crippled with strabismus. Many a military chieftain has with a look hurled a regiment to victory or to death. Martin Luther turned his great eye on an assassin who came to take his life, and the vil- lain fled. Under the gettnce of the hu- man eye the tiger, with five times a man's strength, snarls back into the African jungle. But those best appreci- ate the value of the eye who have lost It. The Emperor Adrian by accident put out the eye of his servant, and he said to his servant : "What shall I pay you in, money or in lands ? Anything you ask me. I am so -sorry I put your eye out." But the servant refused to put any financial estimate on the value of the eye, and when the emperor urged and urged again the matter he 'said, "Oh, emperor, I want nothing but my lost eye," Alas for those for whom a thick and impenetrable vail is drawn across the face of the heavens and the face of one's own kindred 1 That was a pathetic scene when a blind man light- ed a torch at night and was found pass- ing along the highway, and some one said, "Why do you carry that torch when you can't see ?" "Ah !" said he, "I can't see, but I carry this torch that others may see me and pity my helplessness and not run me down." Samson, the giant, with his eyes put out by the the Philistines, is inore help- less than the smallest dwarf with vis- ion undamaged. All.the sympathies of Christ were stirred when he saw Bar- timeus with darkened retina, and the only salve he had ever made that we read of was a mixture of dust and sal- iva and a prayer,eltb which he oured the eyes of a man blind from his na- tivity. The value of the eye is shown as much by its catastrophe as ' by its healthful action. Ask the man who for 20 years has not seen the sun rise, Ask the man who for half a century hasenot seen the face of a friend, Ask in the hospital the victim of ophthal- mia. Ask the man whose eyesight perished in a powder blast. Ask the Bartimeus who never met a Christ or the iiian born blind whe is to die blind. Ask him. This morning, in my imperfect Way, have only hinted at the splerid ors, the glories, the wonders, the divine revelia done, the apocalypses of the human eye, and X stagger back from the awful portals of the physiological miracle which must have taxed the ingenuity of a God to ery out in your ears the worde of my -text, "He that formed the eye, shall he not see ?" Shall Hersehel nee know, as much as hie telescope? Shall Fraunbofer not now as rrluelt as his spectroseope ? Shall Swaturner. dan not know as much as his micro - ;mope ? Shall Dr. Hooke not know as much as his micrometer ? Shall the thing formed know More then Ito mas- ter ? "He that formed the eye, shall he not see ?" • The recoil of this question is tremors. dus. We stand at the centre of a vaSt circumference of observation. No prive MM. On us, eyes oaarcbangel, eyes of God. We may not be able to see the inhabitants of other worlds, but Per- haps they may be able to see us. We lave not optical instruments strortg enough to descry them, :Perhaps they have optical instruments etrong enough to descry us, The mole cannot see the eagle midsky, but the eagle midsky can see the mole midgrass. We are able to see mountains and caverns of another -world, but perhaps the inhabitants of other worlds can see the towers of our cities, the flash of our seas, the march- ing of our processions, the white robes of our weddings, the black scarfs of our obsequies. It passes out from the grass into the positive when -we are told in the Bible that the inbabitants of other worlds do come as convoy to this. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation? But human inspection, and angelic inspection, and stellar inspec- tion, and lunar inspection and solar in- spection are tame compared with the thoughts of divine inspection. "You converted me 20 years ago," said a black man to my father. "How so ?" said my father. "Twenty years ago," said the other, "in the old school- house prayer meeting at Bound - Brook you said in your prayer, 'Thou, God, seest me,' and / had no peace under the eye of Gorl until I became a Chris- tian." Hear it. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place." "His eyelids try tne cnimien or men.' " eyes were as a flame of fire." "1 will guide thee with mine eye." Oh, the eye of God', so full of pity, so full of power, so full cia• love, so full of indignation, so full of ' compassion sa full af mercy! How it peers through the darkness ! How it outshines the day! How, it glares upon the offender ! How it gleams on the penitent soul! Talk about the humen eye as being indescribably wonderful— how much more wonderful the great, searching, overwhelming eye of God ! All eternity past and all eternity to come on that retina. The eyes with which we look into each other's face to -day suggest it. It Stands written twice on your face and twice on mine, Unless tbrough casualty one or both have beep obliterated. "He that formed the eye shall not see ?" " Oh, the eye of God It sees our sor- rows to assuage them, sees our per- plexities to dis,entangle them, sees our wants to sympathize with them. If we fight him back, the eye of an antagonist, If we ask his grace, the eye of an ever- lasting friend. You often find in a book or manuscript a star calling your atten- tion to a footnote or expla.nation. That star the printers call iter a,sterisk. But all the stars of the night are asterisks calling your attention to God, an all ob- serving God. Our every nerve a divine handwriting. Our every muscle divine- ly swung. Our every bone sculptured -with divine suggestion. Our every eye a reflection of the divine eye. God above us and God beneath us, and God before us, and God behind us, and God within us. What a stupendous thing to live! What a stupendous thing to die ! No such thing as hidden transgression. A dramatic advocate in olden times. at night in a court room, persuaded of the innocence of his client charged with murder and ctf_the guilt of the witness wio was trying to swear the poor man's life away—that advocate took up two bright lamps and thrust them close up to the face of the witness and cried, "May it please the court and gentlemen of the airy,behold the murdererrand the man, practically under that awful s. glare, confessed that he wathe crim- inal instead of the man arraigned at the bar. Oh, my friends, our most hid- den sin is under a brighter light than that. It is under the burning eye of God. He is not a blind giant stumbling through tbe heavens. He is not a blind monarch feeling for the step of his char- iot. Are you wronged ? He sees it. Are you poor ? He sees it, Have you domes- tic pertufbation of which the world knows nothing ? He sees it. "Oh," you say, "my affairs are so insignificant X can't realize that God sees me and my affairs.' Can you see the .point of a pin ? Can you see the eye of a needle? Can you see a. mote in the sunbeam? And has God given you that power of minute observation and does he not possess it himself ? "He that formed the eye, shall he not see ?" But you say: "God is in one world, and I am in another world. He seems so far off from me, I don't really think he sees what is going on in my life." Can you see the sun 95,000,000 miles away, and do you not think God has a prolonged vision ? But you say, "There are phases of my life and there are col- ors—shades of color—in my annoyances and my vexations that I don't think God can understand." Does not God gather up all the cOlors and all the shades of color in the rainbow? And do you sup- pose there is any shade in your life he has not gathered up in his own heart? Besides that, I want to tell you it will soon all be over, this struggle. That eye of yours, so exquisitely fashioned and strung and hinged and roofed, will be- fore long be closed in the last slumber, Loving hands will smooth dawn the silken fringes. So he giveth his beloved sleep. A legend of St. Fortobert is that hie mother was blind, and he was 00sorely pitiful for the misfortune that one day in sympathy he kissed her eyes, and by miracle she saw everything. But it le not a legend when tell you that all the blind eyes of the Christian dead under the kiss of theeressurection morn shall gloriously open. Oh, what a day that will be f or those who went groping through the world under perpetual ob- scuration, or were dependent on the hand of a friend, or with an uncertain Staff felt their way, and for the aged of dim sight about whom it inky be said that "they which look out of the win- dows are darkened" when eternal day- break comes in What a betaitiful epi- taph that was for a tetribstone in ft European cemetery : " Here reposes In God, Katrina, a saint 85 years of age and blind, The light was restored to her May I0,1840.' In Franee there are far m re female then male bicyolista GOOD WOR.0 FOR TOBA000. NO DENYING THAT THE WEED HAS SOME MERITS. • X le a Positive Preventive or Disease - Keeps the Teeta (mien, Indiapensaele in the Army and lievy and Very Useful giddentleO-The Mad of 'rebate° to • Use. Enemies of tobacco have proaehed again et its use and exaggerated its evils ever gime it was discovered. Its evils are pretty welt understood, even by its slaves, and hardly any man will deny that when excessively used, tobacco, like alcoholic liqnor, or coffee, or tea, is a. curse. • But used in moderation, used with dtia (nation aocording to a man's physique,state of his nerves and his conditicat in life, tobacco is acimitted by physicians to have positive benefits, one of which, and an important one, being that a good oigar is a help to digestion. Of course none of these remarks applies to cigarettes, The good effeot of tobacco on the teeth is admitted by nearly all dentists. They attribute it to the neutralizing alkali of he smoke and the antiseptic properties of nicotine and pyridine, which destroy the vitality of the, microbes in the mouth, Claude Bernard aaserts that the presence: of prussio acid in the saliva of smokers, con- tributes to this result. Smoking a pipe aures toothache, Dr. Hepburn affirms that among smokere the teeth decay slowly and imperceptibly, as the mortification of the &total pulp is • gradual and long. The carbon from the smoke in settling its deposits in the depres. alone and oracks of the dental enamel, dperecsaey.ryes the ivory from the inroads of The use of smoking tobacoo overcomes certain gastio troubles, and makes the need of nourishment less urgent. Posaprandial smoking etimuletes torpid digestion. It is perhaps, in view of the fact that the use of tobacco deadena hunger and thirat, that Prof. Summermann has recominended its excessive use in the treatment of obesity, but the remedy seems worse than the dis- ease. Te calming and antispasmodic action of smoking, in certain nervous condltions of the degestive tubes has often been remark- ed. In case of hysteria, attended by rebel- lious nausea, a cigarette after every meal has been presoribed. The nausea will reappear the day the cigarette is neglected. Dr. Gros has found this method very raffia). Mous in cases of extreme nausei in delicate women. The digestive troubles attributed to tobacco more often owe their origin to alcohol, the boon oompanion of nicotine, for few inveterate smokers observe an ex- emplary sobriety. AS A DISEASE PREVENTIVE. Tobacco smoke is a sovereign remedy against mosquitoes, fleas and vermin. By its use the working men in the tobacco factories • of Lyons were saved from the contagion of typhoid fever, those of Morlaix from dysentery, those of Seville from epi- demic of cholera. It is well known that physicians about to enter a house where a typhoid or •diphtheretio patient lies sick will smoke vigorously beforehand, even if they are habitual nen-smokers. Tobacco has been successfully used to destroy microbes. The professors and students of anatomy in marshy countries look upon tobacco as the best preventive for internat. tent fevers, and Viscount Limeon has even found that it retards cousumption'aepro. gross up to a certain point,. Military writers recommend the use of tobacco in the barrackand camps. Could it not be equally applied to the infected streets of most of our cities? Charles Robin exhibited at the Paris Institute pieces of beef preserved for four months after having been thoroughly fumigated withpr. t oBborto. uorogon has found smoking a safe- guard against influenza, for it has a speci- ally sedative effect on the nervous system in a threatened attack of the grip. It was noticed that inveterate smokers seemed to posess an immunity from the epidemic in 1890. Doctors in Florida have asserted that incessant smoking prevented conta- gion from yellow fever. Prof. Hajeck of Vienna, states that if diphtheria is ;Mee times more frequent among women than men it • is due to the use of tobacco as a preventive more than anything else. Valkenberg, of Kiew, has demonstrated that cholera bacilli are etlectually destroyed by tobacco smoke. Except in oases of serious hemorrhages, tobacco shockl never be forbidden con- sumptives, especially in certain climates (England and Central Europe in winter), *where the smoke becomes a sorb of protec- tive mask against the deleterious influence of the fog and cold on the respiratory tubes. ITS SOOTEIINO POWERS. Some plausible philosopher has contended that a crime has never been committed with a cigar in the criminare mouth. It is argued that a man smoking is not liable to commit a bad act. Tobacco seems to make him better natured and more resigned. Lady Campbell remarks that the art of smoking imparts a veneer of reciprocal sweetness RV conversation, it facilitates the drawing together of enemies and the "Calumet of Peace" of the savage is repro - aimed in the reality of its soothingness. It is not only in the taste and odor, but in the eight that we enjoy tobacao. Blind people rarely smoke, and those who see seldom smoke long in the dariniess. Brain workers find -in tobacco an attenuation of the cerebral fatigue due to the rapid birth of ideas and the production of copy. Some brain workers say it stimulates their intellect and that it is useful in a dearth of ideas and in moments of intelleotual waiting. At the same time, ita abuse results in most unhappy loss of inemstheerAopium of thought, tobacco soothes the most poiguant sorrow. Anger die. appears in a thin smoke. The people most addicted to its use (the Steers and Orientals) are also the least revolutionary. It is a precious coneolation to old age; deprived necessarily of ao much happinese. And tobacco is a grealohelp in hours of trouble, tvorriment and trial. Compare the ealutary effeots of tobacco on the workingmen of Seville end Lisbon, who all smoke and live in an atmosphere of nicotine, and the condition of Ameriedn cotton spinners, who are forbiciden to smoke. In the army and navy the benef3ts de. rive& from tobecco are unquestionable. The soldiet finds nob only a emptiest but a nutritive supplement in hie pipe, and in mum cases it hes been known to cure bad awes of botnesickeees. Authorities have declared that the deprivation of tobacco *during a campaign would be as diaastrotue, as a seareity of provisions. Longmore, Surgeoe.Geueral in the British Army, has written cotenderably on the ealutery areas of tobacoo on the wounded. It facilitates bleep and °alms nervousness. All the Red Cross aooleties recognize the virtuee of the • niootine herb, and for that reason are abundantly supplied with it. Foussagrives • affirms that nothing will take its place with the sailor in enabling hirn to stand long voyages, the rigors of tempestuous weather and the disoornforts of a renefaring life. wax =woo Doter's. Huxley and many others have contended that the moderate use of tobaeco is more useful than disadvantageous, Huxley says a pipe is like a sup of tee. But it is hard to say where the abuse begins. It is stated by one authority that the quantity should never go above twenty to twenty-five grammes a day. On an empty atornacit never smoke, but always after a meal, as all poisons are lets injurious on a full stomach. The practice of smoking habitually under twenty years of age is pernicious, as it prevents growth. ' Choose tobaccowith as little nicotine as possible; for instanoe, cigarettes (if you must smoke them) made from tobacco from the Levant, Turkey, Greece and Hungary; for the pipe, Marylend tobaceice for a cigar, Hevana. American tobacco are seid to contain from 6 to 8 per cent. poison. Al- ways smoke in the open air or in a w ell - ventilated roorn. Never smoke a pipe with a short stem. Etmapeaus will tell you never to smoke &cigar or a cigarette with- out a holder, Always smoke a dry tobacco. , Persistent smokers (pipe or cigarette) are advised to let a little boiling water with a few drops of ammonia filter through their tobacco. Dry the tobacco at once; it then becomes harmless, although less agreeable to the taste, but by this means the smoker becomes weaned from excessive indulgence. Never relight an extinguished cigar or cigarette. Clean your pipes, cigar and cigarette holders frequently. Never smoke en nurseries or bed chambers. As a correc- tive of the sedative qualities of tobacco nothing is ao good as a imp of strong coffee. DON'T KILL THE DOG. Good Advice to Persons Who Bove Been Bitten and Fear Hydrophobia. "If you are bitten by a dog, don't kill the beast, but take every precaution to let him live for a few days at least" Prof. Logoria, 'thief of the Pasteur Institute in, Chicago, made this statement to a reporter, and he is supposed to be an authority. "It is a great mistake people make," he said, "to start in at once to kill a dog that has bitten there, or have it killed. It has been proved scientifically, and is admitted now by all physicians who are posted, that hydrophobia is not a spontaneous disease and cannob be given to a person by a dog bite unless the dog be mad when it causes the -wound. The dog's condition, if it be mad, will be manifested within two days, or two weeks at the latest. By permitting it to live, therefore, the physicians can tell definitely whether the person bitten is liable to have hydrophobia. If the dog goes mad within that time they know the person bitten may be inoculated ,with the same dread disease, and may have the same fate. If the dog does not go mad, then there is no fear of hydrophobia, and the wound can be treated as any wound would be. By killing the dog you destroy the chance of certainty as to the fate of the person bitten, and leave the imagination full ram to fear the worst results, when it mighb ba.vebeeft possible to know in advanoe that hydropho. bia was impossible. "Of course," continued the Doctor, "there are exceptions to this rule that will .suggest themselves to persons. When a dog is so vicious that to leave it alive is to endanger other people, then the first duty would be to destroy it, unless it could be carefully secluded where the possiblity of harm would be removed. But in such cases where the dog is killed it should be done by a physician, who should keep a portion of the brain, by which can be determined whether the dog had rabies or not." The Power of Imagination. Concerning their own ailments an eaten - jelling number of people are led astray by the imagination), says an old dootor. Not long ago a lady -came to see me profession. ally for the first time. She told me that her vision was very bad. Her eyes looked all right , and I tried her sight by means of printed letters of various sizes. From across the room she was unable to see even the biggest of the letters. I put a pair of glasses in front of her eyes and she declared that she could eee much better— • could read all of the letters, down to the very smallest. "This is certainly very sur- prising madam, " said I. , "The spectacles which helped your sight so much are noth- ing but common window glass. Naturally she was much astonished, and would not believe me at first. But I convinced her at length that her trouble was eetirela imaginary, and she went away in a decided- ly pleased state of mind. It does not always do, however, to be so frank with victims of such hallucinations. One of my regularpatients came to me in a state of great excitement. She WaS con- vinced that something was the matter with her brain, because her head was tender on one side, By chance I happened to notice that her hair was arranged in a Way differ- ent from her customary fashion, and doubtless that was the reason for the soreness. Most women hates noticed that to part the hair in a new place turning it in another direction, makes the head sensitive for a time, I said nothing about this to my patient, save to suggest that she ahold wear her hair in the old fashion. I gave her a prescription for something harmless. Nothing more was beeded. 11111.• Would Make an AlteratiOn. Biggerstaff—Young Huggins says be adores the very ground Miss Fosdick walks 08. Timberwheels—He wouldn't have such an affeetion for it if he knew ib wart mort- gaged to its full 'value. Above and BelOW. • Husband—We must be more economical in the tate of coal. Wife -:There are untold billiOns of toile of coal just beneath the earth's surface, and,* Husband—And One or WM big corpora,. atioue aieb beak TEE SUNDAY SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON, .A.U. 11 , "Brazen Eeniaint," ?ion. 21. 4,0, Golden Text. dons...3.14. ozsietate sawrzermee. Between two lemma we step aver an interval of bhirtreight years, most of wide!) were spent in the neighborhood of Kadesfebernee. We have aeon Israel journey to the border of Canaan, look upon the promised land, and then, alas 1 for lack of faith, tura baole into the wild- ernesa The bones of the men who grouted the Red Sea, now bleaoh in the desert sands, and those who were children in our last leases; are now bronzed adventurers inured to hardneas and trained for war. Old Aaron has been "gathered to his fathers," but Moser] frail stands ereot and with unabated vigor, Israel is now pate- ing around the forbidden lends of Edom, on its way toward the table lands of Moab. The way is long and rough, and the people murmur at their hardship. The journey was especially dismouraging because their backs were turned to the land of promise. As they approach Beton- geber, where they turned around the southern extremity of the territory of Edom, the deserawith almost every falter- ing footstep, became hotter and more deso- late. It is bare of vegetatien and frequent- ly visited by terrible sandstorms. Moses • well described 18 58 "that great and terrible wilderness." Serpents snapped at their feet and poisoned their blood, until in re - pentanes they turned to God for mercy. By God's command the serpent of brass was reared in the midst of the earnp—a type of Him who became sin fot us—and looking into it the dying found. life. Mod- ern travelers find poisonous snakes common in that region ; many of there being marked with fiery spots and spiral lines. EXPLANATORY AND PRACTICAL MMES. Verse 4. From Mount Hor. South of the Dead Sea, in the Edomite range. Here Aaron died; perhaps after the events just related, though the mention of his death occurs before them. By the way of the Red Sea. The journey was southward toward that branch of the Red Sea known as the Gulf of Akabah. To oore- pass the land of Edom. They were compelled to make a long detour around this land, since they bad been refused permission to go by the direct route through it, and God forbade them to make war upon the Edomites because they were kins. men. Much discouraged.. Since it was a long and tedious march over an exceedingly rough country, and away from Canaan when they had seemed to be just upon its borders. (1) God often leads his people by -ways that seem strange and hard, yet ever in paths chosen by infinite wisdom. (21 He thitb would reach the promised land must expeot many eiscouragements. 5. Spake against God. By whose com- mand the journey had been undertaken. (3) We speak against God whenever we complain of tbe lot which God apportions to us. The wilderness. Their disappoint- ment was the greater because Canaan, with its fields and fountains had been jut before them, and now they seemed to be marching away from it into another desert, The region about Kadesh-barnert, where they had fed and attended their flocks for nearly forty years, though it would hardly be called fertile, lies in startling contrast • with the sands and rocks into which they now turned ; and probably in Moses's day the contrast was still greater. This light bread. "This contemptible bread." Yet on this same despised manna they had fed and journeyed for forty years. 6, '7. Fiery serpents. The word "fiery " may refer either to the bright red spots or stripes of the serpents themselves (seeGen- eral Statement), or to the inflammatory ete est of their bite. (4) God has his means of discipline where men least expectthem. (5) " While we are at war with God we can have no'peace with his creatures."—Biela op Hall. The people came. (6) When trouble comes people realize their sinful condition and need of divine help. Pray unto the Lord. (7) They who have sinned reeognize eheir need of a mediator with God. 89. Make thee a fiery serpent. That is, a metal image of the poisonous serpent. Set it upon a pole. Probably in the °enter of the oamp, in front of the tabernaole, where all oould see it, Looketh upon it, shall live. Thus the act of looking would represent acknowledgment of their sin, confession of helplessness, and faith in the means of healing appointed by God. A ser- pent of brass. Probably this should read "creeper," or perhaps "bronze. When he beheld . . . he lived. Thus the sufferer from the serpent's bite had something to do. He must not only believe, but show his faith by the look which was followed by life. This serpent of metalwas kept by the Israelites, and afterward became an object of idolatry. King Hezekiah, B. 0. 725, with a zeal for purity of worship, de- stroyed it as an idol, all the more danger- ous from its ancient and sacred associations. The Safety Purse. The invention as illustrated here, was the invention of a fair Irish woman, the Hon. Mrs. P. Pery, of Kinvvara county' Ireland. It is simply an attachment con. sisting of two small straps, one to fasten Tim siontrr PURSE, round the wrist and the other terminating in a ring to be worn on the middle finger. The purse, which ban be made any suss required and can be carried in either hand, rads seourely le the palm of the hand, where Ibis eonvenient for feequent tu5e. True. The 'argot oireeletion Of any paper in the country—Curl •p5pe25 ROUND THE WHOLE WORLD WHAT IS GOING OlcU THE POklii CORNERS OF THE GLOM oia and Nelv 'World Events or fettered! cnreuicied isrietly-tmererkring *ay. penings of Recent, Pate. Tho Pr1uoe of Wales pays $6.25 for him ttilk hats, • All officers in the A.ustro-Huuvarian cavalry must hereefter learn telegraOly Princess Helene, who recenely married the Duke of Aosta, is an enthusiastio spor ts worn an. Phil May, of Punch, is said to be earning more money just now than any artist in England. In time of war France puts 370 00 of every 1,000 of her population in the field 1` Germany, 31; Russia, 21. Mist Emily Faithful during the latter yeara of her life smoked cigarettes Meese. antly for nervousness. Some of the ocean steamers are ao oone struoted that they Can be converted into armed cruisers in thirty, hours. In the gardens around-Lend.on there are more specimens of the cedar of Lebanon than on Mount Lebanon itself. Queen Victoria and Pope Leo KUL first met at the court of King Leopold in Brum selamore than fifty years ago, In some parts of South Africa muoh damage is done by baboons, whice, go in large marauding particle to rob gardens. In moat parts of Syria Palestine, and Arabia fig trees and date palms, are counted and a tax is levied on each tree. The Princess of Wales has a taste for millinery, and delights in making and re. modelling the bonnets and hats of herself and daughters. The Prince of Wales and his family oonsider Sandringham their real home, and • here their principal family treasures are to be found. • Lord Wolseley was 62 years old June 4. He entered the army in 1852, was made a peer in 1882, and a field marshal on May 26, 1894. Bismarck owns 482 deem agoras of varioue kinds, and he cannot wear them all without fastening many on his coat tails and one or two on his boots. Sarah Bernhardt has been fined $2 in a Paris Police Court for employing two thild., ren under 12 after 9 o'clock at night at the Renaissance theatre. Grant Allan, when thinking out a new idea for a novel, takes long solitary -walks day after day, working out the plot. If* does not read other people's ficbion. Dead bodies, when taken as oargo on a, steamship, are always described as either statuary or natural history apecimens, owing chiefly to the superstition of sailors. In some parts of Japan at a wedding the bride, as a sign of her subjection, kneel and washes the feet of thc bridegroom after he has trodden upon raw eggs. A Parsee sacred fire, which is burning in "a a temple at Leiguie, Persia, is known to e have not been extinguished since the days of Rapiboreth, who lived twelve centuries ago. • Habitual topers are to photographed in New Zealand towns Each saloon is to have a gallery of them, and the proprieters who aupply liquor to them are to be hnedi A woman in Worcester has opened a new field of industry for women by becoming • a professional horse -clipper. During the busy season she makes from twenty to thirty dollars a day. The ramie fiber is tough and wears well. It is said in China, where it is used for making clothing, it lasts so well that children frequently wear the cloths that their grand- parents wore when children. The costliest picture frame in the world is valued at $125,000. It is of hammered gold, ornamented with pearls and precious stones. Its size is eighb by six feet, and it encloses a painting of "The Virgin and Child," in the Milan cathedral. The Russian War Office has decided to use henceforth exclusively grey horses for artillery purposes, the reason given for the innovation being that animals of this colour have been found by experience to be stronger and more enduring than the brown ones now used. The natives who gather sulphur from Popocatepeti secure smell packages of it which they fasten to .their backs. They thus slide down the snow on the mountain after the manner of the woodcutters of France, For this venturesome work they get about tenpence a day. From a report which appears in the Mos- cow Listook it is shown that last year 11,- 530 convicts passed through the forwarding prison at Tiurnen for the various penal settlements of Siberia. Of this total number of both sexes there were 7,526 men, 1,715 women and 2,339 juveniles. At Beuron, a Benedictine abbey on the Danube,due north of the Lake of Oonstanoe a new sohool of Catholic art has arisen. The monks have painted the decorations of the Cathedral at Constance, the frescoes of the life of St. Beuedica in the sanctuary at Monte Cassino, near Naples, and the life of the Virgin in the Abbey churoli of Emaus at Prague. Divorce petitions in England for the ten years from 1883 to 1892 averaged 533 a year, there being nothing to indicate a progressive increase ; the lowest number, 450 in 1885, was followed by the highest, 581 in 1886 ; the number for 1892 was 539. The same holds true for divorces granted, the average being 366 with the extremes of 316 in 1885 and 400 in 1890. The re -mar- riages of divorced pereons, however, show a steady increase year by year from 122 is 1883 to 190 in 1892, the average being 163, A ourious instance of the muddled con. dition of administrative boundaries in Eng- land is shown by the hamlet of Penge'in which is tube Crystal Palace, and wiaoh has now 20,000 inhabitants Although part of the county of Leaden, it is hot in the Lon- don of the registrar -general. It is joinea to Dulivioh in the Parliamentary eleotiona with Greenwich for the school board, with. Roohester for the church, with Lambeth for its water rates, with Lewisham for its poor rates and Battersea for its taxes. Its Police Court is Kennington and its Civil Court is Croydon. An ESeentrle Countess. The Countess Schimatelmmin, formerly lady iu waiting at the court of Berlin, addressed the working men of Copenhagen the other day, and aanotmeed that she intended to sell her large Villa neer the, Danish capital and eletrote the proceeds to the poor. She had lived, elle said, he the palette of an Emperor and In the huts of fishermen, and she had beetene 0011.0.116dd that the poor: ate happier thou the mil. locaire.