Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1896-1-2, Page 7T1113 n/CE T E R TIME THE SUN -DIAL OF kilAZ, A SERMON' FULL OF BRIGHTNESS AND GOOD CHEER. •••••••••., Rev' )1". Talmage Sets Watches and Cloths Colog for the New Stearin Brightness- and's Controt or the Dial shadow. Washingten, Dec. an -And Isaiah, the prepbet, cried unto the Lord: and He brought the shadow ten de- greee baekward. by wince .it lead gone down in the dial of Ahaz." II. Kings, 20, 11. - Here is the first clock or watch or thronometer or time piece of winch the world bee any knowledge. But it was a watch that did not tick and a elgelt that did, not strike. It was a sun dial, Ahaz, tbe King, invented it. Between the .hours given to statecraft andthe ' elves of office he invented something by eithich he could tell the time of day. The sun -dial may have been a great column, and when the shadows of that column reached. one point it was 9 a.m., and when it reached another point it was 3 o'cloelc pen, and all. tee hours and half bows were so measured. Or it mita have been a flight a stairs euch as may taow be found in Hindustan and. other old cou.ntries, and when the shadow reached one step it was 3.0 o'clock atme and. likewise other hours may have been indicated. Tl e clepsydra er water-cleek follow- ed the sun -dial, and the sand grass followed the clepsydra. Then came tbe cendle-clock of Alfred the Great and the candle was marked. into three parts, and while the first part was burning he gave himself to religionnand wUe the second pert was burning he gave himself to polities, and wbUe the third part was burning he gave himself to rest. After a, wbile came the wheel atid weight clocic, and Pope Sylvester the second was its raost important in- ventor. And the skill of centuries of exquisite mechanism toiled at the time- pieces MAU the world had tbe Viors clock of the fourteenth century and liuyghens, the inventor, swung the first pendulum, and Dr. Book contrived the rec.oil esc,apement. And the "end- less chain" followed, and the "rachet and pinion lever' took its placAt; and the compensation balance and the stem winder followed, and now we bave the buzz and elang of the great dock and watch factories of Switzerland. and Germany and England. and America, turning out what seems to be the per- fection of time-pieees, It took the world six thousand years to make the preeent cbronometer. So with the the palace noticed the same Thettome-1 All" retreat ten flgrees* Fe°1"e make THE SUNDAY SCIIOOL eon. And if you do not like Bib e autlaor- themselves old, by aiwaye talkine ItY, tern over your oo of Heredotus about being old and wishing for the NTERNATIONAL LESSON JAN. 5 '96- the Forerunner of Christ," Mere I, 5-11,. Co id en lext.-Inlre i,le. GENERAL STATEMENT. The first four verses of nuke's gospel. are a formal dedication of the little book to " the most, excellent Theophin us," about which person meth has been guessed, for nothing is known, The phrase "most excellent," however, seems to -have been a title of high rank. Who- ever has read this gospel in the Greek bee been startled by the sudden thane of style at the end. oe the fourth verse. The introductory sentences are classic, ie the ohoice of words, and are balanced almost with rythmical accuraey. Bet with the pessage wbicli begins our lesson the etyle (Menges, and while the words are still Greek the imagery is Hebrew. Students who know no Greek, but have some kaowledge of the naas- terpieees in English, cam get effects somewhat similar by imagining art his- toric pamphlet begun in the most form- al. and bighly polished style of Addison, and abeuptly thanging to rugged. sen- tences such as Carlyle wrote in Past and Present and The French Revolu- tion. So marked are the Hebraistic traits of passage beginning with chapter 1. 5 and ending at ohapter 2. 52, and so different from the rest of the book, that O theory has arisen (now very widely adopted by Christian scholars) that Luke received the story of the Meares: tion direot from tbe Virgin Mether. It is; surely, to the story of these three theaters Luke alludes when he asserts (verse 3) that he had. "perfect under- standing of all things from the very first." To understant the event we are about to study, we shiould recall how, four hundred years or so before, thi Mala(the last of a long line of He- brew prophets) had promised in mystic- al lairguage that Elijah should reappear and =bee in the elassiab. Other pro- phetic utterances and popular legends bad been woven together until it had become the confident expectation of the common people that the fiery old pro- phet a righteousness in Abab's clay would in literal truth come again. But four hundred years is a long time to wait, and with hope deferred the He- brews' heart grew sick. At length, in the early autumn of the year whieh 18 now known as B.C. 6, an angel announc- ed the birth of one who, bearing quite another name, and with a personality all his own, would nevertheless, " m the spirit and power of Elijah," fulfil Malaohi's prophecy. Great in the sight of the Lord was this new prophet to be. Of holy character from infancy, he was to turn many of his nation to a genuine service of God, and. prepare the people for the camine of the .Lord. EXPLA.NATOR.Y NOTES. and find that away oFf in Egypt the people noticed that there was some- thing the matter with the sun? The fact is, that tile whole universe waits utton God, and suns, and meths and stars are not very big thing s to Him, and He can with His finger tarn back an entire world. as easily as you would set back the aour-hand or rainute- hand, of your clock or watch. goacl o34 dys, From ,t earl hear tee grandthildren are eot bell as bad as the grandparents were. Matters have been linehed up, but if you have ever beee in a Tom adjoining a room where some very old people a little deaf were tannin over old, times Yon will find that this age aoth Ma mono- polize all the yotmg rascals, It may now be bard, to get young people un early enougli in the morning, but their grancipareets lead always to be pulled out of bed. It is wrome now to play mischievous tricks on the =suspect- ing, but eighty years ago at school that now venerable man sat down on a, crooked pin, not aecidentally put there, and purposely drove the sleigh -riding party too near the edge of the em- bankment teat he might see how they would look when tumbled into the snow. And tbat man who Las so little patience with childish exuberance was In olden thee.s up to pranks, oneelealf of which, if practised by tbe eight- year-old of to -day, would set grand- father and grandmother crazy, Revive your reenembra,nc,e, or what you were between nee and ten years of age, and with ptnence capable of every- thing join with the young. Put bath the shadows of the dia,l not ten degrees, but fifty and sixty and seventy de- grees. ' Let me say to thote in the afternoon of life -Don't be .put off the beefless; when God wants it off, He will take it off. Doe't be frightened ont of life by the grip as many are. At the first sneeze of an influenza many give up all as lost. No new terror has come on the earth. The microbes as the came of disease were described in the Talmud se,venteen hundred years ago, as invi- sible legions of dangerous ones." Don't be scared out of life by all this talk ebout heart failure, That trouble Las altenvs been in the world. That is what all the people that beve passed out of this life have died et -heart failure. Adam heel it mid all his descendants have bad it or will ba,ve it, Do not be watching for symptoms of everything Some of you will die of syraptoms. Symptoms are often only :what we sometimes see in the country, a dead owl nailed. on a barn door to save liv- leg owls. Put your trust ie. God, go to bed at ten o'clock, heve the window open six inches to let in fresh air, sleep on your eight side and fear noth- ing. Tile maxim was right: "Get thy spindle and. distaff ready, and God will send thee flax." But while looking at the sun -dial of Ahaz, mat see the shadow of it move, I notioe that it went back towards the sun -rise instead of forward towards the sunset -towards the morning in- stead of towards the night That thing the world is willing now to do, and. in many cases has done. There have a great many things been written and spoken about the sunset of life. I have said some of them myself. But my telt suggests a better idea,. The Lord who turned beck that day frosa going to- wards sundown and started it towards sunrise is willing to do the same thing for all of us. The theologians who stick to the old religious technicalities until they become soporifics would not call it anything but conversation. I call it a. cbange from going towards sun- down to going towards aunrise. The man who never tries to unbuokle the clasp of evil habits and who keeps all the sies of the past and the present frightening him and ignores the one redemption made by the only One who could redeem, if that man could ex- amine the sue -dial he will find that the shadow is going forward and he is on the way to sande-wee His day is on sand glasses that empty themselves, the road to night. All the watches that tick, all the clocks that strike, all the shadows that move on all the sun -dials indicate the approach of darkness. But now, in answer to pray- er, as in my text the change was in answer to prayer, the pardonmet Lord. reverses things and the man starts to - wands sunrise instead of sunset. Ile turns tbe other way. The Captain of Salvation gives him the military com- mand, "Attention! Right about face 1" He was marching towards indifference, marching towards hardness of heart, rowelling towards prayerlessness, marching towards sin, marching to- wards gloom, marching towards death. Now he turns and marches towards peace, marcbes towards light and marches towards comfort and marches towards high hope anammehes towards atriumph stupendous and everlasting, towards hosannas that ever hoist and hallelujahs that ever roll. Now, if that is not the turning of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz from going towards sundown to going towards sunrise, What is it? I have seen the day break over Mount Blanc and the Matterhorn, over the heights of Lebanon, over Mount Wash- ington, over the Sierra Nevadas, and. mict-Atlantic, the morning after a 'de- parted storm when the billows were liquid Alps and liquid Sierra Nevadas, but the sunrise of the soul is more ef- fulgent and more transporting. It bathes all the sights of the soul and illuminates all the depths of the soul, and wheiras all the faculties, all the aspirations, all the ambitions, all the hopes with a light that sickness can- not efface or death extinguish, or etern- ity, or anything but augraent apd inagnifY. I preach the sunrise. As I look at that retrograde movement of the shadow on Abez's clial, I remem- ber that it was a sign that Hezekiah was going to , get well. So I have to tell all you who are by the Grace of God having your day turned from de- cline toward. mght tit ascend. toward morning, that you aregoing to get well, well of all your sins, well of all your sorrows, well of all your erthly disteesses Sunrise • At the opening of a new year pea ple are moralizing on the flight' of tune. You all feel teat you are moving on towards a sundown and many of you are under a consequent depression. I propose this morning to set the hands on your watottes and clocks to going the other way. I propose to sbow you how you may make the thadow of your dial like the shadow on the dial. of Ahaz, to stop going forward and make it go backward. 'You think I have a big undertaking on band, but it can be done if the same Lord who zeversed the shadow to Hezeltiah's courtyard moves upon us. While looking at tbe sun -dial of Hezekiah and we find the shadow retreating we ought to learn that God controls the shadows. We are all ready to acknowledge His manage- ment of the sunshine. We stand. 111 the glow of a bright morning and we say in our feelings, if not with so many words, "This life is from God, this warmth Ls from God." Or we have O rush of prosperity and we say, "These successes a= from God. What O providential thing it was I bought that lot just before the rise of real estate! How grateful' to God a am teat a made that ievestment 1 Whe, they have declared ten per cent. diva dendl What a mercy it was that I sold out ray shares before that collapse!" 01a, yes; we ackaawledge God in the sunshine of a bright day or the faun - slain° of a. great prosperity. But sup - peso the day is dark? You have to fight the gas at noon. The sun does. not show himself all day long. There is nothing but shadow, How slow we are to realize that tbe storm is from God. and the darkness from God and the chill from God. Or, we buy the day before the market's retreat; or we make art investment that never pays; or we purchase goods that we cannot dispose of; or a. crop of grain we sowed. is rum - ed by draught or freshet ; or when we took account of stock on the first of January we found, ourselves thousands of dalla,rs worse off than we expect 1cl, Who under suoh circumstances sae's, "This loss is from God, 3. must have been allowed to go into that unfor- tunate enterprise for some .good rea- son; God controls the east wind as well as the west windl" My friends, I cannot look for one moment on that retrograde shadow on Allan's dial without learning that God. controls tbe. shadows and that lesson we need all to learn. That He controls the sunshine is not so necessary a les- son, for anybody can be happy when things go right. When you ,sleep eight hours a night and rise with an appe- tite that cannot easily wait for break- fast and you go over to the store and open your mail to open more orders than you can 1i11, and in the next let- ter you find a dividend far larger than you have been promised and your neighbor comes in to tell you some flattering thing he has just heard said about you, and you find that all the st • Measurement of longer spaees than Minutes and lours. Time was calcu- lated from new moon to new moon; then from harvest to harvest. Then the ye= was pronomiced to be three • mired and fifty-four days, and then iv hundred and sixty days, and, not until a long while after, three hundred and sixty-five days. Then events were calculatedfrom the _foundation of • Rome, afterward from the Olampie games. Then the Babylonians had their measurerae.nt of the year and the Romans theirs and the Armenians theirs and the Hindoas. theirs. Chrono- logy was busy for centuries studying raonuments, inscriptions, coins, mum - eines and astronomy, trying th lay a Olen by which all questions of dates tnight be settled and events pet in their right place in the procession of the ages. But the chronologists only heaped up .a mountain of confusion and bewilderment, Until the sixth century Dionyeaus Exiguns, a Roman abbot, said, 'Let everything date from the birth of Bethlehem of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world." The abbot proposed to have things dated backward and forward from that great event. What a splendid thought for the world! It would have been most natural to date everything from. the creation of the world. But I am glad the chronologists could not so easily guess how old the world was in order to get the nations in the habit of dat- mg from that occurrence in its docu- ments and histories. Forever fixed is R that aU history is to be dated with refereace to the birth of Christ, and, this matter 'settled, Hales, the chief chronologist, declared that the world was made five thousand four hundred and eleven years before Christ, andthe deluge came three thousand one hun- dred and fifty-five years before Christ, and all the illustrious events of the last nineteen centuries and, all the great events of all time to come have been or shall be dated from the birth of Christ. These things I say that you may know what a watch is, what a clock is, what en almanac is, and learn to appreciate through what toils and hardships and what perplexities the world, came to its present conveniences and comforts, and to help you to more respectful consideration of the sun- dial of Ahaz planted in my text. We are told that Hezekiah, the king, ' was dying of a boil. It must have • 'been one of the, worst kind of car- buncles, a boil without any 'central sore, and sorctetimes deathful. A fig • was put upon it as a poultice. Heze- kiali did not want to die then. His son who was to take the kingdom had not yet been born, and Hezekiah' s death would have been the death of the pe- tiole. So he prays for recovery, and is told. he will get well. But he wants some miraculous sign to make sure of it. He has the choice of having the shadow on the sundiel of Ahaz advance or retreat. He replied it would not be so wonderful to have the sun go down, for it always does go down sooner or later. He asks that it go beckward. In other words, let the day instead of going on toward. sundown, turn and go toward sunrise. I see the invalid king, bolstered up and wrapped in blankets, looking out of the window W Ile he watches the shadow on the ease the sun -dial in the courtyard, di the shadow begins to retreat. In- stead of going on toward 6 o'clock in the evening it goes back toward 6 okilock in the morning. The fig poul- tice had been drawing , for some time, and, sure enough, the boil broke, and Hezekiah got well. Now I expect you will come on with your higher critidsm and try to explain this away and say it was an optional delusion of Hem- kiati, and the shadow only seemed to go back, or a cloed tame °ter, mid it was uncertain which way the shadow did go, and as Hezekiah expected it to go baek he took the action of his own les a goods hi wbich you deal have aclvauced fifteen per cent. in value, and on your way home you meet your children in full romp, and. there are roses of health in cheeks all round the table, what more do you. want of con- solation? I don't pity you a bit. You feel as if you could boss the world. But for those in just opposite circum- stances my text comes in with an om- nipotence of meaning. The shadow 1 Oh, the shadow! Shadow of bereave- ment! Shadow of sickness! Shadow of benkruptoy 1 Shadow of mental depres- sionl Shadow of persecution 1 Shadow of death I Speak ou.t. 0, sun -dial of Ahaz, and tell all the people that God manages the shadow 1 .As Hezekiah sat in his palace window wrapped in in- validism and surrounded by anondynes and .cataplasms and looked out upon the black hand of the only clock known at that time and saw it move back ten degrees, he learned. a lesson that a majority of the human race need this hour to learn -that the best friend a man ever had controls the shadow,. The set -backs are sometimes the best things that can happen. The great German author Schiller could not work unless he had lin his room the scent of rotten apples, and. the de- cay of the fruits of earthly ii'rosperity may become an inspiration instead of a depression. Robert Chambers' lame feet shut him up from other work, and ID became the world-renowned pub- lisher, and helped fashion the best literature of the age. The painful dis- order like that of Ezekiah called a car- buncle is spelled exactly the same as the preeious stone called. the carbuncle, and the pang of suffering may become the jewel. of immortal value. Your set- back like that of Abaza's sun -dial may be recovery and triumph. I never had a set -back but it turned out to be O set -forward. You never would have become Christian if you had not had O set -back. The highest thrones in heaven are for the set -backs. In 1861 the dhadow of the sun -dial of this na- tion was set back, and all things seem- ed going to ruin, and. it was set back further in 1862, and further in 1863 and still further in 18'65, but there is d not an intelligent anwell-balanced man, North or South, East or West but feels it was set back towards- the sun -rise. But I promised to show you how the shadows might be turn,ed 'back. First by going much among the wing peo- ple. In most family cireles there are grandchildren. By this divine ar- rangement most of the people who are passed the meridian of life can cora- pas,e theanselees by juvenility. is a bad thing foe an old. man or old wo- man to sit looking at the vivactiy of their grand -children shouting "Stop that racket!" Better join the fun. Let the, eighty -years -old grandfather join the eight -years -young grandson or granddaughter. Myfather and mother lived to see over eighty children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and anion boisterous crew were never turned but of this sublunary sphere, and they -all seemed to cry to the old folks, "keep young," and they did keep young. Don't walk with a cane unless you have to, or only as defence ID a city afflicted with too many can- ines,. Don't wear glasses stronger than necessary, putting on nunaber tens when eighteens will do as well. Don't go into the company of those who are always talking a,bout rheumatism and lumbago and shortness of breath and the brevity of human life. It 18 too much for my gravity to hear an oeto- genaeian talking about the shortness of human life. Prom all I can find out ID has always been here, and from present prospects he is always going to stay. Itememyoung. Hang up your stockings in Christmas time. Help the boys fly the kite. Teach the girls how to dress their dolls. Better than &Enka mind for the retrograde movenient, for your stiff joints ezed catnip tea for No; the shadow weal back on all the your sleepless nights, will be a large dials of that land and other lands. dose of youthful companionship. Turn to Li, Cheort„ 32, 31, and find that , Set, baek the clock of human life. away off in Babylon the mighty men of Make the shadow of the sun -dial of The Sabbath, With silentetwe I hail the sacred morn, Which slowly wakes while all the fields are still, A soothing calm on every breeze is borne; - A graver moinent gurgles from tbe rill; • And echo answers softer from the hill, And softer sings the linnet from the thorn, The skylark warbles in a tone less shnxlL' Hall! light serene; hail! sacred Sab- bath znorn. The rooks float silent by in airy droves; The sun a placid yellow luster shone; The gales, that lately sighed along the groves, Have hushed' their downy wings in sweet repose. The hovering rack of clouds forgets to move. So smiled the day When the first morn arose. What Antl-Toxine Does. • Anti-toxine shortens the time need- ed fer the retention of the tube in the larynx in metes of croup and diphtheria, according to Dr. Bokal, of Budapest. In 215 successful cases where he used a tube without a a -toxin° the average period of entube ion was 79 hours, wbile 1 the average duration of 45 successful cases with antatoxine was 61 hours be- ing a reductien of 18 hours. the zreerzst and UPpermost of the ter- FAIJfl 1ADI r races. The whole mclosure measured about thirty-five adres. Aroueci the edges were a series of chambers, One ° whiela was given to eacia priest as his lodging plate during the week wheu he did duty in the temple. Approaehing; the central shrine from these cloisters, the priest whose "lot was to burn in- cense" would first pass through the court of foreigners; then, mouneiris some steps, that of the women ; then, O few step,s eigber, the court of the priests ; and, finally, the sanctuary 10, The whole multitude of the peo- ple were praying without at the time of incense. 1. As the implicatioa is that the worshippers were many, this was probably on the Sa,bbath, 2. Their pra - ers were ilent. 3, lite prayer wit - out gave value to the incense within. 4. There was a. special "time of incense ;" regular morning and evening hours of prayer. 5. "When the priests stood by the incense altar," to quote Dr. Geikie, "the prayers offered in the temple courts were repeated all over the lend, and in every region, however distant, to whith a godly Jew had wandered." 11. A.n angel of the Lord. When Jesus was to cone angels were sent to Zacharias, to the shepberds, to Mary, and to Joseph. It was appropriate that the advent a the Son of God should be heralded by miracles. On the right side of the altar of incense. This wield be regarded by the Jew as a good omen: 12. Fear fell upon laina. It seeras strange that tbis good man, wbo kept a calm mind under Herod's bad rule, should- be troubled when an angel mune; but terror of the supernatural is ereversel. 13. Fear not. This is what God and God's angels always say, It is God's constant response to the fears of men. lily. prayer is heard. Possibly a special prayer for a son; possibly a spe- cial prayer for the comusg of the ; possibly a vague and broader prayer for the beloved. nation* But whatever the elements of the prayer in form it was comprehensive ID spirt, and God's answer was, as God's answers always are, bigger than the prayer. 14. Thou. shalt have joy and .glad - fleas. "One, the inward. experience; the other, the outward expression." - Abbott. All the hopes of Zacharias were to be moreethan fulfilled. Many saall rejoice. So great a blessing would, be this boy's career. All good lives are sources of liapeine,ss to the world; but out attention is not often turned to the thorough and sweeping reformation 'wrought by John, It is doubtful whe- ministry could have last.ed even three years. ministry could have lasted three years. 15. Great in the sight of the Lord. As well as by human measurement. It is the unique eharacteristm of Jewish history that the national heroes were first of all great in God's sight, after- ward recognized as great by the people. Shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. This might be translated, "Neither wine nor palm wine." It is the sweeping abstinence which was en- joined upon those who had the high and holy call of the Nazarite. It is an interestmg fact that in the heart of this nation chosen by God there were certain special consecrated ones like Samson and Samuel and John, not all of them faithful In every detail of life, but all of them given over by an abso- lute consecration le God's word. Read the law of the Naearite (Num. 6. 2-21). Even so great and good a man as John the Baptist would have been unfit for his mission if he had drank intoxicat- ing liquors, and the worst intoxicants they had in those days were light and harmless eompared with our modern distilled. liquor. Filled with tbe holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. Notice a similar contrast in Eph. 5. 18 and in Acts 2. 13. From his earliest boyhood. he was to show tokens of his fitness for his life work. la, Many of the children of Israel sball he turn to the Lord. their God. The profligate life of Greece and Rome had been introduced into the Holy nand by its conquerors, and Syria was al- ways a hotbed of vice and. sensuality. "The work of John," says Alford, "was a. concentration of the spirit of the law." 17. Notice the revised version of this verse, which is far better. Shall go before him. Like the c,otuier of a king. ID the spirit and power of Elias. The Jews would have it that Elijah would really return to earth, and. even the apostles were not quite satisfied with John (see Matt. 11. 14; 17. 10-14). The resemblance was more in character than ID external aspect. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. The meaning is probably, as Alford suggests, that John was th restore to the people of the day the devout disposition of their fathers. The wisdom of the just. The spiritual prudence which recognizes the thes which follows =righteousness. To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. The people were not ready yet ttoberaneeeive the blessings that awaited Verse 5. 'In the days et Herod. Her- od the Great. Carefully distinguish hira from the five other Herods men- tioned in the New Testament. Three -of these were his sons: (1) Herod the tetrarch (Antipas), before whom Salome danced, who slew John the Baptist, a.nd before whom 'Jesus was brought as a criminal; (e) 'this brother Philip" (Her- od Philip I), whose wife, Herodias, de- serted him to live with Herod Antipas; (3) "Philip the tetrarch" (Herod Phil- ip II), who built • Caesarea Philippi. "Herod the king" (Herod Agrippa I), who killed James, imprisoned Peter, and was smitten by the angel of the Lord, was the grandson of Herod the Great; while "King Agrippa" (Herod. Agrippa It), who said to Paul, ' Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian," was his great-grandson. King of Judea. The Roman senate had made Herod. kieg over wlaat is now known as the Holy Land. He was an Iduraean (Ed- omite), but Idumea had long before this been closely connected with Judea, and its eitizens bad adopted the Hebrew re- ligion. Beginning his public life a courageous, vigorous and resourceful young soldier, he ended it a monster of cruelty. The events of our lesson came near the end of his 111e. The fact that he died early in the year that we now /mow as B.C. 4, was of service to modern scholars in their efforts to give probable date to the birth of Jesus. Zaeharias means "Jehovah -remembers." Hebrews made names for their ehildren by press- ing two or three words into one. Such names were meant to be descriptive a the child, and where they failed of this they were in, later life tsupplemented by more characteristic surnames. The course of Able; All descendants of Aaron were by bean priests; but so many were there that all could not find constant service in the temple. As far back as David's time they had been arranged in "courses" to take turns in the holy service, end the members of each "course" were detailed by lot each ID his special duty. Daughters of Aaron. Jewish priests were at liberty to marry outside of their tribe, but John was of priestly desthnt by both parents. This gave him a rank m sooiety which was highly: est eeihed. Elisabeth means "God -is -my -oath." 6 Righteous before God, Scrueulous in obeying the details of the Mosaic law from the holiest of motives; at once spiritual and ritualistic. Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. It is said that there were six hundred and thirteen of these "commandments and ordin- ances." This pious couple neglected no • requirement. 7. They had no child. There has al- ways been in the Orient, and is to -day, a yearning for ohildren and a delight in childhood intenser in degree and dif- ferent in kind from anything preval- ent in Christendom. This quite aside of the special Ifebrevr hopes of a Mes- siah. 8, 9. It se irappened that while Zach- arias served as ,priestein the temple (during the official term of his family, according to the custona then in vogue of having the priestly families serve successively by turn) he was chosen to offer inceese m the holy place. His lot was to burn incense. Better, "he obtained by, lot the duty a entering and offering- incense." This was the most covethd of all priestly: duties, and the chances of .getting it were, so few tbaii probably in that age, ot the He- brew Church no priest ever twice en- tered the holy place. • Three lots were oast each day: one to select the man who should cleanse the altar andpre- pare its fires, ene to choose the man who should. offer eacrifiee and cleanse the candlestick and. offer thcenee, and one to choose the officiating priest. The temple of the Lord was, in the widest sense, a series of rectangular courts in- side each other, each elevated on a ter- race above the court which inclosed it. All were open to the air and divided from each other by cerven oolonnacles, while the temple peeper, a magnificent gold tied marble shrine, • towered over t: •••=1.01, WHAT IS 001N0 ON IN THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE GLOBE. Oki and New World Events of Interest Chron. tcled Brlefly--InterestIng Happenings 01 Recent Date. ' Seven naval expeditions are to be sent out by France to different parts Of the world in order to obtain accurate observations for the Bureau. de Longi- tudes,,as fa,r as possible simultaneously. The methods of observation will be strictly uniform. , At Chassenon, in the department of the Charente, noted. far its brandy, a statue of a Genic god has been found ID an old well believed to have been fill- ed up in the time of the invasions of the barbarians. at is two feet high, squat- ting like a. Hindoo Buddha, and has the collar of the Gaels around its r*eck. FIRE BALLS LIGHTED THE SHIP. :asking Repairs by the Lialit Furnished by a Phenomenal Electric Storm. One of the most remarkable electrical storms at sea, evhioh probably seemed intensified by. reason of the fad that O oargo of Spanish iron ore passed through it, was experienced by the British steamshie Mercedes, which ar- rived at Philadelphia the other clay from Bilbao. On. the Grand Banks of New- foundland during the nights of Dec. 3 and 4 the ocean appeared like a mighty mass of flames or an endless stretch of prairie fires. Balls of elec- rections and darted among the vessel's mramstfis.reanbdissreigaginangd. exploded. in all di - The Mercedes's escape from going down on Dee. 1 seemed little short of a miracle. She was struck by a south- southweg gale, which was accompp,nied by seas roiling fearfully high, During the height of the storm a huge deck derriok, weighing many tons, was torn loose from its fastenings and swept overboard, leavine a hoe: in the vessel's • deck through which the water ran into the eargo. In its course it carried away the main topmast, whith was also of iron; part of the flying bridge, the after winch, and part of the deck fit- tings. • The decks were flooded with tons of water, the ship rolled at an • angle of seventy degrees, and the sea broke in all directions, filling the.cabi33 • and the officera' quarters.m Soon afterward the storpartially sub- sided, when the eleetrical fire appeared in all directions. It hung in big balls for two nights from the masts and fore and aft stays, and practically, turned night into day. As the big fire balls came together they would burst with a loud report upon the vessel and dis- appear. finder this light at night such temporary repairs were made as were deemed necessary to reach port. Capt. Tait of the Mercedes stated that the pessage was one of the most trying experiences of hie life. •The rollingraid krona's' of tae eessel in the storm and tbe fury ot the gales were -terrific in the vichlity.of 25 degrees longitude. On- ly the heroic. work of the officers and crew saved. the -vessel. It is likely that Great Britain bas a larger population then France for the first time in history. At the last cen- sus, in 1891, the United. Kingdom bad 37,797,000 inhabitants, against 38,343,- 000 for France, and since tithe the deaths have regularly outnumbered the births tinheFelsenceln, wEliiiiglleantha.eopposite has bem Guy de Maupassant's mother, to whom he left 10,000 francs a year by his will, recently applied to have her eon's will set aside on the ground of meatal theepacity, as she wthed have re- ceived much more if he had died intes- tate, As the wUl was made long be- fore the novelist broke down, however, she lost her case. Portable incandescent lights, such as are used in ballets, have been select, - ed. in France, after experimental trials, as being the most practical lights for use on battlefields in searching for the dead and wounded. It is thought that they will also make a useful distinguish- ing mark for surgeons and Sisters of Charity, if worn in the middle of the Geneva Cross badge. Mr. George Frederick Watts. IL A., has just presented. to the National Portrait Gallery fifteen portraits and two drawings of eminent Englisbxnen, mede by himself. Among the por- traits are those of Tennyson, Brownmge Matthew Arnold, Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, Cardinal Manning, Lord. Shaftes- bury, and Lord Sherbrooke, whleh were exhibited in New Yorke few years ago at the Metropolitan Museum. A. farm laborer died recently at Ly - =tester, near Arundel, whose wages while he could. work were $3.60 a week, as he never rose above a working bailiff and cowman. He was able to work till he was 73, when he had. saved no less than $1,000. On this he managed. to live for twelve years longer, with a lit- tle help from his former employer; then, as he outlived. his savings, he had ID be relieved by the Poor -law officials, dying a pauper at 87. Berlin is disappointed. From the police reports it had expected a popula- tion of close on 1,800,000, but the census lately taken shows only 1,874,112. This means an increase of only 6 per cent. Lor the last five years, when the eicrease between 1890 was 20 per cent., and that between 1880 and 1885 was 16 per cent. The explanation given is that people prefer to live in Cha.rlottenburg and °titer suburbs that have not yet been annexed, coming into town for their business. Pope Leo's niece has just become re- conciled to her husband. She married Count Salimci, an offioer of the Papal Guard, five years ago, but they quarrel- led on the return from the wedding tour and seperated. A child was born whom its father never saw till recently it fell dangerously ill, when be was summoned and at once made up the quarrel. The Counthas been sent to Spain in charge of the beretta for the Archbishop of Valladolid, who is one of the new Cardinels. Shakespeare's "Coroedy of Errors" was recently acted by the Elizabethan Stage Society in the hall of Grey's Inn, ID London, where it was produced for the first time three centunes ago. The performance was given as nearly as pbs- sible as it was in Queen Elizabeth's, with no scenery, on the floor of the upper part of the hall. Old songs and pieces for lute, viol, and virginals were played at the supper.During the play the guests sat in their appointed places at the table as was done in 1594. A queer story is told of the Report of the Challenger Expedition for deep sea exploration, the lest volume of which hasjust been published.. A ves- sel conveying a large quantity of the •sheets of the report from Leith, where they were printed, to London, was run into and sunk. The sheets were fished out, but when recovered were little more than pulp. They were put up at auc- tion and bought by the Government de- partment in charge of the publication. They were then carefully dried and re- tored to a condition that made it possible to bind them up .with the rest of the reifunny attempt at murder was made in a French railway carriage. One of the engineers 011 the Paris -Lyons line was sleeping in the corner of a first- cla.ss compartment, when a poorly - dressed man who had entered the car- riagewoke him up by hitting him on the heed with tlie foot warmer used to heat the car. The woollen muffler wrapped around his ears and the unwieldbtess of the hundred -pound hot-water can saved. the engineer from serious harm. He at once cried out: "Unfortunate man, what are you doing! You mistake me for an English milord and I am only a railway servant." His assailant at once stopped., burst into tears, begged him to forgive him, and helped. wipe the blood from his face, but was banded over to the police when the train reached. Paris. HUMAN MONSTROSOX Wonderful Mil*" Shows. hitt Witteli Never Were Pwitits Many of those malformen human her ewe which we call "freaks" have neVei been on exhibition, have never even bee4 heard of by the vast majority or readesele" Sdeh a curiosity was discovered in in Vielma, Austria, in the person of a girl who, althougla then seventeen years, old, has remained an infant be everee, respect, except as to her age. Her head s hardlybig a s; fttrhile her 10g5 fuiosorthebdy The miserable behig often eleens tt-v forty-eight hours without interruptiou. During her wakirzg hours her sole emu- pation maisists in putting out her tongue and feebly moving her aands and feot ID and fro, She still occupies the WM, cradle into which she Was laid at her birth. The doctors emielder her a pile. nonaenal specimen of microcephalus or "smaLl head," and dd paregedt. et that she Will liv ID averyo A few years ago a tourist pass. through .Piedraont happened to see a gliri about nfteen years old, f fine figure,. but with a head whose ..senalalaaloe to A HOUND'S 1BAD was unmistakable. It is said, that antil her tenth yam' this thild habituellY went on all -fours. Her Uttar az mother had been the handsomest pe...sr far and wide. .Altheugb in re,duted cits ourestances, the. mother had steadfestlY refused. most tempting offers to place her offspring on exhibition. If the delicacy shown by this Piedmont mother were common m suck eases, the ancient .Itomans would. eardly have maintained especial market for the sale and purchase of human curios. But cupidity being no respecter of itaiefor- t that n any market brought tLsre three freaks not equalled since -a man; the top of whose head. levered to a point, and who aad three eyes; a boy weighing fifteen „ pounds and possessing what the his- torian is pleased to call "a voice of -thunder" and in the days of Nero a child with four heads. ,e. lady with a horse's head. resided at Vienna. during the early part of theten- tury. In 1829 a mountebank named Stephenson exhibited a roan with a hog's head, To his sorrow somebody discov- ered that this freak wits in faet a shaved. bear bear which the ingenious be- ventor caused to grunt and to cut grim- aces by pricking lam with a needle. Some years ago Prof. Ber mann of Berlin, received a strange visitor -0 child whose riglit hand was attached directly to the shoulder, there being no vast- e of an arm. The parents of the cripple innocently requeste(1 the totem& professor to simply tbe missing arm. The French doctor Denea.rquay re- cords fifty-nine well attested cases of horned people, generally women. Jules Cioquest mentions a. woman who bad. 012 her head an exerescence' over five ineheen long, and. Bartholin saw another over • six inches long. In the hospital at Hymns can still be seen a piece of the scalp ef a womann to which is attached. an excrescence over • ten inches long, resembling A RAM'S HORN' it is about tete and. a half inches thick, twisted spirally and ornamented with • dainty stripes. Tee lady was lorty yeaes old when the horn first made its appearance sin four years it reachecl a length of eight inches. The singular "ornament" was completely hidden -tin- der the luxuriant hair and. caused no pain or inconvenieuce during the day - At night, however, the poor woman was constrained to lie unuinfortably, since, even the slightest e Betel pressure egainst the horn ca interee,enatepts mg. Hence she decided to eubmit to ha,ve it removed and the operation was performed successfully, but a new pro- tuberance at once made its appearanee, and, if the woman isn't dead et is prob- ably growing still. • During .his last expedition through South America, the .Argentinian Capt. Albornog saw an Tndiae from whose forehead protruded a. pair of horns re- sembling deer horns in every respect. Not long ago, at Ennigeriola, Prussia, a child was born whose eye sockets were empty. And to be without eyes more dreadful than to have horns. There seems to be practically no limit to hu- man affliction, and this tale of human misery might be continued. ad infinituni or ad nauseam. Unhealthy St. Petersburg. At St. Petersburg the average yearly deaths are from 2,500 to 3,000 in excess of the births in a popelateon of nearly million. In the years from 1868 to 1882 the death rate varied from 29.7 per thousand to 38.0, while the birthswere only 3,1 per thousand. In 1883 25,171 children were born alive, while there were 30,150 deaths, an excess in this year of about 5,000. But these figures are apt to be misleading. The workmeu who come ea to the eapital almost lever- iebly leave their wives and children in the provinces. Thee, many births take place in the provinces which are not reckoned tothe account of the capital. • The fact that about 78 per cent. of the population are over 16 years of age te.s- titles to the univereality of' the prac- tice of leaving the children in the coun- try. The seme fact is demonstrated by the presence of twelve Men to every ten women in S. Petersburg, where- as in =St towhe this proportion is ex- actly reversed. It will thus be seen that thougb the deaths are in excese of the births, there es not likely to .be any dirainalion in the eetual aopulatioe of the 'town. In fact, its population in- creased 20 per cent. between 1860 and 1881. OUR MILITARY STRENGTH. Ommiami Comparative Strength of the Pernik:along of Canada and the United States., A despatch from Buffalo, atta., sage: -In case. of war between Great Britain and. the United States the border line between the States and. Canada would ID the line of battle, as indicated in the editorial utterances of the Londe Geobe, and a review of the emnparatiV strength of the fortifications and mili tary forces along the frontier becomes of interest. A. map published by the Courier shows where 60 companies of the National Guard or regular troops are stationed ID New York State, of which but a small portion is located on the frontiereadee two regiments at Buffalo, the 05411 d 74411, and separate companies at Tona- wanda, Niagara, Medina, Roche.ster, Os- wego, Watertown, Ogdensburg, and Malone. But the Canadian frontier in Ontario and Quebec is fairly covered with marks, 164 in number, mdienting the presence of the Canadian troop thousands upon thousands of themalon the Niagara and St. Lawrence river, across Lake Ontario and near, Wee Champlain. Every point of attack es covered, not only by infantry, but by artillery and cavalry. "They are vol- unteers, it is true, continues the Courier, " but so is our National Guard, and so will be the great bulk of ow army in time of war. To underestimate opponents is one cif the worst faults of a soldier, and usually reeults in dis- aster. We cannot afford to tuaderesti- ' mate this Canadian strength, backed as it Would be in a contest with England by all England's, prestige and power. Loyal Canadians are all of Scot:ober Eng-, • lish stock, and are a fine, well-develoe- ed, and courageous race oi raen. The expedition to the North-West in the Riel iebellion proved they could endure terrible hardships. And they are cote' mended by trained, experienced o111 - cera, far superior in knowledge of th art of war to oar National Guard offi cers. That we could eventually crus Canada by weight of runebers casino ID doubted, but the first time we Me them in war would be an occasion qua soldiers th this country would remeMe, ber for all time to come." • No BlYstery. • Mistre,ss (severely) -How happen to go out • • New Girl (innocently)- I gaess reeeot, to ,,ell me to patac,a1 ont!