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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1896-10-15, Page 741, to, gb, E EXETER TIMES samosposmonm WINDOWS AND GATES, ,THE REV. DR. TALMAGE PREACHES ' FROM A NEGLECTED TEXT, ." Lad 1 will Make Thy windoweot Agates and Thy Gates of Careuncies" —mow Cheist Hoisted the Great Gates et Pardon ia mis own Blood. Washington, Oet. 4.—Frora o. neg- lected text, and one to most people un- known, Bev. Dr. Talmage this morning produces a sermon appropriate to indi- vidual and national circumstances. The subject was "Gates of Carbuncle," the text being Isaiah Uv. 12, And. I will make thy window e of agates and thy :gates of carbuedes." Perhape because a human disease of most painful and ofttimes fatal ithar- actor its named after it, the church and the world have never done justice to that intense and all suggestive precious stone, the carbuncle. The pearl that °heist picked up to illustrate his ser- mon ,and the jasper and the sapphire and the amethyst welch the apocolyp- tie vision masoned ,,into the wall of heaven have had proper recognition, but this, in all the ages, is the first sermon on tbe carbuncle. This precious stone is found in the East Indies, in colow is an intense scar- let, and held up between your eye and the sun it is a burning coal. The poet puts it into rnythm as he writes: Like to the burning coal, whence coraes its name, Among the Greekas Anthrax known to fame, God sets it high up in Bible crystal- lography. He cuts it with a ttivine chisel, shapes it with a precise geome- try and kindles its fire into an almost supernatural flame of beauty. Its law of symmetry, its law of zones, its law of parallelism, something to excite the amazement of the scientist, chime the cantos of the poet and arouse the Adoratiou of the Christians. No one but tbe infinite God could fashion a carbuncle as large as your thumb nail, and as it to make all ages eppreciate this precious stone he or- dered it set in the first row of the high priest's breastplate in olden time and higher up than the onyx and the emerald and the diamond, and in Ezek- fiers prophecies concerning the splen- dors of the Tyrian court the carbuncle Le mentioned, the brilliancies of the palls and. at the tessellated floors sug- gested by the Bible sentence, "Thou hest walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire!" But in my text it is not a solitary specimen that lila you, as the keeper of a museum might take down from the shelf a pre- cious stone and allow you to examine it. Nor is it the pariel of a door that you might stand and etudy for its unique cantinas. or bronzed traceries. but there is a. whole gate of it lifted before our admiring and astoundedvis- .tofzseye, two gates of it—aye, naany gatee of it, "1 will make thy gates of carbuncles." What gates? Gates of the church. Gates of anything worth possessing. Gates of successful enter- prise. Gates of salvation. Gates of na- tional achievement. Isaiah, who wrote this text, wrote also all hat about Christ, "as the Lamb to the slaughter." and spoke of Christ as saying, "I have trod the wine Incas alone," and wrote, "Who is this that comete from Edom, with dyed. garments from Bozra,h?" And do yau think that Isaiah in my text merely happened to represent the gates as red gates, as carmine gates, as gates of carbuncle 1 No. He means that it is through atonement, through blood. red struggle, through agonies, we get into anything worth getting into. Heaven'sgates may well be made of pearl, a bright pellucid, cheerful crys- tallization, because all the struggles are over, and there are beyond those gates nothing but raptures and cantata and triumphal procession and everlasting holiday and kiss of reunion, and so the twelve gates are twelve pearls, and could be nothing else than pearls. But °heist hoisted the gates of pardon in His own blood, and the marks of eight fingers and two thumbs are on each gate, and as He lifted the gate it leaned against his forehead and took from it a crimson impress, and all those gates are deeply dyed, and Isaiah was right when he spoke of those gates as gates of carbuncle. Whet an odd, thing it is, think some, this idea of,vicarious suffering. or suf- tlering for other e I Not at all. The world has seen vicarious suffering mil- lions of times before Christ came and demonstrated it upon a scale that eclip- Wed all that went before and all. that shall come after. Rachel lived only longenough after the birth of her son -to give him a name. In faint whisper !she said, "Call him Ben-oni," which means, "son of ray pain," and all mod- ern travelers on the road from Jerusa— lem to Bethel uncover their beryls and stand reverently at the tomb of Rachel, ho died for her boy. But in all ages, how many raothens die for their chil- dren, and 'in many cases grown up children, who by recreancy stab clear through the mother's heart! Suffering fax others 1 Why, the world is full of St. "Jump!" said the engineer to the fire- man on tee locomotive. "One of us is .enough to die. Jump!" And so the en- gineer died at hie post, trying to save the train. When this summer the two trains crashed into each other near At- la.xitio City, among the 47 who lost their lives, the engineer was found Aead, with one hand on the throttle of the loommtive, and the other on the brake: Aye, there are hundreds here to -day tsutfering for others. You know and God knows that it is vicarious sac - /Vice. But on one liraestone hill abut twice the height of this church, five minates' walk from,the gates of Jeru- Were, was the sublienest case of suf- fering fax other's that the world ever saw or ever will see. Christ the vie - human and. setanio malevolence the executioner, the whole human race ,having an overwhelming interest in the epectacle. To open a way for us sinful men and sinful women into glorious !pardon, and, high hope and eternal ex- ultation, Christ, with hand dripping with the Twit of open arteries, swung back the gate, mad, behold, it le a red 'gate, a gate of deepest hue, a gate of ca rbuncle What is true in spirituals is true in tenlporals. For some good reason God has arranged it fax all the centuries that the only way for most people to get a livelihood for themselves and (bele families is with bothliand and all the alliecl forces of body, mind and soul to push back aed push open the red gate, the gate of carbuncle, For the benefit of all young men, if I had the time, I would.eall the roll of those who overeame obstacles. How many of the mighty men who went one way on Pennsylvania avenue and reactied the United, States Senate, or walked the other way on Pennsylvania avenue and reached the White lIouse did not have to climb over political obloquy? Not one, How Innen scorn and scoff and bratal attack did Horace Mann endure between the thee w.hen he first began to fight for a better common school. system in Massechusetts and the day when a statue in honor of him was placed on the steps of the State House overlooking the Commons? Reac.t the biography of Robert Hall, the Baptist preacher, 'who, though he bad been pronounced a dunce at school, lived to thrill the world with his Chris- tian eloquence, and. of George Peabody, 'who never owned a carriage and dented bimself all luxuries that he raiglit while living and after death, through last will and. testament, devote his uncount- ed. millions to the education of the peer people in .England and. • America, and of Bishop Janee, who in boyhood worked his passage from Ireland to America, and became the joy of Methodism and a blessing to the race. Go to the bio- graphical alcove in city., etate or nation- al hbrary and. find at least every other book an illustration of overcome obsta- cle and. of carmine gate that had to be forced open. -What is true of individuals is true of nations. Was it a mild spring raore- tag when the pilgrim fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, and did they come gilded yacht, gay streamers flying? No. .I.t was in cola December, anti frem a slaip in which one would notwant to cross the Hudson or the Potomac River. Scalping knives already to re- ceive them, they landed, their ouly wel- COMA The Indian WOZWhOO1). Red men on the beacli. Red men in the forest. Red men on the mountains, Red. men in the valleys. Living gates of red men. Gates of carbuncle! • Aborigioal hostility pushed baek, surety now our forefathers will have eothing to do but take easy posses- sion of the faixese continent unaer the sun. The skies so genial, the soil so fertile, the rivers so populous with finny life, the acreage eaci imraease, there will be nothing to do but eat, drink and be merry. .No. Tea most powereul nation, by army and navy, squatted its protest across 300 mites ot water. Then came Lexington and Bunker Hill and. liloamoueb and Long island battles. and Valley Forge and. Yorktown and starvation and widowhood and. orphan- age, and the thirteen colonies nen - through suiferings which the historian has attempted to put on paper and the artist to put upon canvas, but all in vain. Engraver's knite and report- er's skill and telegraphic wire and daily press, -whicb have made us acquainted with the horrors of modern battlefield, have not yet: begun their vioilance, and the story of the American Revolution has never been told and. never will be told.. It did not take much ink to sign the Declaration of Independence; but it took a. terrifio amount of blood to maintain it. It was an awful gate of opposition that the men and women —and the women as much as the men— pushed. back. It was a gate of oaf sac- rifice. It was a gate of blood. It was a. gale of carbuncle. We are not indebted to history for our knowiedge of the greatest of na- tional crises. Many of us remember it, and. fathers and. mothers nOW living had batter keep tetling that story to their- children, so that instead at their being dependent upon cold type and obliged to say, "On such a page of each a book you. can read. that;" will they rather be able to say, "My father told me so," "My mother told, me so;" Long after you are deed your children will be able to say with the psalmist; "We have heard with our ears, 0 God! our fathers have toed us that work Thou didst in their days in the times a old." But what a time it was! Four years of horaesicknees1 Four years of brotherly and. sisterly es- trangement 1 Four years of martyr- dom! Four years of massacre I Put them in a eong line, the conflagration of cities, and see them light up a whole continent! Put them in long rows, the hospitals making a vast metropolis of pain and paroxysm! Gather them in one vast assemblage; the millions of bereft from the St. Lawrence to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific beaches! Put the tears into lakes; and the blood into rivers, and the shrieks into whirlwinds! During those four years many good and wise men at the north and the sou.th saw nothing ehead but annihilation. With such a national debt we could never meet our obligations! With such mortal entipa- putoo 110132 umnenos -ewe uxotwou sang never come into amity. Representa- tives of Louisiana and Georgia and the Carolinas could never again sit side by side witb the representatives of Maine, Massachusetts and New York at the national capitol. Lord John Rus - self had. declared that we were a "bub- ble bursting nationality," and it had come true. ' The nations of Europe had gathered with very resigned spirit at the funeral of our American republic. They have tolled the bells on parlia- ments and reiehstags and lowered their flags at half mast, and even the lion on the other side of the sea had whined for the dead eagle on this side. The deep grave had been dug, and beside Babylon and Thebes and Tyre and other dead nations of the past our dead republic was to be buried. The epitaph was all ready. "Here lies the .A.mericest republic. Born at Philadeiphia, July 4, 1776. Killed. at Bull Run July 21, 1861. Aged 85 years and. 17 days.. Peace to its ashes." But before the obsequies had quite dosed there was an interru.ption of the cere- monies, and our dead nation rose from its mortuary surroundings. God had made for it a special resurrection day and. cried, "Came forth thou Republic of Washington and Jelin Adams and Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry ancl john Hancock and Daniel Webster and S. S. Prentiss and Henry Clay. Come forth!" And she came foxth to be stronger than she had ever been. Her mightiest prosperities ho,ve come since that tune. Who would want to puah back this country to what it was in 1860 or 1850t But, oh, what a high gate, wh.at a strong gate she had to push back before she could make one step in advance! Gat of flame! See Norfolk Navy Yard and Columbia and Ohambersburg and Charleston on fire! Gate of bayonets! See glittering rifles and earbines flash from the Susquehan- na and the janaes to the Mississippi and the Arkansas! Gate of heavy artillery; making the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky and 'Virginia tremble as though the earth itsedt were strug- gling in its last agony, The gate was so fiery and eo red that I can think of nothing more appropriate then to take the suggestion of Isaiah in •the text and call it a gate of carbuncles. This country has been for the most; part a its history paseirg through crises, and after each oriels was better off than befere it entered it, and now we are at another crisis.' We are told ou one hated that if geld is kept as a standard and silver is not elevated con- fidence will be restored and this nation will rise triumphant from all the fi- nancial misfortunes that have been af- flicting us. On the other band., we are told teat if the free coliaage of .eilveie 18 ailoweci all the wheels of business win revolve, the poor man will have a better chance, and ail one ladustries will begin to hum and roar. During the last six presidential elections I have been urged to enter the political arena, but I never have and never wild turn the pulpit in which I preach into a po- litieal sttun.p. • Every minister must do as he feels called to do, and. I will not criticize him for doing what he considers his duty, but all the political harangues frona pulpits from now, until the 3rd of Novenaber wilt not in all the United States change one vote, but will leave many etire:stopped. against anything that such elergymen may ut- ter the rest of their lives. Among what we eonsidered eomfort- able homes have come privation and want4 The cry has gone up to people who do not want charity, but close oalculatiou and an eciortoray that kills. Millions of people who say nothing about it are at this moment at • teen wits' end. There are millions of the ears of the "Lord of Sabaoth," and the prayer will be heard, and relief will come. If we have nothing better to de- pend. on than American politica, relief will never eonae.' Whoever is elected to the presidency, the wheels of govern- ment turn so slowly and. a caucus in yonder white building on the hill may tie the hands of any president. Now, though we who live in the District of Columbia cannot vote, we can praer, and. my prayer day and night shall be:- "0 God, hear the try of the souls from under the altar 1 Tliou, who hest brought the wheat- end eorn of 'this season to such magnitude of supple,give food. to man and beast, ' Thou, who bedst not where to lay Thy head, pity the sbelterless. Thou, who hast brought to perfection the cotton of the south andthe flax of tne north, clothe the naked. Thou tvho beet filled the mine with coal, give fuel to the shiv- ering. Bring bread to the body, intel- ligence to the mind and salvation, to the e,oul. of all tbe people! God save the naticeal" But we must admit it is a hard. gate to push back. Millions of thin bands have pushed at it without making it swing on its hard hinges. It is a gate made out of empty Deur barrels and cold fire grate and unmedicated sick- ness and ghastliness and }terror. lt is a gate of struggle. A gate of penury. A gate of went. A gate of disappoint- ment. A red gate, or -what Isaiah would have called a gate of carbuncles. Jt friend told me the other day of a snoeinaker in a Russian city wbose bench was in th3 basement or a build- ing and so far underground that he could see only the feet of those who went by on the, sidewalk. Seated on his bandit, he often looked tip, and there were the swift and skipping feet a children, and then the slow and uni- form step of the aged, and then crip- pled feet, and lie resolved he wont(' do a, kindness to each one who needed it. So when the foot with the old and wornout shoe was passing he would hail it and make for it a comforta.ble covering, for ha had the hammer, and, Che pegs, and the shoe lasts, and the lapstone, and the leather to do it. And evlaen lie saw the invatid foot pass he would hail it and. go out and offer medicine and crutch and helpfulness. .And when he saw the aged foot pass he hailed it and told the old man of heaven, where he woutd be young again. 'When he saw the foot of child- hood pass on the sidewalk, he would go out with good advice a.nd a laugh that seemed like an echo of the child's Laugh. Welt time went tin, and as the shoemaker's wants were very few he worked but little for himself anct most of the time for others, and in, the long evenings, when he coule not well see the feet passing on the side- walk, he would make shoes of all sizes and stand them on a shelf. ready for feet that would pass in the daytime4 Of course, 118 the years went on, under this process the sboemaker became more and more Christian, until one deo he said. to himself: I wish among all those feet passing up. there on the side- walk I could see the feet of the de= Christ passing. Oh, if I could. see His feet go by, I would. know them, be- cause they are scarred feet." Teat night the shoemaker dreamed, and in tee dream he saw the glorious Christ and 'he said, "0 Christ, I have been waiting for Thee to pass on the side. walk, and I have seen lama feet, and wounded. feet, and aged feet, and poor feet, but in vain have I looked for Thy scarred feet." And Christ said. to the shoemaker: "Man,. I did pass on the sidewalk, and you did see my feet, and you 'came out and hail Me and bless Me and help Met You thought it was the foot of a poor old man that went shnetling by; that was My foot. You thought it was the foot of a, soldier that went limping past; that was My foot. You thought that shoe- less foot was tha foot of a beggar; that was My foot. The shoes, the clothing, the medicines, the cheering words that you gave to them, you gave to your Lord. 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least ,ef these, ye have done it unto Me." My hearers with the humble spirit of that Russian mechanic let us go forth and help others. Having shoved baek the carbuncle gate for yourself to pass in and pass on and pass up, lend a hand to others that they also may get through the red gate and pass in and pass on and pass up! My hearers, it will be a great heaven for all who get through, but the best heaven for those who had on earth nothing but struggle. Blessed all those who, before they entered the gate of pearl, passed through the gate of car- buncle. THE .$11Nb411, salopL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON, OCT. 18: "Solomon's weatk and Wisdom." Mugs it, 85414. Goieen 'Next. 1 Sam, 2.30. GENERAL STATEIVIENT. BIG. BRITISH CHIMNEYS. Some or Them are Giants—One 'Very Crooked &Ilene Stack. The highest -chimney in England is supposed to be that at Barlow & Dob- san's milLat Bolton; it is 368 feet high, and, is built of 800,000 bricks and 122 tons of stone. It is excelled by at least two in Scotland—the St. Rollox chim- ney in Glasgow is 445 feet, and the Townsend chimney in the same city is said to be 468 feet high. Dat- the steeple- jacks make no more of climbing such chimneys than one a third. of their height, though the vibration is more serious at times. All chimneys vibrate, especially in a gale --it is a cohdition of their safety—but the oscillation at the top, ts a serious matter for any one at work there during a high wind, and in such conditions the job is postponed to a calmer season. Lancashire also boasts of one of the crookedest chimneys in the country—a, shaft at Brook IVIill, Heywood—which is nearly 200 feet high, but is more than six feet out of plumb. tt has been belted with iron bands and is considered secure. J'UDGING BY RESULTS. Between 'me and you, Bunker, does your wife use powder? Don't know whether it's powder or dynamite, but when she blows me up it's a week before I'm right again. • Our lesson th-day is a patch taken from an elaborate description a tbe temporal glory of Solomon; hew he "reigned over all kingdomis from the elver (Euphrates?) unto the land of the Philistines;" from. Thapectetts .to, Gaza; how the princes around him brought preeents and served him ; how great his "pxovision" for one day was, of flour, and mehl, and oxen, and sheep,. and. harts, and roe bucks (gazelles?), and fatted fowl (swans, or guioea hens ; bow peace prevailed. thrtragh all his dominions; and how his fame for wisdom outranked even his fame for wealth and. prosperity. We are told that Solomon wrote three thou,sand pro - yens and one tlaousand and five songs. All subjects then within reach of hu- man research were treated by him, "from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that spriugeth out of the wail." 'rho fame of hie studies spread through all languages and re- ligions, until at last, as we have recent- ly had oYotasion to note, the very word. "hyssop," which was used as a sort of title for his works on whet we would. call "natural history," passed into COM - mon use as the title of Rey book of fa- bles in whieh plants and animals were made to talk and eet like human beings, and, becoming known to the Greeks, reappeared in the name of Aesop as the father of fabulous literature. This, at least, is the theory of certain German scholars. Solomon was the inheritor of a great empire and wealth, and also of an unrivaled mental grasp. His fa- ther, and with little doubt his mother also, were persons of uncommon intel- lectual power. He showed his wisdom, doubtless not only by his proverbs, but gY his wise selection from the tradition- al wisdom of the "ancients." His full career, both in the height of bis glory and in his fall, is a perfect illustration of our Golden Text. PRACTICAL NOTES. Verse 25. Jude].) and Israel. As we have already noted, a. dear division marked off the Hebrews of the north from those of the south—two kingdoms united under one king. The distinction is noted. in 2 Sam. 19. 41-43. Even the imperial array was in two great sec- tions. (See I Kings 2. 32; 2 Sam. 24. 9.) Dwelt safely. An unusual condi- tion in the ancient world, where war was chronic. Under his vine and un- der his fig tree. A proverbiai phrase batsed upon the favorite fruits of Pal- estine; so the prophet joel, picturing .1 scene of desoittuon, said, "'The vine is dried. and the fig tree languisheth." One of the first, acts of Oriental in- vaders is the destruction of all the crop's; and a. few centuries after Solo- mon invasions of the Holy Lend were so frequent that vines and trees a ma- turity were hard to find. 26. Forty thousand stalls of horses. There is much uncertainty about He- brew numbers. But evidently the num- ber of Solomon's horses astonished the scribe who put it down. It was a.gainst the Mosaic law for the king to multi- ply horses (Dent. 17. 16.) 27. Those officers. This is a reference to twelve men who aro mentioned in verses 8 to 19 of this chapter. They are brought in here because of the ;statement, just made concerning Solo- mon's =vane How were these horses end horsemen maintained in times of pascal "Those officers" had stations nt different parts of the country, and through the year, each gathered from the district assigned to him food and other necesseries. All that came unto king Solomon's table. That is, the en- tire royal household. There were a thousand women in the harem, uncount- ed. officers and persons who for one reason or another were favored with places in the royal household, besides the royal bodyguerd. They lacked nothing. Better, they were faithful and skipped nothing. The twelve commis- sary agents each attended to his own section of Solomon's great empire, and drew the best there was for Solomon's dependents. • 28. Barley in the Eat takes the place of oafs with us. By dromedaries we should probably understand race horses or post horses, used. by the king to tran- smit rapidly his cororaands to distant points. The place where the officers were. This is an awkward translation; the second suggestion of the margin of the Revised Vereicr is preferable; "The place where it ( uld be;" that. is, these offieers not on collected the wealth of Israel for the sustenance of the court, but dividedit. and sent each quantity where it WM needed, so that wherever the cavalry naight be lodged it was provided for. Every man accord- ing to his charge. That. is to say, each man by turn. 20. Wisdom and. understanding refer not merely to mental and spiritual en- dowment but to acquisition of know- ledge. Largeness of Heart. "A com- prehensive, powerful mind capable of grasping knowledge on aany and dif- ficult subjects; poetry, ehilosoplay, na- tural history in its various branches. He was master of them all."—Dr. Lum- by. As the sand that is on the sea- shore. This was a proverb descriptive 'of greatness in number e and size. There es no question that Solomon was a sin- gularly accomplished man. 30. The wisdom of the children of the east country. The Chaldeans and Arabians had a singular reputation Lor wisdom, especially in proverbial form, Job was among these children of the east country, and so were the men who greeted the 'infant Messiah in Bethlehem. Astrology was one ot the chief studies. The tradition of Egyptian wiscican we find in all anci- ent literature, but the wisdom. of Egypt was scientific rather that proverbial. 14 included magic, medicine, geometry, astronoxay, and natural history. 31. He was wiser than all name That is, his fame for wisdom surpassed the fame of 'predecessors and contemporar- ies. Ethan the Ezrahite, and Haman, and Onkel, and Darda, the sone of Malta. It is a strange thing that four men whose fame for wisdom was such that their names came at once to the mind and pen of tete writer as the typical wisemen of the world shotild be so com- pletely forgotten as to be beyond iden- tification now. Dr. Luraby thus com- pacts all that is known concerning them: "Ethan and Efeahan are among the nanaee of the singers appointed by 'David when the ark was brought up to the city, of David. In 1 Chem. 1.17, Ethan is callecl the son of Kushaiale while lieman is called in 1 Chron. 6.33, the son of Joel. Whether these are , clews or Jiot we cannot 'say. A strange eeineirleatee is that in 1 Citron. 2. 6, we find the four names of this Irene (With ae alight Modification of. 'Oaf!, last) all' mentioned. as. keine ot Zerala, the son of Judah. But no tradition has sur- viveA which tells of the special wisdom of this family, nor utn we conneet the Immo of Mimi, as the father is here called, with Zerah, The oecurrence of ,the four names together ixt one family, however, inclines to the belief that these snen are the men spoken of here." His fame wtedin all nations. It early readi- ed to Tyre, soon after that to Shelta, and cloubtleas 'was carried avherever enter- prising mariners, and Merchants reach-. ed. 32. Three thousand proverbs. Les% than one thousand of the proverbial sayings in the Book of Proverbs are at- tributed to the great king. It is pro- bable that the word "proverb" hero refers rather to a parable than to what we now call a proverb. His songs were a thousand and five. We neednet suppose that these songs were of a, sawed character. Psalms 1, 2, 72, 127, and 128 have been attributed to him. 33. He spake., He discoursed upon. Whether by word. of mouth or by writ- ing we do not know. Trees,...beastsee fowl,... creeping things,... fisbes. 14 would be hasty to aseinne that Solo- mon was a naturalist po the sense in whieh we now use that phrase though indeed we are now in the realm of con- jecture, and as his fame so fax star - passed allof bis contemporaries it is arbitrary to rule any class of wisdom out. But it is probable that he attach- ed to many of these objects of nature perable.s or fables so ae to make them eatbody his wisdom. It is not impro- bable that be discussed the medicinal virtues and. habits of plants and beasts; the histciry of literature in all nations allows that the earliest worke on plants have treated of their medicinal pro- perties. Hyssop, Probably presented as the meanest of all plants native to Palestine, to indicate that Solomon's wisdom was all -comprehensive— from the cedar, which was the noblest, to the hyssop, which was the meanest. The eastern world to-dayabounds in le- gends of Solomon's intellectual gifts. The Arabian Nighta is full a allusions to his supposed astrological and dem- oniacal control. 31. All people. Or nations. Froni all kings of the earth. There came am- bassadors. The Queen of Sheba came in her own person. BOON TO HOUSEKEEPERS. SUM New Patent for Dealing Water lrfitb a Gas ttove. A. greater boon to the housekeeper can hardly be imagined than a quick- ness of heating water. A water heat- er which ha,s just made its appearance appears te have many good points. It is automatic in action and takes care of itself night or day, stopping the con- sumption a gas needed to heat the water as soon as its work is done. This heater combines quickness of action and very high thermal efficiency, with a complete circulating system controlled by a thermostatic regulator. The water as it is heated goes to a storage tank or boiler (so-called) and as soon as the temperature in this boiler reaches the degree for which the regulator is set the gas is automatically reduced, so that only so much is burned as will keep the water hot. The house pipes are connected witut this boiler, as usual, so that warm water can be drawn in the bath room or at the various basins about the house. When warm water 18 draivn Geld water flows in to take its place, and the regulator at once turns on the gas to heat the cold water and then steps as before. This heating system insures a fall supply of warm water at any moment, night or day, and at any part of the premises. It also reduces the consumption of gas to a minimum, and it also removes one of the most serious objections to gas stoves for general use. It is claimed that this appliance will heat 24 gallons of water with forty-seven feet ot gas, and much better results can be obtamed by precautions to same the loss in radiation It is also stated that the beater will utilize from 95 to 98 per cent. of the total heat of the gas. ONTARIO'S GOLD MINES. t—te MR. HAMILTON. MERRITT'S OPINION OF LAKE OF THE WOODS. A raYiltit. Investment—With Wildcat Capital Dig Profits Can be Made-Jrisae- ly Warning Against Wildcat Schemes — Seine Changes That ,tre Needed in ihe .1existing taw. The Whinipeg Free Press of recent date publishes tbe following des- patch from Rat Portage :—Mr. W. Ham= Mon. Merritt, of the Kingston School of Saone*, has left for Caribeo, where he goes to examine a mining property at the instance of tee famous .English experts, Bainbridge; Seymour & Co. Mr: Merritt has been holding mixtingo Merritt has been holding mining classesthrouehout the district in con- nection with "the School of Science,and has just returned from the Seine Riv- er country, where hts classes and lec- tures have as usual been laxgely attend- ed. The aim bf tbe 01444 is to offer the prospector an opportunity of ac- quiring sufficient scientific knowledge of the ores of tbe &stria to enable him to treat and assay them, even when far removed front the ordinary resources of civilization. Mr, Merritt has been engaged in this useful work for some time, and, besides winning for himself an enviable reputation as one of the most reliable and conservative authorities in Canada, has evolved itt tbe course of Ws interesting experi- ments a prospector's field outfit, which will shortly be manufactared by Lyman Bros, of Montreal, and Sargent & Co., of Chicago, so favorably have these firms been impressed with its complete- ness and. general utility. AN ACKNOWLEDGED AUTHORITY. WICKED "WILLIE -WILLIE." And Dis Naughty Little Pranks—Sand- spouts la the Desert. The staff of each mine in West Aus- tralia usually makes "a camp" on the mine, which they surround with high fences and boughs to keep out the dust - storms or "willie-willies." These "willie- willies" are raore or less peculiar to the gold fields, and are really worth a few lines. They are waterspouts in sand. You may be gazing idly upon the moun- tains of dust and sand which go to make up a gold field's street, when suddenly you observe a tremor in the dirt, two or three wisps of straw collect, a piece of paper wanders up, stays and watches the proceedings. More pieces of paper come along,the dust becomes quite ex- cited and rises about a foot from the surface and twists round very rapidly in a spiral. The little pillar of dirt then moves slowly down the street or across the plain; it goes very slowly, but it attracts al the scraps in its way and sucks them up.. Each yard the "willie-willie" travels it gams power and importance. It moves very delib- erately, but it misses nothing in the way of smell rubbish. After a few min- utes it is four or five feet high, solid at the base, and spreading out into a film of sand at its summit. The idlers watch it witha 'grin as it gains force. It hums like a big top. By the time it has meandered a hundred yards in its zig-zag it is Mil feet high aaad soar- ing merrily, and than woe betide the unwary. To be caught by a "willie- willie" means that your very marrow is saturated with sand and dirty. 'X ou go in a clean and wholesome creature; you emerge a battered, begrimed cripple. The "willie-willie" doesn't trouble; it steadily grovels about fax another vic- tim. When it is strong enough it tackles a tent—away goes the canvas spinning in the air. The contents of the te.nt are covered with dust inches deep—nob nice clean dust, but filthy, putrescent dust of a. camp Where clean- liness is the last consideration. Then the "willie-willie" gets outside aaad dies away among the trees. They are sometimes 100 feet high, and. then they do a great deal of damage. SATISFACTOB.Y REPLY. They say, remarked Miss Keedick, that the most worn spot on the carpet in a girl's room is that direetly in front of her mirror. It can't be the case in your room, replied Mr. Huggins. Why? Do you think I have nothing to took in the mirror fort Your little feet vedild, never wear ihe . . • The professor, as becomes the true lover of science, receives no pecuniary benefit for these results of his labors in, its cause. It was, as a consequetme no doubt of the high reputation pee- tiessed. be Mr. Merritt that the Bul- lion Mining Company of Bat Portage secured his services as consulting en- gineer, satisfied that ba doing so they were getting the beet opinion obtain- able,and one which would entitle them to the confidence of tbe general pub- lic. 4 Learning that Mr. Merritt was about leaving for the Cariboo on the im- portant mission already indicated, The Free Press made a point of seeing hha before his departere, in order to learn his opinion relative to the future of this district, a great portion of which he has lately covered. in connection with his professional duties. " You don't object to be interviewed, Mr. Merritt?" commenced the pencil - wielder. " Not at all," was the readyresponse, "If the su.hject 18 to be mining. In fact, I ant only too pleased to u.ndeago the operation if you think it eviePitio any good." "'You are lately from the Seine River district. Would you mind giving The Free Pressyour opinion of it as a per- manent mining country 1" "No dejection at all of giving a gen- eral opinion. As to any partioula,r pro- perties or locations, of course, I shall say nothing more than that I consider the Foley and Ferguson are working in good pay rock. Tbeougbout the die- trict I saw a great ntunber of well- defined veins, many of which will un- doubtedly develop successful mines. I may say further that the most prom- isbag locations so fax opened up, in my experience, have been m the vicinity of the granites." "How, think you, will the propor- tion of successful mines in this country compare with that of any other min- ing country 1" A. PAYING INVESTMENT. " The proportion will be about the same, and please apply this remark to the whole district of West Algoma. You know my great desire is to see ouri own Canadian people benefit as much as possible from the development of their magnificent mineral wealth. And I consider that no more legitimate or paying investment fax Manitoba and Ontario capital can possibly be found than the minerals of Algoma. The trouble is that as individuals we are not sufficiently wealthy to enter upon a mining enterprise with enough capi- tal to make a success of it. If you have been a resident of this district for any length of time you, will know that this has been the great cause of any failures which have attended the open- ing up of the country to its present stage of development. Starting out with a limited and totally inadequate capital the first reverse met with has been sufficient to wreck enterpreses which, with proper backing, might have proved successful. "But if, os individuals, we are not financially strong enough to handle these valuable properties with advan- tage and profit to ourselves... we can do so collectively—or rather m combina- tion, Now this is an important mat- ter and should be driven home to the minds of our people. The SAFEST AND SUREST METI101) By which we can realize some of the magnificent wealth which is ours by birth and Inheritance is by the f or- raation of mining development compan- ies, similar to the Rat Portage Bullion Company. It is chiefly on this account that I have identified myself with the company as consulting engineer, and I Shall leave no stone unturned to make its operations successful, in order to demonstrate what can be done In this way. You will understand, of course, that what can be done by the Bal;pn Company can just as easily be no by any other combination of Caneeian business men organized on a similar basis. Several years ago I was profes- sionally engaged in British Columbia, and on my return east I was aeked my opinion of the country for gold mill- ing purposes. I gave ie just as I am now giving ray opinion of this country, a nd advocated. the forma- tion of Canadian development com- panies to take advantage of its great wealth, but nothing was done. No notice' was taken at the facti sub- mitted --the possibilities indicated—arid now these same people are foolish- ly throwing their money into proper- ties that are nothing but Yankee wild- cat schemes, and will surely end in dis- aster." LEGISLATION WANTED. " Have you anything else you would like to say, Mr. Merritt r " Yes ; I think the Ontario mining law might be improved in one or two particulars for the benefit of the pros- pector. I think a discoverer should be permitted to k3take his claim as in Bri- tian Columbia.; and make the quart- tity of work tont the sole condition of holding. The Paioney spent in sur- veys is 'something tremendous, and if this wee devoted to opening up the pro- perties it would be to our advantage." LOVE ,AND ITS MANY RESULTSt. what Soule Van10114 Men illraVe Hou.a.oPr.,,n4 4ccouot or the Passion. 'LOVA is A pession, 14 18 a, Ged give.* PeAtion• When the Divine Being ereat- , ed man ie the image 02 Himself be s - created in hint the passion of love, be cause it was inteeded in the Divine plan that love should be the ruling passion of the world. And so it is. Love is not only a passion, but it is a. sentiment. Love is paradoxical. This. because, while the raearting of leve is fatefulness, devotion and truth, love creates faithleasnese, neglect and false, - hood. This may seen strange to one set of perons in tee social world, yet to another should they atudy it and think of it they would not be surprised. Love hes made and wreclred Xing* and empires, It bas made and ruined men .and women socially, financially and physically. In olden times, before eivi- lization was what it is 110W, lore Great, ed kingdoxna by its force exercised be- tween two affeettenate beings whose love was sufficient to overcome an obstacles of politics and diplomacy; it has wrecked empires by its unholiness and the intrigaes that followed; it bas made men and women by the influence it bad over the conduct of their lives; it socially, financially a,nd physically ruined them for the same reason. It is written in David's Psalms that "Man that is born of woman is of ,few days and full of tronble. He cometh forth as a flower and is cut down; he fleeth also as a seadow and continueth mate' And why is this, in a large number of inetances? Simply because of love. Tbis may Kern tO hO a ciu.e,er a.ssertion. Yet it is true, for while love is A na- tural passion, one born of the highest attributes of mankind, yet it becomes at times a passion that causes unnatur- al results. Philosophers who are cynics, and many of them are, say that love le only superficia.1; teat it is a passion epbemeral in its nature, a passing fancy. That is true of many persons, who make of love only a passion, di- vesting it of all its sentiment, truth- fulness and fidelity. But love, taken as a truism, is di- vine, and, like all things of divine or- igin, depends upon lomein kind for its development into that yenta. Is good and true or its debasement into that wbich is wicked anti false. Thus one might go on for quantity and quality as to what love is capable ot, bu.t there are many specific instances in past and daily history of what men and women have done, as the result a their af- fections for eacb other. Famous men in history have -done strange things on account of love. Mare Antony theew away all the greatness .in tore for him in life because of his love for the beautiful and fascinating °teal/etre. Dante, the great Italian poet, waa made ridiculous by his love for Beatrice. Ile says blinself that "so powerful wail the spell of 13estrice's person that I had to avoid her, From thinleing of this most gracious creature I became so weak and lean that it was irksome for my friends to look at me." At one time, because the object of his love fail- ed to smile upon him, he went to a. lonely spot and bathed. the ground with hie tears. Think of a roan like Dante being thus affected. It is related of Ulrich Von Lichten- stein, a German cavalier, that to show his love for a woman he anaputa,ted on,e ot his fingers and carried it to her, thus indicating what he could, endure be- cause of his love. He also, at her cora- mend, drank from the same bowl with lepers, to show that he would obey her requests. It is relath.d of a. man who lived in Switzerland that because of a remark he made about the woman to whom he toes engaged she made, him swear he would not speak for a year. Before the expiration of that time she died, and as an evidence of his affection for her he did not utter a word during the 40 years he lived after the death of his sweetheart. He had vowed he would not speak until he met her in another world, and he kept that vow. Pope has said that "love is the sole disease d -hat cannot be cured." This was illustrated by the case of a Scottish Be.ronet, who fell in love while in his youth witb a. woman beneath his so- cial station, and; was forbidden by his father to raarry her. Instead, he was e" compelled to marry a woman who brought a large amount of money into the family. They lived together 40 years, when the wife died. His love for the sweetheart of his youth had not departed, and in a reasonable time after the death of his wife, he married the woman who was lilts 2404 love, though they were long pest the meri- dian of life. They lived happily, and their devotion was a, matter of re- mark. Love has made persons do mean and spiteful things. It. is related of an English divine that after he had be- come famous he did not think he could marry. the woman he had fallen in love vvith his student days. He married a titled woman. The other woman was bacensed, arid every Sunday sat in a front sat when the minister preach- ed. She also opened a millinery shop opposite the chureh so that her exis- tence was ever evident to her faLse lover. An instance of the devotion of a lover is that of an American artist, who was sent to England by his wealthy father with the expectation that he would marry a lady of title. He fell in love with his model, and thinking to im- press his father, painted her portrait and sent it to hbri. The reply was that he could marry his model, but it would cost him $500,030. Notwithstand- ing this he and his model were niarried, and while she cost bit, a fortune he is satisfied. Re has become one of the famous artists of the world. A/J • A NOVEL BET. A novel bet was made very recently by a. Cuban who was a constant visitor to one of the cafes on the Paris bonle- vards—the wager being for 1,000 francs —that the head carver would not out and make 2,000 complete sandwiches in 24 hou_rs. The carver won the bet easi- ly, accomplishing the feat irt 19- hours and 40 minutes, demolishing 22 hams in, the operation. This tinge mass a seed- wiches was divided among the principal hospitads of Paris and. tile environs. DON'T BOX THEIR' EARS, A doctor says thed; 'probably half the deafness prevalant at the present time is the result of children having their ears boxed.