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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1897-1-14, Page 7411111111111112.11Mail THE EXETER TIMES A CAVALRY CHARGE. REV. DR, TALMAGE OE THE NECES- SITY OF REVIVALS. U e neueves in a Sudden movement to Capture the 'worm for Righteousness - me mohis That Sin tat nest be Over- come by a flank Moventeut. Washington, Jan. 3. -This sermon a Dr. Talmage in Ibeealf of a sudden inove,melot to capture tee world for righteou.sness strikes a chord that will vibrate through Christendom. Tees text ur. Kings, xviii, 23, Will deliver thee 2000 horses if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them." Up by the waterworks, the upper reservoir of Jerusalem, tbe general of the besieging aaTay and the generals of besieged Jerusalem are in coneulta- ion. Tbough General Rab-shakeb bad largely paid to stop the siege, he kept the tmoney and continued the siege -the 'military misereent 1 Rab- shanele derides the capacity of the city to defend itself and practically says, "You have not 2000 men who can man- age horses. Produce 2000 cavalrymen, and I will give you a preserit a 2000 cavalry horses. You have not in all your besieged city a Jerusalem 2000 men who can meant them and by bit and bridle control a horse." Ran- slaalteh reelize4 that it is easier to find (horses than skillful riders, and hence he makes "the chellenge a the text, "I ,will deliver thee 2000 horses if thou. be able to set riders upon them." Rabnbakeh, like many another bad Man, said a very suggestive thing. The World is full of great energies and great opportunities, but few know how to bridle them and mount them and manage them. More spirited horses than competent riders. Tbe fact is teat in the church, of God, we have plenty of irtresses well ranted, and plenty of ueavy artillery, and plenty of sand e,olumns of brave Christian soldiers, but what we most need is one years before Clinist Epenoinondas headed his troops at full gallop. Alex- ander, on a horse that no other man could ride, led bis mounted troops. Seven thousand horsemen decided the struggle at Arbela. Although meddles were not invented until the time of Constantine, and stirrups were un- known until aboat four bundred and fifty years after Christ, you bear the neighing and snorting of war chargers in the greatest battles of the ages. Austerlitz and Marengo and Solferino were decided by tbe cavalry. Tbe raounted Cossacks re -enforced the Russian snow -storms in the oblitera- tion of the French army. Napoleon said if he bad only had sufficient cav- alry at 13autzen and Lutzen his wars would laave triunnobantly ended. I do not wonder that the Duke of Welling- ton bad his old warhorse Copenbagen turned out in best paeture, and that the Duthees at Wellington wore a bracelet of Copenhagen's Mir. Not one drop of my blood but tingles as I look at the embed neck and pawing hoof and panting nostril of Job's cavalry horse. "Haat thou elothed his neck with thunder S He paweth in the valley. He goeth on to meet the armed men. The que ver rattles against him, the glit- tering spear and the shield. He saith among the trumpets, Ha., hal and he =client the battle afar off, the thun- der of tbe captains, and the sboutine. I think it is the cavalry of the Chris- tian bosts, tire grand men and wo- men who, with bold dash and holy recklessness and spurred on energies, are to teem the world for God. To this army of Cbaistian service belong the evangelists, It ougbt to be the busi- ness of the regular thurches to multi- ply them, to support them, to cheer there, to clear the woe for them. Some of them you like; sorae of them you do not like, You say some are too sensational, and 80010 of them are erratic, and some of them are too vehement, and. some of them pray too loud. Oh, fold up your eriticism and let them do which we, tbe pastors, can never do! I like all the evangelists I have ever seen or heard. They are busy now; they are busy every day of the weele. While we, the pastors. seve God by holding the fortress of righteousness and drilling the Chris- tian soldiery and by marshaling an- thems and sermons and ordinaneenon the right side, they are out fighting the forces of darkness "hip and thigh with great slaughter." All success te Omen The faster they gallop the bet - cavalry -mounted troops of God -for ter I like it. The keener the lances sudden charge that seems almost de- they fling the more I admire than. We care not wbat conventionality they in- sperate, If Washington, if New York' fract if they only gain the victory, ef London, are ever taken far God, it will not be by slow bombardment of argumentation, or by regular unlim- bering of g' eat theological guns from the portholes of the churches, but by gallop and sudden assault, and rush of holy energy that will astound. and throw into panic the long lines of drilled opposition armed to the teeth. Nothing so loves the force of len as a. revival that comes, they know not whence, to do that which they cannot tell, to work in a way that they me - net understand, 'Xiley will be overcome by flank movement. The church of God must double up their right or left wings. If they expect us from the north, we will take them from the south If they expect us at 12 onlock at noon, we will come upon them at 12 o'clock at night. The opportunities for this assault are great and numer- ous, but where are the men? "1 win deliver thee 2000 horses if thou. be able to set riders upon them." The opportunities of saving Ameri- ca and saving tbe entire planet were never so xnatay, never so urgent, never so tremendous, as now. Have you not noticed the willingness of the printing press of the country to give the sub- ject of evangelism full swieg itt column after column? Such work was former- ly confined to tract distribution and religious journalism. Now the morning and evening newspapers, by hundreds and thousands of copies, print all re- ligious intelligence and print most awakening discourses. Never since the world has stood has such a force been offered to all engaged in the world's evangelization. 0/ the more than fif- teen thousand newspapers on this con- tinent 1 do not know one that is not alert to catch and. distribute all mat- ters of religious information. Oh, now 1 see a mighty suggestive- ness in the fact that the first batik' elf any importance that was ever pub- lished after Johann Gutenberg In- vented thd art of printing was the Bible Well might that poer man toil en, polishing stones' aid manufacturing looking glasses and making experi- ments that brougbe upon him the charge of insanity and borrowing money, now from Martin Brother and now from Johann Faust until he set 031 foot the mightiest power for the evangelization of the world. The staitue In bronze winch Thorwaildsen erected for Gutenberg in 1837 and the statue commemorating him by David d'Ang- ers in 1840 and unveiled amid all the pomp and military processions and German bands of best music could give the occasion were insignificant com- pared with the fact to be demonstrat- ed before all earth and all heaven, that Johann Gutenberg, under God, inaugurated forces which will yet ac- coraptish the world's redemption. The newspaper press will yet announce na- tions born in a day. The newspaper press will report Christ's eermone yet to be delivered and describe His per- sonae appearance, if, as some think, He shall come again to reign on earth. The newspaper press may yet publish Christ's proclamation of the world's emancipation from sin and sorrow and death. Tens of tboueaxids of good men in this and other lands h,ave been or- dained 'by the laying oe - of laa,ncis to preach the gospel, but it seems to me that just now, by the layingon of the hands of the Lord God Almighty, the newspaper presses are being ordained for preaching the gospel with wider sweep and mightier resound than we have ever yet imagined. The iron, horses of tbe printing press are MI ready for the battle, but where are the men good enough and strong enough to mount them _and guide them? "I will deliver thee 2,000 horses if thou be able to set riders upon them." Go out to the Soldiers' home and talk • with the mee who have been in the war, and tbey will give you right ap- preciation of what is the importance of the cavalry service in bettbe. You • hear the clatter of the hoofs, and the weir of the arrows, and the °testi of • the sbields, and the bang of the car- • bines, as they ride up and, down the • centuries. Clear back in time, Osy- mandyas led 2000emounted_ troope, itt Bacl plena. Josephus :toys that when the Israelites eseepett from Egypt 50,- 000 eavalrymen rode through the parted Red Sea. Three hudred and seventy - Moody aand Cbooman and Mills a,nd Jones and Harrison and Munball and Mejor Cole and Crittenden and a hun- dred others are now making tbe ea,v- airy charge, and they are this moment taking New York and Philadelphia and Cincinnati for God, and I wisb, they might take our nation's capital. Here the tremendous facts: 'nitre are now in this country nearly 166,000 church congregations, with nearly 21,- 000,000 communicants and seating eapacity in church for store than 4%- 000,000 people -in other words, room hi the churches for three-fourths of the population of this country, and about; one-third of tbe population of this country already Christian. In other words, we will have only to average bringing two souls to God, during the next theee years and our country is redeemed. 'NVhe cannot, under the power of the Holy Cthost, bring two souls to God in three years? As so many will bring hundreds and thou- sands to God, most of you. have to bring only one soul to God and the gospel campaign for this continent will be ended. If you cannot bring one soul to God, or two souls, or three souls, in three years, you are no Chris- tian and deserve yourself to be shut out of heaven, the Benet ot tbe first. With wonder- ing eyes we all watch the comingof tbe last. The, name of• that advancing year we cannot call. It may be in the the tens or twenties or thirties of the next c,entury, but it is corning at full lop. With what mood will we meet e In jocosity, as did Thomas Hood in his last moment, saying, "I am dying esut of charity to the undertaker, wao wia'ees to earn a lively Hood." Or in fear, as did Thomas Paine, sayiug this last moment, "Oh, how I dread this myeterimis leap in the dark in Or in boastfulness, as did Vespasian, saybag in hisXt moment, "Ali, methinks am become a god." Or in frivolity,a,s did Detection, the infidel philosophereaning in his last moment, -You may go bome; the show isoven,* Or ceriscience stricken, as did Cheelee IX. of France, sayini g n his last moment; "Nurse, nurse! 'Winer murder! What blood!" Or shall we meet in gladness of Chris- tian hope, like that of Julius Charles Hare; who eaid in his last moment; "Upward, Upward!" or like thee of Richard Baxter, in his last moment saying: "Almost wenn Or like that of Martin of Tours, saying be his last moment: "I go to Aiwa:bane% bosom." Or like tbat of polished Addison, who said in his last moment: "See with what ease a Christian can die.' Or like that of George Whitefield, who felt that be had said all tbat he could of Christ, declaring iti bis last moment: "I shell die silent," Or like that of Mrs. Schintraelpennich, who said in her Juin moment: "Do you not hear the voices? And the obildreses are the loud- est." Or like that of Dragonnattesa,ye ing in his last rearaent: "Stand aside! I the waist, and the open front foiled see my father and mother walingto kiss me." Or as did the dying girl, wbo, baying a few evenings before sat anti bench in a London mission, was seen to have tears of contrition rolling down her theek, and twho, departing from the room, had put in her band by a Christian woman a Bible, with the passage marked: "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin " Though having proiniaed to be at the next raeeting, she did not. come. Oh, it will be grand ween from tbe windows and doors of the "house of many mansions," we look out and see passing along the golden boulevards of heaven the white horse cavalry that St. John describes in Revelation? Jobe Wesley said he thougat horses had souls; but, take the story in Re- velation as figurative or literal, you must admit that none but cavalry horses is mentioned as being in heaven; John xix., 14, "The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white borses." You see, they are mounted troopi e. Their leader s in deep crim- son attire. His vesture we are told, is "dipped in 'blood," not blood of hu- man slaughter, as many other conquer - ars have tbeir attire, but His own blood, blood ef crucifixion agony, the blood by witieh tie redeemed you and me. That, deep red garment is in vivid contrast with the snowy white charger on which our Lord is seated. And no sexed igniter am gaze on that red and. that white without remembering that though bis sins were once red, like crimson, they have become whiter than snow. Oh, those celestial cavalcades wbom OUT conqueror in scarlet shall lead on through the areas of heaven! As from the windows end doors of the "house of many mansions" we look on the passing speetaele some of us will wish that on earth we had had less salary and more hardship, ieSS -comfort and more exposure, less caution and more courage, less shelter and more :storm, less smooth sallies; and more cyclone, and that. we had dared all at the front instead of taking good rare et ourselves in the rear. For- ward,1 mounted troops!' Favorites of heaven! Cavalrymen and cavalry - women of the Lard God Almighty. INC thargers of heaven too white or too arched of neck or toa preneing of gait for those seated on them. If Job's warhorse while the battle was going on said, "Ha, bat" shall not these charg- ers, now that the day is won, utter a more jubilant "H9, hal" Forward un- der arches of triumph, by fountains rainbowed of eternal joy, and amid gar- dens abloom with unfading effores- cence and along palaces where, after they have dismounted, these souls shall reign forever and ever, they march, they brandish their weapons with which theygained bloodless victory, and they rise in stirrups of gold to greet all the rest of heaven,gaztng upon them from the amythistine bal- conies. A glorious heaven it will be Lor all of us who anywhere. and any- how served the Lord, but an especial bearven, a mounted heaven, a proces- sional heaven for those who have done outside work, exposed work, and be- longed to the Lord's cavalry. "The ar- mies which were in heaven followed him upon 'White horses." Then let the creaking door of. the closing year go shut, Wben that closes, better doors will -open. The world's brightest and happiest. years are yet to come. Toward them we speed on in swiftest stirrup. Cavalry charge at Inkerman was not no rapid. At last the equestrians equal the chargers. At last the riders are as many as, the borse,s. Get out of the way with your dolor - Otte foreboding aand change your dirges for what we have not done for the grand march of wbat we, may do and will do. The woman at Sedan, in whine house Napoleon the Last was waiting to xnake surrender of himself and his army, said to the overthrown French: Emperor, "What can I do for you?" And the despairing ex-monae arch replied, "Nothing but draw down the blind so that I cannot be stared at." In this goseel campaign we bave plenty to draw down the blinds. In God% name I sayPell up the blinds and let the morning sun of the com- ing victory shine upon us. What we want in this campaign for God is the self abnegation and courage of the men of Sir Colin Campbell, who. as Lord Bishop. Cowie, of New Zealand, brim ehaplaan of bis army, told zee, said to the troops: "Men, no retreat from this place. Die right here." And they shouted, "Yes, Sir Colin, we will do it!" And they did. The cavalry suggest speed. When once tbe, reins are gathered. into .the bands of tbe soldiery horsemen and the spurs are struck into the flanks, you hear the. ratapan of the hoofs. "Ve- locity" is tbe word that describes the movement -acceleration, momentum - and what we want in ,getting into the kingdom of God is celerityYou see, the years are so swift, and the days are so swift, and the hours are so swift, and the minutes are so swift we need to be swift. For lack of this appropri- ate speed many do got ,get into heaven at all. Here we are in the last Sab- bath of the year., Did you ever know a twelfth month quicker to be gone? Tbe golden rod of one autentan speaks to the golden rod of the next autumn., and. the crocus of one stmingtime to tbe crocus of another springtime, and tbe snowbanks of adjoining years almost reach each other in unbroken •curve. We are in too mine, hurry about most things. Business men in too much hurryrushinto speculations that ruin them and ruin others. People 'move from place to place in leo great haste, and they wear out their nerves and weaken tbe heart's action. But the only thing in which they were afraid of being too hasty is the matter of the soul's salvation. Yet did anyone ever get damaged by too quick repentance or too quick pardon or too quick eman- cipation? The Bible recommends tardi- ness, deliberation and snaillike move- ment in some things, as when ir enjoins as to .be slow to speak and slow to wrath and slow to do eyil,but it tells us, "The king's busheess requireth hastenand that our days are as the flight of a weaver's shuttle, and ejacu- lates: "Escape for thy life. Look not behind thee; neither stay thou in all the plain." • Other cavalry troops may fall back, but mounted years never re- treat. They are always going ahead not on an easy canter, but at full run. Other regiments hear the command of "Halt!" and pitch their tents for the night, The regiments of the years never hear the ceramand of • "Halt!" and never pitch tent for the night. The century leads an its troop of 100 years, and thee year leads on its troop of 365 days and the day leads oil its troop of 24 'hours, and the hour leads on its troop of 60 naimutess, and all are dashing out of sight. Perhaps there are two •years in which we are most interested -our firet mat our last. Held up in our motheen arms, Wenvetched THE SUNDAY SC110014. NTERNATIONAL LESSON, JAN. 17. "A. Multitude converted," diets 0. Ten Owen Text. ems nen GENERAL STATEMENT. This •leseon =meets closely with the preceding one. The °rinds:ins with which our last lesson ended were tre- mendously answered by Peter, Like the orator he was he saw that hear- ers belonged to two classes, foreign -bore and home-bred Jews, and he makes a special appeal to each. He tosses aside as absurd the tharge of drunkenness, shows that Joel had prophesied what wee now °enuring, directly charges up- on his hearers the murder of Jesus, de- clares that he had. been approved of God, end had been raised from tbe dead, and that this also was a fulfill- ment of special prophecy, and thromgh- out bis speech raaintains that Jesus was the promised Christ. The closing pas- sages, beginning with verse 32, are in our lesson. PRA,CTICAL NOTES. yet inn anoy Claristien mind (so far as we can see) the slightest idea that the Ch.urch woild ever separete itself from the Jewisb temple. This little groin) of disciples probably formed., as we have seen, a synagogue by themselves. Cer- tainly they had 110 temple to there - selves, nor any church in the modern sense of that phrase. In place of from house to house read "at home;' • pro- bably in that upper room, teat "ono place," already repeatedly mentioned, Acts 1. 1 3; 2. 1., 2, etc. Eat their meat. Take their food. Gladness and. single- ness of heart. This side of heaven nothing so beautiful as tins has ever been seen. ' 47. Added to the church daily. Bet- ter, "added to them day by day.' Such as shoulcl be saved. Better, "those that were being saved." This bas direet re- ference to the exhortatioe of verse 40. Peter said, "Save yourselves." Three thousand began at once to do so, and day by day as they came, they were promptly received to the heart's love of the little company. 32. This Jesus, See verse 24. teeth God raised up. Better "did God raise up." Whereof we are all witnesses. This phrase may 'lave included, all the disciples, for it. is probable that by this time the resurrection, was generally ad- mitted throughout Jerusalem, The duty of "witnessing" the resurrection of Christ was the inost important duty of the early Church. Great care had been taken to secure competeet witnesses. 33. By the right. hand of God. Bet- ter, "to the riglit hand of God." Tbe promise of the Holy Ghost. Given to the apostles by the Lord, especially to- ward the close. of his life, 31. 'David is not. ascended into the heavens. This is the elose of an argu- ment which Peter has based on Psalm 16, which be quotes in verses 25 to 28 of this chapter. It will be necessary for the teacher to read carefully the whole speech witb eperial reference to this ar- gument, The Lord said, unto my Lord. Peter .doubtless was present at the in- cident given in Matt. 22, 42-45,and beard. our Lord's own proof that suell a phrase as this could not apply to David himself. 35. Until Imake thy foes thy foot - tool. Until I give thee complete con- quest of thy foes. 36. Tbe old version of this verse is inameasurally better than tbat of the Revised Version. The house of Israel • means the Jewish melon. For Christ read "Messiah." 37. Pricked in their heart. Vexed, grieved, conseience-sminen. Said unto Peter and to the rest. We have re- peatedly in these 'notes called ellen t ion to the true and natural primacy oe Pet- er, his moral and intellectual leadership. He is always the. eirst tn speak, the first to decide, the first, to act, tbe first to challenge; but 11. is apparently the prira- acy a intellectual and emotional force. There is not the sliginest indication that he bad any such precedence over tbe rest as the pope now claims over card- inals and bishops; indeed, if one were searching for the most striking con- trast possible to the artless simplicity of the 'primitive Church he would find it in the Vatican, Men and brethren. Better "men who are my brethren." A phrase not unlike nur "fellow -citizens" but with far more meaning to an anci- ent Jew. Not improbably some of the very men who thus, with penitent af- fection asked the apostles wbat they should do„ had only a little while be- fore mockingly accused them of drunk- enness. The wonderful effectiveness of Peter's sermon was due to the 'presence and power of the Spirit of God. What shall we do? So soon as God's Spirit impresses a human heart with a deep sense of sin, that heart at once sets about changing its course of thought and action. Repentance, turning around, closely follows penitence. 38. Notice in this verse five steps in salvation. Repent, and be imptized. First,do your utmost to ebange your life,inside. and out. Second, cennect yourself with the Church of Christ on earth. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Third, exercise faith in God through Christ his Son. For the remissioxt of sins. For salvation from the guilt and power of sin. Thisisthe fourth step in the process; iL is whet the theologians cell justification. Ye shall receive the gift of -the Holy Giteet. This is the, fifth and final step -sanctification. 39. The promise is unto you, ancl to your children. See Acts 1. 4; 2. 33. To all that are afar off. The Gentiles. See Epee 2, 17. As many as the Lord our God shall call. See Rom. 3. 6; 8. 28, 30; 9, 24; 1or. 1, 2; Gal. 1. 6. 40. Save yourselves from this untoward generation -Better, "crooked genera- tion." ,Very crooked it was. • It had tol- erated the unspeakable iniquities of the Herods; it had run in a frenzy of pen- itence to be baptized by John, and then had supinely watehed his murder; it. had permitted the scribes and Pharisees to fatten on its superstitions, and had ap- petaded teben our Lord denounced, them; within five days it had sung, "Hosanna to the San of David!" and "Crucify him!" its daily habits were "sensual and devilish; "its patriotic out- bursts were as fitful and ineffective as its religious impulses; a fe.w years later it was destroyed by a outastrophe so awful that the "fall of Jerusalem" has ever sine!, pointed a proverb. Every- where the apostles -Paul as much as Peter -repeat this exhortation with quivering nerves and tremendous spirit- ual conviction, "Come out from amo ag tbein, and be ye separatel" 41. Gladly received. 'Welcomed. 42. Apostles' doctrine, Better, "teaehingi" Fellowship. That jes the close brotherhood of the Chulecte. itt hich for a while all property was held for all, and they were all actuated by one holy purpose. Breaking of bread. i Doubtless n the sacrament of tbe Lord's Supper, as well as in love feasts. In prayers. The Greek is noticeable here, the prayers. • 44. Were together.. Lived in the closest possible association. Had all thiege common.Doubtless this would be the natural way to live if Christian love and tinny were perfected, but even in Jerusalem it seems soon to have been iound impracticable; and that in the apostolic Church there were distress- ing cases of laziness, of fraud, of riot- ous living end of sin against the Holy Ghost is one of the saddest and most practical lessonChristian histone gives 45. Parted them to all men, as ev- ery man had. need. At the feet, ap- parently, this was done from holy en - pulse and wile, very little .eystem. 46le the 'temple Thee was not A COBBLER PRINCE. Britalu's netr-Apparat Learned the Shoe- maker's Trade When He Was a Youth. Custom forces the crowned beads of Europe to remains mere amateurs in the arts, professions or trades they fanciet in youth, or which they were obliged to practice owing to the practical ideas of wise parents, who may have foreseen that thrones have a way of disappear- ing in these enlightened days. Queen Marguerite of Italy is a fine musician and could earn her living as a MUSIC teacher; the Czar of Russia is an ex pert cabinetmaker, and has made two or three excellent violins, while the Kaiser of Germamy is said to be a jack of all trades and a pasterta,ster of al arts. He can make anything 'from a drama and a painting to a line -of -battle ship., But it remelts for the wooed to heaeleof a royal shoemaker in the person of the Prince of Wales. A Russian nobleman turned cobbler in the person of Count Leon Totstoi and, according to the London Woman it Home, it nas now been discovered that Albert Edward, Prince of Wales beir-apparent to the throne of Great Britain, can turn out a pair of intent leathers or issuatimie boots with the best of Englieb, shoemakers. The Queen of England and tee Prince Consort, it appears, wished that each of their children should learn Soltte use ful trade or occupation, and. the Prince of Wales chose shoemaking for his trade and acquired : such a degree of profici- ency that boots made by les hands were tee pride of his fellow -workmen, aa they were the envy of his friends at court The rine ehas never eought to cou- liie talent, and even to -day ex ann es with the eye of a connoisseur tne sloes sent him by the furnishers And that is why Albert Edwa.rd is th tilted mat itt England. PERSONAL POINTERS. - Notes About Some or the Great Folk of the world. Mtn Smith, a hundred -year-old lady of Grantham, Engjand, does all her owe housework, nurses au Javelin nephew, and sells potatoes, which she bas planted and dug up herself. Kaiser Wilhelm is extending his idea of artistie collaboration. He is now said to be at work' on a historical draran whiela aeyoung poet of Wies- baden will put into German verse for Joista. Prince Karl Egon, of Furstenburg, wbo died recently, left a fortune of $85,000,000 in land and over $10,000,000 in cash and securities. The family had been sovereign ba the principality before the !Creech revolution, bus was media,tized by the Congress of Vienna,. A German physician says that Stan- ley owes the fact that he bas survived the most dangerous of his African trips to bis havisig. submitted five Wales to .a transmission of African blood into his veiny. whieh is believ- ed es Africa to he a great ain te at- climatisation. A haakruptcy which occurred in 1811 has just been wound up in the Lou- don Registrar's court by it payment that brings the total dividend e up to 100 cents on the dollar. A. recent bank- rupt at about the seme time offered to settle at the rate of 8.27 of a. penny in the pound, Or 7-10 of a cent to a dollar. At Budapest women are now ad- mitted to medical lectures by law, if the professor will consent.. The senior professor of surgery, however, recent- ly refused to allow a woman candi- date to enter his course unlees she would agree to bave her hair eat, share on the ground that "wool car- ries infection." The Empress of Rus.sia was very popular with tbe Parisians during her visit to the Frenth capital. Cariously enough, her mother only is mentioned in the biograebles published in French papers. German contemporaries ask whether tbe French cannot forgive her father that he contributed largely to the defeat of the lerencb army at Grayelotte, where he commanded the Hessian 'division. The last number of the Alpine Jour- nal records the death, at the age of 70 years, of Mr. Charles Peke, author of what still remains the best "Guide to the Pyreneeen "Mr. Pence," sae' the Prince de Joenville, who went there a good deal, "is klieg of the Pyrenees; he invented there." The natives vene- rated hina, "and would do anything for him, even to the length of edeoe vouring to take an interest in his bo- tanical researches." A. new Browning anecdote has been put in circulation. He was bargaining with a London landlord for the lease of a house desired by some absent friend. The landlord was obdurate as to bis terms, but suddenly seemed to see a new light. "Excu.se me, sir," he asked, "but you look like the portraits of Mr. Robert Browning." Tbe poet confessed, and straightway was assur- ed that a eonsidera.lne reduction ba the rent. of the house would be grant- ed hirn with pleasure. Be went away rejoicing for -his friend. The election of the Marquis of Hunt,- ly. as Lord Rector of Aberdeen Univers 1 sity for the 'third time is an unprecen dented event. Lord Huntly succeeded Mr. Goschen. in 1887, and has attended mare closely to the business of the office than any of his predecessors, ex- cept Professor Bain. He is nearly 50 years old, ie the premier Marquis of Scotland, and., as chief of the great Can Gordon, is known as tbe "Cook of the North" (a soubriquet won by bis powerful house for hundreds of years). A number of newspaper men propose toerect in New York a memorial teethe noted war correspondent, januarius IT OAK STAND A TORNADO WONDERFUL IS •THIS LEANING TOWER AT SYRACUSE, N.Y. Uri Now the Cause Or &innerly Contestee Lawsuit -The city Voltam DeelareS At to lie easeire-erchiteet ad OwflerM 001VeVer, Insist That It is a sativet or Strength. The leaning tower of Pisa has a proto- type in America. It is more than 200 feet high, and at the base is two thirds that number of feet ie circumference. At present it is 3.3 inches out oil plumb, and during a heavy storm sways. beck and forth like a -willow wand. This remarkable strueture is built ac-. cording to a, system iavented by San- ford. E. Loriing, an arehitect of Syran cusee, N. Ye ev.here the tower ie located.' By his system heavy timbers axe brae - ed continuously end connected. by iron shoulder plates, whith take the place, of the skeleton steel construction. The brick on the outside is merely a ven- eer, and not a supporting wa.11 in any sense of the term. The tower is un- proet•ecteeetli dllladallabsiotts oei!ke the force of every g It is just now the cense of a fierce strife in Syracuse, because the people de-' dare that it is an iraminent source of danger and liable to FALL AT ANY MOMENT. Architect Loring, however, says that it it was 13 feet out of plumb, instead of 13 inches, it would still be as safe as a churce, and, that people might wain about under and around it all day, and be in no more danger than in the Mam- moth Cave. The Syracuse Common Council avers that the tower is a pub - 110 menace,and the erchitect in reply holds thee it is perfeetly intact aud safe, and thatit will stand any strain tbitt. is likely to come in the future. The tower bas only become of the lean- ing variety at a comparatively recent date. The cironnstance that brought it into prominence in this role was a, hurricane, or, as some call it, a tornado. in any event, it was a tremendous wind, the fiercest and the fasteet which even the oldest inetabitant of Syracuse ever heard of. Tee wised came from the Southeast; immense trees were torn up by tee roots, the roofs of great buildings were twisted off and torn away, as if they bad beee of half -hob plank. Build- ings in their entirety were lifted up and smashett into kindling wood, but though the big tower sweyed from side to side as if understanding that it was made to bend and not to break, IT DID NOT FALL. Aloysius MacCa.han, whose work in Khiva, the Franco-Prussian and the Russo-Turkish wars was so remask- able. The idea started with Mueat Halstead, and lie is the chairman of the committee, of which Lieutenant Vinton Greene, Franeis D. Millet, and Julius Chambers are members. Mr. Halstead, Mr.Milleeried Mi r.Greene were all associated with him n war correspondence. Niehaus has _made three sketch modees for a portrait sta- tue, and one has been selected. Count Philip zu Eulenburg, German Ambassador to Vienne-, who is impli- cathd in the Berlin scandals, was the hero of- an unpleasant affair during his student days. Prince Alfred of England's cook, while at Bonn in 1861, go tinto a row with a number of uni- versity students one night, One of them, an einjaheigen Freiwilliger, in uniform, drew his aword and killed the cook. The murder came near causing international complications, as the cook was a Frenchman and in the service of a British Prince, but as the student's father was a, Prassian Min- ister the affair was lausbed up, the assassin escaping with a few weeks' impriscinraerie That man is the press eut German Araba,stedoe to Vienna. STARVATION IN LONDON. Starvation caused se-venty-ono deaths in London the last week of October as against thirty-nine in the previous year. In only it few cases was the privation that led to the fatal issue due to self- rieglect. The majority of cases were tvoreen, and over fifty years old, and eeveral were widows of laborers. None of these poor eyeaturee had epplit d for QUEEN BATHES IN B Gbildret rat to Draw for the Sake iler Health. Tere 15 to -day a Cleristien empress who orders scores of children to be slain mutually in order that sem may bathe in their blood 1 It sounds Unbe- lievable, bnt it is tbe unvarnished truth. We bave been bearing a good deal lately about the eompa,rative en- lightenment ot the Abyssinians, or at any rate, oe their emperor and empress, while in Fatgland appeals have been made ba the eleatthes for the protection of these people against invaders, they being represented as a. harmless body of Christians of a primitive and simple type. The Emperor Menelik's wife is Taitou. Site has been empress for about five years, supplanting a, previous wife wbom he divorced. Taitou is a xeme,rk- able woman, not only for her eruelty, winch 15 extreme, bat for the awe - dewy which she has obtained over the emperor, or Negus Negusti (king of kings), as be is termed ea his own coun- try. Willie Menelik was fornierly an extremely self-willed mare nothing is now done without the eanetion of tloe empress, mho appears to bane fascin- ated bim to an extraordinary extent. As told before, he obtained bar by a cruel crime, and -careless of human life as he in -it is doubtful if the slaugh- ter of youeg cbildren she demands would be allowed were it not for the as- cendency she has obtained. Tea•-velers to Abyssinia, are invariably struck by tbe number of obildren who carry, sears or burns, or are otberwiee mutilated. It is also noticed that scarcely a child, however young, can be found who bets not had its ears pierced. This state rif affairs arises frame the strange and horrible belief of Talton The empress is descended from a. fatally of lepers, and is fearful of suffering from this hereditary disease. In some way or other she has become imbued with the idea that if she bathes in the blood et young children she will escape the terrible curse of ber ancestors. • She therefore ordered a seerth to be made tbrough the country for young ehil- dren of healtby appearance and with- out marks of any kind upon their bodies. Even those with pierced ears were not considered suitable. Before the wretched peasant e could take pre- cautionary raeasures, dozens of thil- d,ren were snatched from tbeir homes, to be put to death fax the sake of the queen's bealth. As soon as paxents came to know ot the danger menacing their little ones, they branded, theras with bot irons and pierced their ears, and this is the explanation of the mutil- ation noticed by visitors to tbe coun- try, On the top of this tall tower is a water tank, arid this tank contained at the time of tee storm its nornaie con- tents -10,000 gallons of water. When the storm was over and. tbe sunlight shone again, 'hardly a gallon of water bad been lost from the tank, so fax as appearances indicated. The tower, however, stowed the effeet of the ters rific blow. Before the storm baepea- ed the structure had been as straight as a British grenadier, but now it was found it had been twisted upon its axis and 'bent over to that it leaned in as great a degree as the famous tower of insa. There are one or two breathes in the wells, and some a tee window sashes ere in a, woefully dilapidated condition, bat otherwase is seems to be in very good shape indeed. The space between and the sixth end seventh, seems tol the third mid fourth stories, have suffered from the storm the most severely. The sole fact that saved the tower from demolition was tbe peculiar- ity of the structure, weich is curious- ly arrauged iron work. The brick wall that seems to form the structure, is, as stated, simply veneer, and the holes that tbe storm rent through it indicate forcibly what would have been the fate of the structure had the brick entered into its composition more largely. Ae it is, it is the strongest specimen of what elever arehitectural work will stand, and. before the Common Coun- cil and. the owners of the tower are through with the war it, is making it promises to become one of those legal fights thst will go down into history as events in which every one is me terested. ERROR AS TO CHRIST'S BIRTH. Through the erroneous time fixed. by the calculations of Dionysius, the nativ- ity of Our Lord. took place four years earlier than the generally assigned date, for it must have prec,eded the death of Herod, who died four years before tbe beginning of the Christian era. After giving data upon which the later com- putation is founded, Farrar, in his :'Life of Christ," adds: "Linder no cireuxa- stances can it have taken place later than February, B.C. 4." And then with the Nativity itself, the "wise men" rightly claim our attention. But why the traditional number 3? 'There is no Biblical authority for fixing any num- ber at all to the Magi of tbe Gospel narrative. Se Matthew, the only ev- angelist who mentions them says : "There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem." Tha idea that they were, three in menber no doubt is found- ed upon the three kinds of gifts they offered -gold, frankincense and myrrh; at least, this was the teaching of St. Augustine. PEPPER. "It has always amused me," remark- ed a botanical expert, "to bear people talking of their preference fax black pepper peer winte, and the various ex- paanations they give for the same. Lit- tle do they know thet both black and white pepper grow upon the same shrub. Over the pepper seeds grows a black covering,. • The seed itself is white, or nearly so, To make Nadir pepper the seed and its external covermg are ground up, while the white pepper is the seed alone ground up. White pep- per is milder than black, the greater part a the pungency being in back, the greater part of the pungency being in the covering. A pepper made a the eoverinine alone would be sucla, to use a slang neem, hot stuff tile* it would burn the intouth. The black covering a -the pepper contabas the oil." THE REAL NAME. That's it nice looking dog, remarked the kindly old gentlexitan who takes an interest ea everything. Yes, sue), he looks all right, replied, tee colored man who was leading him with a piece ef rope. He looks like a pointer. Yes, sub,. De's what he look like. But dot ain' what be is. He's a disappoint - PIGEON MESSAGE SERVICE. Great Britain mut ute It for the army and Wavy. itt view a the movement recently made in favor of the military pigeon message service, it is interesting to note that the British government has decided to establish 4a service of ear- rier-pigeons for use by the army and navy. In this matter Great 'ret'ain hitherto has lagged fax behind most oe the continental powers, which, of re- cent years, have made considerable out - ley upon the development of an effi- cient service of carrier -pigeons. Ties development has reached its bighest poixit 111 Germany and Fre tee. Ire the former a sum of 812,500 i set aside annually from the war budget for thei training and surnort of carrier-pige*it Every fortress and military camp o the frontiers hes its columbary eu plied with trained birds, housed nee for emergencies. The vibirtnner * i:;,'8•P about 10,000, and everkav ne oz. bered and registered, and can ed by the authorities, should occur. Not one of the birds can tet ken out of tbe cauntry without elfin!' cial sanction. It es estimated that from the reserve se formed the government can draw from 25,000 to -30,000 birds, all trained and ready for use. gegeal care is bestowed on pigeon training in lora.nce. The principal station ie at the great military camp at Chalons, but there are depots in all the frontier towns and fortresses. From these out- lying posts a regular pigeon rnail vice to the iteadquarters is tained. Three times a week a num of birds are taken by trains to cer- tain points on the frontier, where they are liberated. A careful record is kept . of their number, and the time oc- cupied in reaching their destination. The percentage of losses is very small. Such confidence is placed in this ser - eke that in is ca.lcula,ted that if evevy line of railway and every telegraph wire on both sides of the frontier were destroyed, by means of this system. of pigeon post the authorities could be kept abreast of the progress of events. The rearing and training of pigeons by the people also is encouraged by the government. Alraost every town has its society or union, generally un- der official patronage, and for tete per- iodical flying coritests thousands of birds will be entered. The state tbas the option of taking all trained birds, should the public sereilinitee,getee it ___-_---- TIT FOR TAT • A British sailor being a isriteess.in murder ease, was called to the standeand was asked by the eoansel for the cloveau. whether he was for the plaintiff or de- fendant. , Plaintiff or defendant? said the salts*" or, scratching his head. Why, I don't know what you mean by plena -ALS or az fendent. I come to speak for nay frieri poring to tee prisoner. •e oune a pretty fellow for a witnes said the counsel, not to lexiow plaintiff or defendant means. Later in tee triad the douneel ask the sailor what part or the se in at the time of the naud Abaft the binnacle, me 1 ,sailor. Abaft the beanaele 1 repli tester. What pare of the e Ain't you a pretty fella - seller, said the sailor, g counsel, not to know le The court Iangheol THE SULTAN'S THROStEi The gilding it the throee ' o the Sultan of Constantinople is unequal- led by any other building in Europe, and from the ceiling hangs a superb Venetian chandelier, the 260 lighia ot whic,h make a gleam like that of a vex - liable sum. At each of the, four era- nera of ehe loom tall candelabra in bac- carat glass are placed, and the throne is it nage seat novetred a-1th red vel- vet aad having ariessente backs of Tau% gold,