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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1898-8-4, Page 7-KINGLY-BABES OP 0111i,IS1. »IL TALMAGE PREACHES ON THE • SWEETNESS OF JESUS. see., 'NO neat* Were Odorous With Myren, aud Aleeso and Varela -The tealacea of Wen %Uses and the /Palaces or Iteavene-Ittow eale areeeees Appear. ta Their Celestial nionse-Au Appeal for 'Obese Lett en Earth. despateh from Washington as— ev Dr. Talmage preached from the following text: "All thy garments e smell of myrrh., aed, aloes, and cassia, to out of tbe ivory place,"—Psalms adv. Ameng the grand adornments of the city o - Paris •is the church of Norte . Dame, with its great towers, and ela- berate rose-svindow, and, sculpturing of ethe last judgment, with the trumpet- ing angels and risieg dead; ins battle- euenta o quetrefoil; its sacristy, with ribbed. ceiling and statues of saints. But there was nothing in all that build- ing which more vividly appealed to my plain tastes than the costly vestments' which laid in oaken presses, robee that tad been embroidered with gold end been worn by popes and archbishops on great ocoasions. • There was a robe In which Pius VII. had appeared at the ,crowning of the first Napoleon. There was aro a vestment teat had been wort at the baptism of Napoleon II A.s our guide opened the oaken presses and. brought out. these vestments of fabulous cost and lifted them up, the 'fragrance of the pungent aromatics in which they had been preserved filled -the place with a. sweetness that was almost oppressive. Nothing that had been done in stone more vividly im- pressed me than these things that had been done in cloth, and enabroidery, and perfume. But now, my friends, I open the drawer of this text and I look upon the kingly robes of Christ; and as I lift them flashing with eternal jewels, the whole house is filled with the aroma of these garments, which "smell of myrrh, and aloes, and. cassia, out of the ivory palaces." In my text the King steps forth; His robes rustle and blaze as He ad- vances. His pomp, and power, and tilory overmaster the spectator. More brilliant is He than Queen Vashti ntov- ing amid • the Persian princess; than Maria Antobaette on the day when Louis XVI. put upon her the necklace of eight hundred gems; than Anne Boleyn the day when Henry VIII. wel- comed her to his palace. • AU beauty and all pomp forgotten, while we stand in the presence of this imperial glory. King of Zion. King a eaxth. King • of hestve.n. , King for ever I His gar- ments not worn out, not dust bedrag- gled, but radiant, and jewelled, and redolent. It seems as if they must have been pressed • a hundred years aroid the flowers of heaven. The wardrobes from which they have been taken must have been sweet with clus- ters of camphor and frankincense -and all manner of precious wood. •Do you not inhale the odours? Aye, aye: They "smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces." Your first curiosity to -night is to know why the robes of Christ are odor- ous with myrrh. This was a bright- • leafed Abyssinian plait„ It was tea - foliated. The Greeks, Egyptians, Ro- mans, and Jews bought and sold it at a high price. The first present that eves ever given to Christ was a sprig of myrrh, thrown on His infantile bed in Bethlehem; and, the last that Christ ever had was myrrh pressed in- to thecup of His crucifixion. The na- tives would take a. stone and bruise the tree, and then there would exude a gum that would saturate all the • ground beneath. This gura was used for purpo8es of merchandise. One piece of it, no longer than a chestnut, would vv.heira a whole room with od- ours. It was put in closets, in chests, in drawers, in rooms, and its perfume adhered almost interminably to any- thing that was anywhere near it. So, when in my text I read that Christ's garments smell of nayrrh, 1 itarnech- &telt' conclude the exquisite sweetness of Jesus. 1 know that to many He is onlY like any historical person. An- other John Hosvarcl. Another Fred- erick Oberland. Another Confucius. A Grand subject for a painting.. A her- oic theme for a limn. A. beautiful • form for a stattia But to those who have heard His voice, and felt His par- don, and received His benediction, Ile is magic, and light, and warmth, and thrill, and eternal fragrance. Sweet as a frietid stinking to you when all else betray. Lifting you up while others try to push you down. Not so mttch like morning-glories, that bloom only when the san is coming tip, nor like' "four-o'clocke," that bloom only when the sun is going down; but, like myrrh, perpetually aromatic ; the same morning, noon, and night, yes- terday, to -day, for ever. •It seeras as if we cannot wear Him out. We put on aim ell our burdens, and afflict Kira with all our griefs, and: set Rim foremost in all our battles, and yet He is ready to lift, and to sympathize, • and to help. We have so imposed up- on Him, that one would think in eterne at affront He woald quit our souls; atid yet to -night He addresses us with the same tenderness, dawns upon as with the same Smile, pities Us with the same compassion. •There is oar name like His for us. It is ,more imperial. than Caesar's, more musical than IBeethovea's, name ocometering than Charrienaagnea, more eloquebt than Cicero's., It theobs with eh- lite. It weeps with all patbot, Xt groans with ell pain. It, stoops with • all comieseension, It 'breathes with all wettest, Who like Jesus to set a broken bone, to pity a *useless orph- an, to ourse 5 Melt mat, to take a prodigal back without any, scolding, to Illumine a cemetery all ploughed with graves, to make a queen mato God out ef the lost svoman of the street, to eitteli the tears of human sorrow in e lachrymal that shall never Ise broken.? Who has such an.' eye to sea our need, seethe lip to kiss Way our sorrow, ouch a hand, to anateh as out of the fire, such a foot to trample Mr menace, Imola a heart to =beaes all our neeessi- ties ? 1.struggle for some metaphor with whieh to expreso Rho, Re is not like the burating forth a a mil oroh°8- tre ; tuat. is too loud. Ile is at Ulm the sea wben laelaed to rage by the tem-. npeoattlik:1,4t misoutonotabioni,sittearobur:ir. wHireeatuts., • with the lightnings; that is too sblitary. ,Give us a softer type, a goo - tier compwrisoe. We heve seemed. to see ktina witk our eyes, and to henr iini with our ears, and to toucb Him With our hands. Oh, that to -night He might appear to some other one of our five sensee. Aye, the nostril shall discover His presence, He comes uPon ne 1.a.115e epice ales from heaven,. Yea, MB garments smell of pungent, lasting, and all pervaisive myerlt. Ok that yoe knew all Hie sweetnessi ROW soon you would turn froM Your revels. If the philosopher leaped, out of his bath ite a feenzy of joY, and pecj his halide and rushed through tbe streets becausehe had found the solu- tion' of a raathenaatioal problem, how will you feel, leaping from the foune tan of a Saviour's mercy and. pardon, svaeltecl Glean and made white as snow, when the question has been solved : "Ilow can my sea be eaved,?" Nalsed; frost-bitten, stoara-lashed soul, let Je- sus this night throw [mouncl thee the "alpigaoitteaiseen,esea.n,a,ted tohaastsiorhoeult1 of of yrthrohd , ivaonry Your secon.d curiosity is tatlenow why the robes of Jesus are bdoeoue with aloes. Th,ere is some differenee a (M- inion about where 'these aloes grew, what is the color of the Newer, what Ls the parte:miler appearence of the herb. Suffice it for you and me to knots' that aloes means bitterness ell the world over; and when Christ ctioomuleasrwoitahorgatritheyenstusgbgeoasttintgomo ot par - the bitterness of a naviour's suffering. Were there ever such nights as Jesus lived through—nights on the moun- tain, nights on the sea, nights in the desert? Who ever had. suoh a bard re- ception as Jesus b.ael? A rhestelry the first, an unjust trial in oyer and terrainew another, a foul-mouthed, yell- ing .mob the last. Was there a space on His back as wide as your two fin- gers where He was not whipped.? Was there a tsnace on' His brow an inch aquare whore He was not cut by the briers? When the spike struck at the instep, did it not go clear through to the hollow of the foot? Oh, long, deoP, hitter pilgrimage! Aloes! aloes! John leaned his head en Christ; but who clid Christ lean on? Five thane sand men fed by the Saviour; who fed Jesus? The sympathy of a .Saviour's heart going out to the leper and. the adulteress ; but who soothed Christ ? Denied both cradle and death -bed. He had a fit place neither to be born nor to die, .4 poor babe, a poor led,la poor' young man! Not so much as a taper to oheer his dying hours; even the candle of the sun snuffed out. Oh, was it not all aloes? Our sins, sorrows, bereavements, losses, and. all the agons le,s of earth and. hell picked up as in one cluster and. squeezed into one cup, and. that pressed to His Bp until the acrid, nauseating, bitter draught was swallowed. with a distorted counten- ance and. a shudder from head to foot, and a gurgling strangulation. Aloes! aloes Nothing but aloes All this for Himself ? All this to get the fame in the world of being a martyr? All tlais in a spirit of stub- bornnees because He did not like Augustus? No, no: 'All this because He wanted to pluck you and rae from hell. (Because He wanted to raise you and me to heaven. IBec,ause we were lost, and. He wanted us found. Because we were blind, and He wanted u,s to see. !Because we were serfs, and He wantea us manumitted.. Oh ye in whose cup of life the saccharine has predominated; oh ye who have had bright and spearkling beverages, how do you feel towards Hini who in your stead, and to purchase your disenthial- ment, took the . aloes, the unsavoury aloes, the bitter aloes? ' Your third curioeity is to know why these garments a Christ. are odor- ous with cassia. This was a plant that grew in India and the adjoining is- lands. You do not care to hear what kind of a flower it had or what kind of a stalk. It is enough for me to tell you that it was used medicinally. In that land, and in that age, where they knew but little about pharmacy, cas- sia, was used to arrest many forms of disease. So when. in my .text: we find Christ coming with garnaents that smell of cassia, it suggests to me the healing and, curative power of the Son of God. "Oh'," you say, "now you have a superflous idea. We are not Sick. Why tlei we want cassia? We are ath- letic. Our respiration is perfect. Our 'baba are lithe, and in these summer days we feel we could. bound like the roe." I beg to differ, my broth- er, frone ybu. None of you can be in better physical health than I am, and yet I must( say we are all sick. I have akett the diagnosis of your case, and have examined all the beet authorities n the subject, mad 1 oome now' to tell ou that you are full of wounds, and, bruises, and putrifying sores, which have not been bound up or mollified vith' ointment. The mara,sinus of sin is an us—the palsy, the dropsy, the eprosy. The man that is expiring o -night, the allopathic, and horneeo- ethic doctors having given him up, nd his friends now standing around o take his, lest words, is no more cer- ainly .dying as to bis body than you ud T are dying, unless we have tak- e medicine from God's apothecary. eell the lea,ves of this Bible are only o many prescriptions from the Divine hysician, written, not in Latin, like he prescriptions of earthly physizie a, but written in plain English, so hat a man, though life el, need not rr therein. Thank God. that the Sae iour's garments mall of cassia. If sex have, ,not taken this healing medi- ine of the Gospel, you al e dying a eath whioh svill not, perhaps, put yottt ody into the cemetery jest now, but- ou are dying a deeth svhieh will leave he soul hi a grave whose beadstote inscribed with this epitaph: "tn emoriam: Here lies a, men who rase- d heaven, This is the second death, orn some years ago on earth; died est night in eternity," "There is a death whose pang, Outlasts tbe fleetitig breath, Oh, what eternal horrors hang &round the sieeond deat h 1" Suppose a man -were siek, end there W85 a, phial on his tnantel-pioce with ntedieine he lstie,sv would cure hire, and he refused to take it, What would pat say of ban? He is a suicide. And wh'at ,do you say of that Joao who to night, elek in stn, hes the heeling rae divine a God's grago offered him an refugee to take it? la he aloe ha is suicide. People teak ast though Go took a men and led Jelin out to dark neas and death; as though He brough him up Othe chafe and Owen pushe hira oft Oh, no. Whoa a man is lot it ia not because: God, pushed him' off it Le because he juntpkt off, an olcle times a suicide was baud Pt the crosa trooatitoalordattobuleespeaolplolen wuj.,esreaarzivase, tsorno%1 seems, to me there may be in t'34 house to -night a man who is destroy lag hie own soul, arid. as tlaough angels of God: were here to bury lam at the point where the roads of lif and. death oroes eech other, throwha upon the grave the broken law an a great pile of misimproved•privileges Sq that those gain by may look a the fearful naount end, lean, what esiieide it is when. an immortal am' for which Jesus died, puts itself out o the way, When Christ trod this planet wit feet of flesh, the people rushed afte Him—people who were sick, and thos who, being so akar they could not walk were brought by their friends'. Here see a raother holding up a little aim and saying: "Cure this teroup, Lot Jesus. Care this omelet fever." An others saying: "Cure this ophthad mia, Give ease and rest to tide spina cliatrees, Straighten this club foot.' Chriat made every bow where X stopped. a dispensary, a do not believe that in the nineteen centuries tha, have gene by since then. His heart ha got hard. I feel that we can comet to- night, with all our wounds of soul and get his benediction, Oh Jews, her we are. lare want healing. We wan sight, We want health. We want life The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Blessed be GO. that Jesus. Christ comes through this 8.8 semblage now, His "garments smell inp of myrrh "—that means fragrance ' and aloes "—the, mean bitter sac rificial memories— and. cassia "—that means medicine and ours; and accord,- linvogrytopmalyaoteset, He conies "out of the You know, or it you do not know will tell you now, that Florae of the palaces of olden times were adorned with ivory. Ahab and Solomon had their homes furnished with it. The tueks of Afriea,n and Asiatic elephants were twisted into all. manner of shapes, and there were stairs of ivory and chairs of ivory, and tables of ivory, and floors of ivory, and pillars of ivory, and windows of ivory, and fountains that dropped into basins of ivory, and rooms that had ceilings of ivory. eh, • white and. overmastering beauty. Green tree brancbes sweeping the White curbs. Tapestry trailing the snowy floors. Brackets of light flashing on the lustrous surroundings, Silvery nausie rippling to the beach ot the ar- ches. The mere thought of it almost stuns nay brain, and you say: " Ole if I could only have walked' over such floors! If I could have thrown my- self in such a chair I If I could have heard the drip and dash 'of those foun- t" You shall have sonletlaing bet- ter that that if you only let Christ in- troduce you. From that place He ca.ene, and to that place He proposes to trans- port you; for His "garnaents smell of imvoyrryrhp,aalanodeo.atIoest and. cassia, out of , Oh, what a place heaven must be I The Tuilleries of the French, the Wind- sor ,Castle of the English, the Span- ish "Alhambra, the Russian Kremlin, are dungeons compared with it. Not so many castles on either side of the Rhine as are ivory palaces on both sides of the river of God. One for the angels, insufferably bright, winged, fired -eyed, tempestaharioted. One for the martyrs, with blood -red robes from under the altar. One for the Xing, the steps of His palace 'the crowns of the Church IVIilitant. One for the sing- ers who leads the one hundred and forty and four thousand. One for you, ransoraed from sin. One for me, pluck- peadlaforeosm1. the burnings. Oh, the ivory To -night it seems to me as if the windows of those palaces were illum- ined for some great victory, and I look in and see climbing the stairs a ivory and w-alking the floors of ivory, and looking from the windows of ivory, some whom we knew aid loved on earth. Yes, I kJ:sow theta. There are father and mother, not eighty-two years, and seventy -title years, as when they left us, but blithe and young as on their marriage day. , And there are brothers and sistees merrier than when. we used to romp across the mea - dove together. The cough gone. The cancer oared. The erysipelas healed. The heart -break over. Oh, how fair they are in the ivory palaces! And. your dear. little children that went out from you; Christ did not let one of them drop as Ete lifted them., He did not wrench them from you. No; they went as from one they loved, well to One whom they loved better. If I Should take your little child and press its soft face against my rough cheek, I might keep it &little while; bet when you, the mother, came along, it would struggle to go with you. And so you sat holding your dying child. when Jesus passed by in the room, and the little one sprang out to greet Him, • That is all. our Christian dead. did not go down into the dust, and, the gravel, and the mud. Though it rained all tbat funeral day, and the, water came up to the wlaeel's hub as you. drove out to the cemetery, it made no difference to them, for they step- ped: from the home here to the home thereeright Intel:he ivory palades. All is well with them All is well. When I wae thinking out this ser- mon, and had got to about this point, there wee a knock at my door, and I received a telegram from a very dear ministerial' friend. It read: "My wife just died. Funeral next, Tuesday. Will you be one of the pall -bearers?" I telegraphed inunediately: "I will." Who could holct baok at such a time ? knew I could carry my part of the burden. It is riot a dead weight you • lift when • you earry a Chris- tian. out. jesus Jnakes tbe bed up soft with velvetpromisee, and He says: Tut her down here very gently, Put that head, which will never eche again s on this pollow of hallelujahs. Semi tip worci that the prooession is ranting. Bing the belle. Ring f Opeti your gates,' ye ivory palaeles." And so your loved otos are Ghee°. They are just as certainly there, haring died. in Christ, as that you are here. There is only oee thing more they want, In. deed, I here Is one thing in heaven they have not got. They want it. Whet is it ? Your compel*. Bat oh, my bro. Cher, unless you change your Leek you cannot molt that harbour. You might I VI aa well take the Baltimore and, Olaio railroad, expecting in teat direetion to reach•Twouto, as to go in the way seine of you are going, and yet expect to, roob the ivory salami. Your loved. %lee are loolcing out of the windows to turn your bac* upon them, You do not seem to know the sound a their voices as Well as sem used to, or be moved by the eigat of their clear faces. Cali louder, ye departed ones! Cali louder from, the ivory palaoes I _ When I think of (hat eaMthluk hcloeseftioevpruleheyala,basyeeessnotinereibleirt,se:,arfh:ennL dafmTlikyaWvir:tbee:isi exposed to the weather, and nar shoes. end my hair dishevelled., andI frontBato-night, fg hsto,nalcifiynoet yroeusidseeneeme where I ii0.0ire an errand; I feel not fit te go in as I am, and ail among pol- gueste. ao some of as feel about heaven. We need to be washed: we need to be rehabilitated before we go into the ivory pahtees. Eternal God, let the surges ef Thy pardoning mercy roll over usl I want not only to wash my hands and my feet, but, like some skilful diver standing on the pier -head, who leaps into the wave and comes up eta far distant point trom where he went in soIwant to go clown, and so I want to (tome up. 0 Jesus, wash me in the waye,s of Thy saivation? And here I salc you to solve a ray - story that has bee5 oppeessing me for twenty-five years. I have asked. it of doctors of divinity who have been studying theology half a century, and they 4ave given me no satisfactory answer. 1 have turned. over all the books in my library, but got no solu- tion to the question, and, tonight I come and ask you or an explanation. By what logic was Christ induced to exolaange the Ivory palaces of heaven for tae crucifixion agonies of earth? I shall take the first thousand million years la heaaen to study out that problem Meanwhile and now, taking it as the tenderest and. raightest of all facts that Christ did come; that He came with spikes in His feet, came with thorns in His brow, came with spears in His heart, to save you and me. 'God so loved, the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- lieveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." 0 Christ! whelm this audience wills Thy compass- ion I Mow. them down like summer grain with the harvesting siekle of •Thy grace! Ride through, to -night, the conqueror, "Thy garments smel1. ing of myrrh, and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces." ME SUNDAY SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON, AUG. 7. "EMalCs Spirit on Elisba." 2 Kings 2, 6.13. Golden. Text. Enke 11. IS, PR A CTIC SI, NOTES. Verse 6. Elijah said unto him. To Dishes- Tarry, I pray thee, here. At Jericho, the largest city in the val- ley at the Jordon. This is the third time Elijah has utged Elisha to stay behind. Probably neither man knew dis- tinctly and exactly what was before them, but God knew: the end from the beginning, and step by, step he reveals his plans. From Horeb to Abel-meho- lah the older prophet had gone; then, accompanied by Elisha, from Abel-me- hola,h to Samaria; from Samaria to the Ekren highway; from the Ek- ron highway to Gilgal; from Gilgal to Bethel; now from Bethel to Jericho; and presently from Jeri- cho to the region beyond. Jordan. (1) o Goce knows our future, and reveals our life's palliseone step at a. time. This gradual reetelation brings into bold. relief Elitelfs atve in facing his future terrors and glories, and Elisha's persistent love. (2) They sin who tell us love oat die. The Lord hath sent me te 'Jordan. About five miles from Jeriesho is a bend in the river where, aecording to tradition, Elijah ascend- ed. Several of Elijah's stopping places an this journey were notabl,e at once as "schools of the prophets" (seats of thoae prophetic communities whew zeal did so much to maintain faith in Jeno - vale during dark years), and as strong- holds of hostility to Jehovah. For in- stance, Gilgal is mentioned by Hosea, and Amos- as a center of idolatrous inidelitY; Bethel was the shrine of calf - worship; and Jericho had been rebuilt under the, direct curse of Jehovah. As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee, This double form • of adjuration was the most • sacred known to the Hebrews. Young Elisha's PassiOnof love embarrassed the old nun, who 'With true humility end, mo- desty, seems- to have desired solitude before his glorification. They two went on, (Compare Gen. 22, 6.) 7. Fifty men of the sons of the pro- phets. These were yotuag inert who had sat themselves apart for holy stud- ies and activities. Evidently the "sect was numerous; it may Itave been mon- a.stio in 'some of its featuree. That its members were all in a. literal sense sons of the prophets is unlikely, for it was a, Hehlow idiom, to dell the out- come of anything its son. That leo a leveler course of training they were all graduated into full prophetic re- sponsibilities is a hotion without war- rant. • Stood to vie,ev. On the high ground of Jericho, whence they could evateh the descent of :Elijah and. Eli- sha. into the river bed, and their ascent on' the other side. • Thee, two steed by Jordan. The Jordan and, the Dead Sea, like all of men's frontiers and boundary lines, are God's high- ways, a No obstaele can hinder God or Ged's children. The arid rocks are by him turned into fountains, and those things which to human toraight wonld seem to gearaatee destruction are nactde vehielee of choicest blessing. 8, Elijah took his mantle. 'The skin of &beast, dressed with the hair on, Was the almost universal sign dap, profes- sionally hely man. ' Elijah's mantle was probably a eheePskine Ey a re- mainder of the ancient, oustora certain gradttates Of langlieh universities evdar lambskin hood% end kings on state oc- casion wear ermiee, this partieular mantle had had a rare history. In it Elijah had, wrapped his face amid the mystio terrors of Horeb; it had been thrown about Elisha as a Alga of hie earliest prophetic>. oath Wrapped it together. Probably whirled it round and round. Its'preeent use as a syme bol ot the Woncter-working power re- s minds us of Aaron's trod. Sinote tam waters, ana they Were divided hither end thither, It was not Elijah's sheep, skin, but Elijalt's faith, that waited tido Mireale. a, God can use one means as mealy as another with whiole to work hie wonders, Oa dry ground. Oa solid, ground, ' 9. When fluty were gone over, Date Elijah's native rend. IlolY scenes were all about Ulm, Mat Ilea Prom thLe Place Joshua and. the Israelite heats had, orossed by a siflar niraele ; IIQt fax tronx this place Moses had passed, in silent glory to the worla of spirite, and no man knoweth his sepulcher to this day. • Ask what I shall do for thee, The awful eilance was broken by this loving offer. Elisha's true character will be shown by his enswer. Tee majesty of Elijah's bear- ing in the presenee of deetb is notable. 5. What would be our answer to such a question? Tb,e measure of the peti- tioner's faith is to be the measure of his reward. Before I be taken away. He does not say, "What shall I do when get to heaven?" Elijah, as a man of like passions with us, could do wonders for Ensha by the exercise of, faith, but there ie no intimation that tto 8 deperted saint he could do any- thing for him at all. Let a double, portton of thy spirit be upon me. The portion of a firstborn son. "Let me be the heir of your prophetic power." • 10, Thou. hest asked a hard, thing. Be- cause God only could give it. If thou. see me. This shall be &sign that your request will be granted.. Elijah knew - that Elie*, was divinely chosen to be his heir, but, as we have seen, hie full inheritance was conditiooal on his faithfulness. If Elisha's heart is true to the end, he shall see the riSion and gain the prize. . 11, They still went on. "'Went- on' indicates perbaps a toilsome ascent after the long journey in the midst of the gathering storm."—Moulton. A tweet communion of soul is indicated, not unlike the disciples' talk with Jesus before his ascension. A chariot of fire. What this was we do not know, ancl it is e. waste of time to argue about it. 8 God would. have re- vealed to us the environments of hea- venly with the same distinctness that he has revealed to us the terms of salvation if he had desired us to un- derstand those oharacteristics. Went up by a whirlwind. That there was an awful storin and that thje fiery revelation was one of the incidents of this storm seem clear. Into heaven. From whence he cases again to talk with our Saviour on the Mount of Transfiguration. 12. Elijah saw. The condition was fulfilled„ and he was to receive the Scan he craved. ltey father. The title, in all ages and eountries, of the religi- ous teacher. But Elisha was now adopted. spiritually as Elijah's first- born son, and. he calls "My father I" in the ecstasy of bis assurance. The chariot of Israel, and. the horsemen thereof. The standing terray of the na- tion; the strongest defense of Israel. S,oe 2 Kings 13. 14. SINV him no more. This shows the suddenness of Elijah's translation to heaven. Took hold bis own clothes, and rent them to pieoes. Going beyond the usual sign of grief, wheoh did not involve tearing tb.e garment through. 13. Took up also the mantle of Elijah. • His grasp of the mantle shows his faith in God's cause. As he took it up his whole nature must have thrilled. It was the second time it had rested on his shoulders. For nine years he hod been Elijala's com- panion and servitor.,Observe that in character and lite te two men were almost a perfect contrast. Elisha was not a wanderer, bdt a quiet citizen, of gentle, sympathetic disposition. 7. God raises up workers according to his peo- ple's needs, and employs them accord- ing to their natures. That fell from him. The old Gileadita needs not that tamale in the land whither he bits gone. 8. so we: drop our robes of flesla tas we Mount from earth to heaven. Went back. Instantly Elisha enters up- on his new woak. 9. Let us spend our strength not in sorrowing over the dead. past, but by holy action in the living present. Stood by the bank of the Jordan. just opposite where he and Elijah had. stood a little while before. • 14. Smote the waters. Elisha acts just like his venerable master. 'Where is the Lord. God of Elijah? The. utter - anise not of doust, but of excuttant faith. (10) We must confide in Godi to carry as threugh. When he also had smitten the, waters. (11) We muse also confide in ourselves if we would be ef- fective. They parted. hither and thither. Aa they bad parted before the ark of God and, before Elijah. (12) God never fails. 1,5. The sons of the prophets which were to, view at Jerieb:o. "Which were at Jericho, opposite." They had un- ceasingly watched the two proph,ets, but had, not been able to discern the ascension of Elijah. The spirit of Eli- jah cloth, ret on Elisha, Whether they knew this by his owttership ot Elijah's mantle or by some other indication we cannot tell. (13) There is always some- thiag about a, true raan of God which reveals his calling and coratuands re- speot. Bowed themselves to the ground. The men trained in the'sehools bow before- the men taken from the able to recognize a God -ordained lead- er when he earaes. HEMP. !Hemp is of antique origin, for i1 was used by the Seythians at least 500 years before the Christian era. It grows wild in India, and many parts of our own land, and it was known to the Chinese thousands of years ago. The Romans were familiar with the ,use of hemp for stela and cotdage. India and Persia is the native home of hemp, and it is cul- tivated in the United States in Ken- tucky, Illinois, Nebraska, and Mis- souri. Recently California has become interested in its groWth, and in that state it often reaches a height of 15 or 20 feet. TO Grr FAT. If ybu want to get fat drtak water by the cattlart if. you can andaaweale and sweet telt witla plenty 0? as orettaa Eat as roneh as possible, but to, do you good 1,11 this way food meet be well digested. 'Use plenty of butter and bread, pestry, sweets Dna eake. Ales, lagee beer and sweet wines are good for you, end plenty of vegetables. Take 4:S much codliver oil as possible, sleep whenevet yeti can, and do riot get up in the morning until you have been awake for hell an hour. Lattgh over ev- erything, worry over nothing. , MMUS EXPERIMENTS, PlIOTOORAPIIY KAY NOW OE DONE • IN UTTER DARKNE$S. Er, 0.111. Russell e‘ Eolition Cheinist, leenie- eng ror a Oielentilic Tor/a to characterize •late letseeveres • Photographing withoot Ilght, witile a verbal contrediestion, iss so far the only toxin found that lends itself to deeeribing tne recent experiments of 80 Extglisa, selentist. IIis name is Dr. D. J. Russell and he is e, lecturer on chemistry at St. Bartholomew's Hos- ratal, London, Ills Work has caueedi 00 little talk in Engliele selentific ctralee and am.otag the growing host 01 photo- graphers, amateur and. professional. Dr. Russell announces that he lute clisCevered that certain substances are able to produce a:coast images of them- selves on a. photographio plate, even tlaough the substance and the plate are /lope in total darkness. - Sore° few years ago the great French chemist Becquerel proved that if the metal uranium, or some of its salts, were placed. on a photographic plate in perfeet starkness and allowed to remain there for some days, tbe plate be- came acted. upon, the action maniteste bag itself by the ordinary photogra- phi.° proceaa of development. This curious fact remained almost unnoticed until Dr. Russell discovered, while repeating Becquerel's experi- ment, that mercury, magnesium, cad.- mium, zineStnickel, aluminum, pew- ter, fusible metal, /ead, bismuth, tin cobalt and, antimony all give off rays capable of reproducbag an image of (the meta,' en a photographic plate when placed. In company with it in a drawer or other place where light cannot have effeet, for a few days. A POLISHED PIECE OF ZINC, that is, well rubbed. With coarse sand paper, if laid. on a highly sensitive pho- tographic, Otte in a dark cupboard will, under certain conditions, even in four or five hours, so act on it that on development a complete picture of the zinc is 'produced, showing the earaches or any ruled lines and. faint pattern drawn on it. If flaws in the metal exist they are clearly seen. One of the most extranrdinary points about these "pictures without light" is that absolute contaet of -the metal and plate ie not necessary. l'Sr. Russell found that if screens of different thick- nesses of any imeetive substance be interposed between plate and metal, thus preventing contact, the action still occurs. \Vette glass stops the ac- tion, oellataid, sheet gelatine, gutta peroha, veletable parchment, real par chment, goldbeaters' akin, tracing pap- er and various other substances have effect, the resulting picture of tbe eine being- as good. as if they were not there. • Dr, Elwell finds aqueous vapor is not en active agent ha producing these reaetions, bet that alterations of tem- perature produce very marked effects, high temperature increasing the pho- tographic action of the substance, low temperature diminishing i. Wood. possesses a:very considereble amount of photograpbic activity, end any one may prove this for himself. Lay aol orditary smooth piece of' wood on a, photograolaio plate, and, like the piece on zinc, it will impress its Iike- nese on the plate. In one of his experiments Dr. Rus- sell found. that iranium salts acted more strongly shut in pill boxes than in any other way, and. thia led him to place a pill box without any uranium salt on it on a photographic plate. To his astonishment he found that action had occurred, and that A DARK CIRCULAR SPOT representing the pill box came out on the plate. , Pill boxes are usually made of straw - board, and this substance is able to influence a photographic plate. Th.e photographs which acres:meaty this ar- ticle are prints from positives, that la, they ere light where they really should be dark. They were all obtained in,the same way, the substance in each ease being placed along with a photogra- phic plate in a dark place for a cer- tain length of time. Ne camera, was employed and sun- light was not called in to 'help in their production, These pictures resemble Rontgea ray photographs in that they can be tak- en in the dark, but they areOof course, unable to reveal the interior struc- ture of the substance. Dr. Russell thinks that. the photograplaio action of these various substances may he due to the feat that certain metals and or- ganic, bodies give off a vapor capable of acting on a photographic plate. He recognizes, however, the difficulty of supposing thee the activity of such a body as strasvboard should after the treatment it has undergone give off at ordinary temperature sufficient va- por to produce the effect described, and the same applies to old dry wood. at is, of oourse, incorrect to eall these pictures "photographs," and yet it is equally absurd. to speak of theae new recitations as "dark light," as some Lave done, Future experiments on these wonderfu.1 rays will be awaited with muds interest, and important results may follow from Dr. Russell's inter- esting easpdriments. JUST DO YOUR BEST. The signs are bad when folks tommenee A-findin' fault with Providence, Arid haikin' 'muse the earth don't shake At every primed& step they take, No man is great till ha can see How less: than little he would' he 30 stripped, to self, and Stark and bare ao hung his sign out anywhere. . ea.so ,..ataiarTa iVty doetern is to lay aside Centelatione, mod. be satisfied; „)est do your best, and praise er binma That fellers that counts jog. the tame. I've anus noticed great suocess Is mixed with troublee, more or less, Ana it's the man who does the bast That gibs more kicks than ell the rest. STRANJI WBIXIS OF' ATURE. Wish What iireatite With amuse There has •receotly arrived ZOologiaal Gardene'on London aom lIving epechneas of the Austealian Luna -fish, a species firet discovered itt 1809 by Forster ana deearlhed Xrefft, The lanaefleh has 'teeth similar certain foesil teeta: of the trieseic tar ta, in Europe. The body is loog aud muohl flattene from side to side, and covered witia large cycloid. genies; the limbs anit shaped like the blade of a paddle or ai trowel., and broadly fringed,, The fleshl --red, like that of asalmoct—le exeeI», lent eating, and large epeoineene art* said, lee attain a length' of eix, feet and it weight:1 of about twenty pomade, tbei apparent dLeparity leetsveen size and weight being probably accounted foe 1 hy tb.e tapering off of the body behind the poeterior limbs. Theis home is in the Burnett amd aTary Rivers; and as they were in danger of beooming ex - (Ana the Hegel Society of Queeneland recently resolved 'to establish, them in r new habitats. The lung-fieh in its natural state eats large quantities of vegetable mate ter, but this does not appear, to be nee msery to it, The lung -fish 'cannot live an the lands like a true animal, but its lungs are of a higher type than the gills ef or- dinery fish, and its heart bas three die visions instead, of two, a, 14,1 jtjjj:7” Men ant Women neat Kerns ince Beasts. Villereuve, a Frenob authority,'. has been at some pains to collecb many in- stances of meta and women who have hest borne. In the 13ritiela Museum is the larg- est specimen of a human horn, It la eight inches in length and ornansentect ' the bead of a noble Englishman. Id the seventeenth century a. Mrs. Allen, a Leicestershire, Exigla.nd, had a pair, of horns. Another Englishwoman of the same town, known as the beauti- ful Mary Davis, had a pair of horns et the which were regarded as an addition. tc( her -charms. She had. them cut off four • times, but they grew- again. One growth was peasented. to King Henry, IV., ot France. In 1887 X. Lensprey relates* foundi in the African territory. of Ga,niztv sev- eral imposing typets of horned nusn and women. One of these was a mejestie- looking negro with two horns, which its his case sprang one from each side at the nose, A Mexican named Rodrigues is d.escribed as having a horn on the side of his head. about seven inohess long, with( three bronches. There are cases of similar horns be- ing found ou dogs, horses and hares: IVIalpigh calls such excrescences "a nervous prolongation of the skin." Hie- sohi calls them the result of a morbid. secretion. They are, in substance an- alogous to the horny growth of the hu- man finger netts and the claws og bea,sts. A MILLION A DAY. What It Costs the veg. 5. Carry on No Danger Danger ora Shortage. Hostilities with Spain are costing the people of the United States 51,000,000 ut day says &Washington despatch. That is a heavy price to pay for war's glories, but so far as can be learned. here where the pulse of the public can be best felt, the expenditure pleases the nae tion's taxpayers,. Fully 5100,000,000 has been paid out thus far for expenses incurred by the war of humanity. These figures are calculated on the basis of the cost of defenee during normal times. The expenditures for national defence (array and. navy) this year exceed $75,- 000,000, aver and. above what it cost last year, and this excess is attributes able to only one ceuse—war., Of Uses 575,000,000 more than two- thirds has been spent on the army, The excess for the navy has amounted: to 825,000,000. It should be rememe bered that these sums represent only, the actual money already paid out. They take no account whatever of the vast sums that must be paid later,iand for which contracts have already been made. On a cash transaction basis the war haS been costing the country about 51,000,0008. day since July 1. The demand for ready cash is large- ly supplied by the special war tax which is now in full Wash and. which is turning large SUMS into the tre- say daily. .The receipts from this souree to date from Sally 1 amount to taken in before the new stamp act 510,000,000, more than double the sum went into effect. Officials of the Treasury Depart- ment have no fear of embarrassment, What with the added. receipts from the stamp • tax. with the great revenue from the customs, and with other sottr- :es of revenue, the country will be in. a pretty fair way of being able to pay its bills. AS the war enlarges and the opera - Limas of the army &ridnavy expand mare and more money will be needed, but it will be forthcoming, Two Sme- ared, million of war bonds are sold and will flow into the treesary. There is already in the strong box abalance of something like 250.000,000, • and. the tocesSiOn of the cash on the bonct tale will bring the treasure up to the value of nearly 5500 000,000. Al the enerinous cost of 51,000,000 per diem a year's war would. foot, up an expense bill of only, 065,000,000. All tillage considered., therefore, the aountry will have plenty of melt. There will be no clanger of a. shortage. • eaaa.„ CLASSED AS 1IIII.'11,TONAIIIES. To be elassed as a millionaire in the; 'United States a Man must be worth at least 51,000,000;.England, be must have five times as neuth, or $5,000,000 an Germany, :ft 000,000 marks, or 4,12,50a,Qa„