Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1899-11-23, Page 6NOVES ANZCONAtavrs. will be conceded tIit agood ot profane swearing is net due to Ray exceedbug. wlekedue,sts a beara but !habit and nue/dation A. more potent Oxalate heweVer4 Is defective educetiou. 011ie ordinary Mari finds it difficult to etbatile 'Clearly, to carry, a Hue of thought to its logiCal conclusion, Ile ?Me besides, only a limited vocabul- ary, and ea le hampered in giving Ins thought exact expre,ssion. He swears, therefore, just as men shout some- times, bemuse like a loud ory, im- Virecation aunth up a -vvhole seutence, He wants to make his speeole as strong tied definite as possible, but his com- mand a words and phrases is small, and a simple statement made in them would, be feels, be weak and. feeble. AVlaat he needs to increase it poteney is italics, and these, he finds in oaths. A better etlueated man would, with his larger command of speecb, give the full force of the statement without recourse to adventitious aids. But the prdinary raan finds it easier to use the latter. By emphasizing his speech with oaths, he secures the desired ver- bal force, while avoiding the necessity of thinking clearly and expressing Lis meaning exactly. It is not alone a direct and. flagrant violation of the Jaw a God, but an offense to all who aome in contact with them. It be- tray a a lack a real culture, the cul- ture of the heart as well as of the in- telleet, and proclaims them to lade that consideration for the feelings and welfare of others which every- where •distinguishes the cultivated. trom the vulgar. It may he urged, of course, that swearing is by no means confined to the two classes we have mentioned; that the use of words and devices to give emphassis to speech is general, and that slide words and devic.es be- long to the same family as oaths. That there is truth in the charge cannot be denied, Um:Ugh a, careful distinc- tion must be made between oaths wh:cla Aishanor God, and words or forms em- Ployed only as italic's. Young ladies who de,sire to add emphasis to certain sentencets in their letters, but la,cle a sufficient command of the forms of rhetoric, to ena,ble them to do so in wends, a,re apt to resort to the device of enderscoring. Even contributors to .the press ha.ve been known to show a similar inability; to say what they mean without recourse to such sym- bols. With both classes a mechanical device is employed for the same piur- pose as in the oath by the uneducat- ed, and so in a way is swearing, though without the element of profanity. In like mettner the people who help out • natulral paucity of expression by working their arms, lifting their eye- brows, or shrugging their shoulders, mann be ssaid to resort to oaths of ges- ticulation. But while they are to be avoided as betraying a lack of preci- sion of thou,g-he and expression, and so of culture, they cannot be placed in the same category with peofane swearing. Not so much can be said, however, for the use of words which closely approach profanity, and which axe clearly- employed with evil in- tent. WANTED NO WITNESS. at— Thieves Bade short work or Their Cap- tured comrade. A traveller in South America tells Cassell's Satarelay Journal a ghastly atore of an adventure among the out- laws and. desperadoes there. One night a, farmer was aroused from his sleep by hearing an unusual noise about the slake. Ile got quietly out of bed, and, atter listening attentively, discovered that some people outside were cutting a, hale through the door close to the belt by which it wets held. It did not require any reat amount of detec- tive talent to gunsis the object of the Operation, and the best wa:y. to foil it was suggested by a thong of raw - bide, with a loop on it, which hung from a. hook on the inside of the door. Noiselessly removing the thong, he slipped the end of it throughthe loop, and there he stood, armed with an im- atramptu lawn ready for edam. It was an anxioue time while the farmer stood votching the hole in the door, grow larger and larger, lentil attest it was of sufficient size to effect the purpose for which it was made. The flupirenbe moment arrived, and a hand was inserted stealthily, not only through the hole, but aleo through the loop of the little lees° which hung skillfully around it. With a, sudden jerk the loop wens tightened around the wrist, the hand was dragged in as far as the aperture would allow, and the thong was se - merely fastened to the hook on the back of the door. The robber was per- fectly helpless. His companions came to his aid, and having ineffeetualls dragged at the impeded:led arm till they ware tired, ga,ve up the struggle, and prepared to depart. Hut they were prudent meta and it occurred to them that, to save himself, their comrade might betray them, Dead raen, they said, tell no take; so they killed him on the egad and inn crwas. fee ADIJI,TER,ATE IT TIIEMSELVDS. A pretense has beet invented eat' patented in Brazil for preparing cof- fee in tabiesids by a system of eten- pression. It is envied that not only will there be less expense in expert - lug eaffee in this fotrn, but that the 011storner will he triore certain of thug reeeiving for his ilee the selin, tin- ethulterated article. BLESS THE LORD, 0 MY SOUL ! " Rev. Dr Talmage Speaks of the Love of God. Surpasses That of a Mother—Teaching Children by Pictures -- The Prodigal Son—A Father's Pavouritisrn—The Mother's Invalid Child—NS/hen God Tests a Christian's Character. A despatch from Washiegton says Rev. Dr. Talmage preached from the following. text °lee whom his mother eamforteth, so will I comfort you."—Isaiale lxvi, 13. The Bible is a warm. letter of affee- tion froma lenient to a child, eiad yet there are many who see chiefly the severer passages. . As there raay be fifty or sixty nights of gentle dew in one summer, that will not muse as inueh remark as one hail-storrn of bait an toter, so there are those who are more steuek byI those passages a the 13ible, that aunounee the indignation of God than/ by thone that, announee his affection. There may come to a. household twenty or fifty letters of affection daring the yea, and they will not make as much exeitement in ttfat bowel as( one sheriff's writ; and so there are people who arcf more at- tetative to those passages which an- nounce tbe wrath of God, than to those which announce..His mercy and. His favor. God. is a Lion, John says in the Boole of Revelation. God is a Breaker, Micah announces in bis pre- phecy. God is a Rock., God is a King. But hear also that God. is Love. A. feeler and his child axe walking out in the, fields on a summer's day, and. there comes up a thunder -storm, and there ie a flash of lightning that startLes the child, and the father says, "My dear, taat is God's eye." Tbere comes a areal of thunder, and the fath- er says, "My dear, that is God's voice," But the clouds go off the sky, and the storm is gone, and light floods the heavens and. floods the landscape, and the father forgets to say, "That is God's smile." s The text of this morning bends with great gentleness and love over all who are prostrate in' sin and. trouble. It lights up with compassion. It melts with tenderness. It breathes upon us the hash of an eternal lullaby,. for it annodnces that God resembles your Mother. "Ls one whom his mother coraforteth, so will I comfort you." I remark, in the first place, that God has a mother's simplicity of instruc- tion.. A father does not know how to teach a child. the A. B. C. Men are not skilled. in the primary department; but a another has so much patience that she will tell a child for the hun- dredth time the, difference between F and G, and; between. I and T. Some- times it is by blocks; sometimes by worsted work; sometimes by the sLate; sometimes by the book. She thus teaches the child, and has no awkward- ness of condescension, in so doing. So God, like our, Mother, stoops down to our infantile minds. Though we are told. a thing a thousand tircies, and we do not understand it, our heavenly Mother goes on, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a lit- tle. God. has been teaching some of us thirty years, and some of us sixty years, one word of one.syllable, and we do not know it yet—f-a-i-t-h, faith. When we come to that word we stum- ble, we halt, we lose our place, we -pro- nounce it wrong. Still God's patience is not exhausted. God, like our Moth- er, puts us in the school of prosperity, and the letters are in sunshine, and we cannot spell them. God. puts us in the school of adversity, and the letters are black, and we cannot spell them. If God. were merely a king, he would punish us; if he were simply a father, he would whip us; but God; is like a I mother, and so we are borne with and heaped aLt the way throligh. A. mother teacher her child chiefly ; by pictures. If she wants to set forth / to her child the hideousness of a quarrelsome spirit, instead of , giving a lecture upon that subject ' she turns over a leaf and shows the; child two boys in a wrangle, and says "Does not that look laorrible ?" If she wants to teenh her child the awful- ness of war, she tarns over the pie- tuxe-book and shows the war -charger, I the headless trunks of butchered men, the wild, agonizing, bloodshot eye of battle roiling under lids of flame, and. she says, "That is wax!" The child 1 understands it. In a great many books the best part are the pictures. The etyle May be insipid, the type: poor, but a pieture attracts a child's attention. NOW, God, like aim Moth.; er, teaches us almost everything by f pietures. Ged wishes to set forth the fact that in the judgment the good will be di- vided from the wicked. Hdav is it , done ? By a. picture; by a parable—a ; fishing scene. A grofun of hardy men, , Leng-bearded, geared for standing to ' tbe waist in water; sleeves vaned usp. Long oar, swain ; boat battered as though it had been a pleseciate, of. the sterna. ( A. full net, thumping about with the fish, whieh have lust discov- ered their captivita, the worthless moss -bunkers and the useful flounders all in the same net. The fisherman puts his hand down ,afrald the squirm- ing fins, takes out this moss -hunkers and throws theta into elle water, and gathers the good fish into the pail. So, says Christ, it shall be at the end ot the world. The bad he will cast away, and the good he will keep. An- other picture. • God, like oar Mother, wanted, to set forth the duty of neighbourly love, and. is done by a 'Admire. A( heap of weunds on the road to Jericho. As traveller has been fighting a robbed.. The robber stabbed hinn atid knoeltedi hike down. Two ministers coma along. They look at the poor fellow, bat do not help himt tmeeller conies along—a Samaritan, He says, "V.Thoe'' to the beast he is riding, and diemoonts, He examines the wounds; be takes out same wine, and with it washes the wounds, and then he takes some oil, and puts that in to make the wounds stop. snuerting ; .a.na then he tears off a pane -of Ins own gar- ment for e bandage. Then he lades the wouedeti man upon the beast; and walks by the side, bolding him on until they come to a tavern. Hel says to the landlord, "Hex's is money' to pay the man's board for two days; take care of him; if it costs anything more, charge it to sale, and I will pay it." Picture—The Good Samaariten, or Who is your neighbour t Does G'od want to .set forth what a freolish thing it is to go away fram the right, andnaow glad Divine merey is to take break the wanderer? How is it done? By a pietane. A good fath- er. Large term, with fat sheep and. oxen. Fine house, with exquisite wardrobe. Discontented boy. Goe,s away. Sharpers fleece him, Feeds hogs. Gets homesick- Starts back. Sees an old man running. It is fath- er! The hand, torn of the husks, gets iancri,ngge.tsThaesfaonot, inflamed and bleed - gets a robe. The stamacJa, gnawing cttaa The reshoul- der, showing __nun t tatters, itself with hunger, gets a full platter straoking with meat. The father can- not eat for looking at the returned. adventurer. Tears running clown the face until they come to a smile— the night dew melting into the morning, No work on the farm that day; for when a bad boy repents, and comes back, promising to do better, God knows that it is enlaugh for one day. ief.g they began to be merry." re—Prodigal Son returned frone the wilderness, So God, like our Mother, teaches us everything by pic- tures. The sinner is a lost sheep. Jesus is the Bridegroom. The usleess me an a barren fig -tree. The aspet is a great supper. Seta a. sower of tares. Truth, a mustard - seed. That which we could not have undeastood in the abstract statement, God presents to us in this Bible -album of pictures, God engraved. "Is not the Divine loving -kindness ever thus teach- ing us?" I remark again that God has more than a mother's favouritism. A father sometimes shows a. sort of favouritism. Here is a boy—strong, well, of high forehead and quack intellect. The fa- ther ,says, "1 will take that boy into my firm yet ;" or, " will give him the very beat possible education." There are instances where, for the culture of the One boy, all the others have been robbed. A sad favouritism; but that is not the mother's favourite. I will tell you her favourite. There is a child who at two yeara of age had a fall. He /lever got over it. The scarlet fever muffled his hearing. He is not what he once wa,s. The child has caused the mother more anxious nights than all the. other children. If he coughs in the night, she springs out of a sound sleep and goas to him. The last thing she. does when going out of the house! Ls to give a charge in regard to him. Tbe firat thing on coming in is to ask itt regaxcl to him. Why, the children ef the family, all know that he is the favourite, and say, "Mother, you let him do just as he pleases, and you give him a great many things which you do not give us. He is your favourite." The mother melee; she knows it is so. So' he ought to be; for if there is any one in the world who needs sympathy more than another, it is an invalid child, weeny an the first mile of life's journey; carrying an aching head, a weak in,side, an irritated lung. So the raother ought to make him a favour- ite. God, like our Mother, has favour- ites. "Whom the Lord loveth he chas- teneth." That is, one whom he especi- ally loves He diesteneth. God loves us all; but is them one weak, and sided and. sore, and wounded, and suffering,1 and faint? That is the one who lies nearest and znore perpetually on the great, loving heart *of God. Why it never coughs bat God hears it. It never stirs a weary limb in the bed but God knows of it. There is iao such a watcher as God. The best nurse, may be overborne by fatigue, and fall aeleep in the chair; but God, like our Mother, after being up a year of nights with a suffering ehild never slumbers oe sleeps. " Oh!" saya one, "I cannot under- stand all that about affliction," A re- finer of ,silver ouce explained it to a Christian lady, I put the silver in the fire, and I keep refining it and trying it till I can see my face in it, and I then take it out." Just so it is that Gad keeps His dear children ha the furnace till the divine image may be seen in them; then they are taken ont of the fire. " Well," sayer some one, "if that le the way thatGod treats His favourites, Ido ,not want to be a fav- ourite." There is a barren field on an autumn clay just wanting te be let alone. There is a bang at the bars, and. a rattle of whiffle trees and devices. The field says, "What is the farmer going to do with me now?" The far- mer puts the plough in the ground, shouts to the horses, the coulter goes tearing through the sod, and the fur- row reaches from fence to fence. Next day there is a bang at the bare, and a rattle of whiffleetrees again. The field says, "1 wonder what the farmer is going to do now." The fa,rraer hitches the borees to the harrow, and it goes bounding and tearing across the field, Next day there is a rattle at the bars again, and the field says, "What is the farmer going to do now?" He walks heavily acmes the field, scattering seed ae he walks% After a while a aloud cornea The field says, "What, more tranale I" Tt begins to rain. After a while the wind ehangess to the north- east, and it begins to snow. Sao the field, "Is it not enough that I have drowned? Mut new be snowed un" been torn, and trampled upon,• and der 1" After a while, Spring comes out of the gates ot the South, and warmth and gladzaese come with it. A green scarf bandages the gash a the wheat - field, and the July morning drepe down of gold on the head of the grain, TIMES "Ohl" sane the field," now I know the use of the plough, of the harrow, of the answer, end of the tmew, It Is well IMOUlirla to be trodden, and ,seowea un- der, if 1 on yield ,suali e P,'Iortolleaher" vest." "He that ,goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious% seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoieing, bringing hie sheaves with bim.'" Wheal. I see God espeelally busy in troubling and trying a Christian, I know that oet of that Christian's diameter there is to come some especi- al good. A quarryman goes down in- to the excavation, and with strong - handed machinery bores into the rock. The rock says, "What do you do that for?" He leas powder in; he Agate a fuse. There Is a thundering orash. The rock says, "Why, the whole moun- tain is going to ,pieces." The crowbar le Plunged; the rook is dragged. out. After a while it ia taken into the art- ist's studio. It gays, "Well, now I have Rot to a good, warm, comfortable Plaee atlast." But the soulptor takes the chisel and mallet,. and he digs for the eyes, and he outs for the mouth, and he bores for the ear, and he rubs it with' sand -paper, until the rock says, "When will this torture, be ended?" A sheet is thrown over it. It stands in darkness. Atter a while it is taken out. The eovering is removed. It stands in the sunlight in the presence of ten thousand. applauding people, as they greet the statue of the poet, or the prince, or the conqueror. "Ah!" says the stone, "now I understand it. I am great deal better off now standing as a statue of a conqueror than. I would have been down in the Tierce." So God finds a man down in the quarry of ignoranee and sin. How to get him up? He must: be boxed, and blasted, and chiselled and chiselled , • and scoured, and stand sometimes in the darkness, But after a while the mantle of affliction will fall off, and his soul will be greet- ed by theone hundred and forty-four thousand,. and the thousand of thou- sands, as more than oonqueror. Oh, my friends, God, like our Mother, is just as kind in our afflictions as in our prosperities. God never touches us but for our good. If a faald clean and cultured ia bettea off then a bar- ren field, and if a stone that has be- come a statue is better off than the marble in the quarry, then that soul which God chastens may be His favour., ite. Oh, the rocking of the souk is not the rocking of an earthquake, but the rocking of God's cradle. "As one whom his mother comfortethe so will I corn - fort you." I have been told that the pearl in an oyster is merely the result of a wound, or a sickness inflicted up- on it, and I do not know, buil that the brightest gems of heaven will be found to have been the wounds of earth kindled into the jewelled brightness of eteenal glory. I remark that God has 010T0 than a mother's capacity for attending to lit- tle hurts. The father is shocked at the broken bone of the child, or at the sickness that sets the cradle on fire with fever, but it takes the mother' to sympathize with all the little ailments and little bruises of the child. It the child have a splinter in its han,d, it wants the mother to take it out, Snd the father. The father says, "Oh, that is nothing," but the mother knows it is something, and that a little hurt sometimes is a very great hurt. So with God; all our annoyances are im- portant enough to look at and sym- pathize with. Nothing with God is something. There are no ciphers in God's arithmetic. Aad if we were only good enoughof sight, we could see as much through a microscope as through a telescope. Those things that may be impalpable and infinitesimal to us, may be pronounced an Infinite to God. A mathematical point is defined as having no parts, no magnitude. It is so small you cannot imagine it, and yet a mathematical point may be a starting -point for a great eternity. God's surveyors carry a very long chain. A scale mustbe very delicate that can weigh a grain, but God's scale is so delicate that He can weigh with it that which is so small that a grain. is a million, times heavier. When John Kitto, a poor boy on a back street of Plymouth, cut his foob with a piece of glass, God bound it up so succesfully that he became the great Christian geographer, and a commander known among all nations. So 'every wound of the soul, however insignificant, God is willing to bind up. As at the first cry of the child the mother rushee to kiss the wound, so God, like our Mother, takes the smallest wound of the heart, and presses it to the lips of divine sympathy. "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I com- fort you." • I remark farther that, God has more than a mother's patience for the.err- ing. If one does wrong, first his associates in life cast him off; if he goes on in the wrong way, his business partner casts him off; if he goes on, his best friends cast him off. But after all others have cast him off, where does he go? Who bolds no grudge, and forgives the last time as well as the first? Who sits by the murderer's counsel all through the long trial? Who tarries the longest at the windows of a culprit's cell. ? Who, when all others think ill ot a man, keeps on thinking well of )aim? It is his mother. God laless her grey hairs, if she still be alive; and bless her grave if she be gone! And bless the rocking.chair in which she used to sit, and bless the cradle neat she used to rock, and blessthe bible she used to read I So God has patience for all the erring. After everybody else has cast a man off, God, like our Moth- er, comes to the rescue. God leaps to take eharge of a bac). case. Anse all the other doctors have got through, the heavenly- Physician comes in, Human sympathy at such a time does not amount to much. :nven the sympathy ot the Church, I am sorry to say, often does not amount to much. I have seen the, most harsh and bitter treatment on the part of Mose who were wavering and erring. They tried on the wanderer sarcasm. and Billingsgate, and caricature, and they tried tittle-tattle. There was one tiairig they did not try, and that was forgiveness, A soldier in England was brougbt by a sergeant to tbe col- onel. "What," pays the colonel, 'briagleg the man her again. We have tried everything with him," "Oh no," says the sergeant, "there is one thing you have not tried, I would like you( to try, that." "What is their. said the °oldie'. Said the man, "For- giveness." The case had not gone so far bat that it might take that turn, and so the eolonel said, "Well, young man, you have done so and de What is your excuse?" "I have no excuse, but 1 tim very sorry," said the man. "We have made lip ow' Minds to fan' give you," mid the eater:tee The teat% started. He had never been accosted taa that way before, MS itfe wee re- ronned, and thet was the starting - Point for 4 positively Christiae lite, (lh1 Church of God, qui( your sercasm when a man hale 1 Quit your irony, quit your tittle-ttthe ami try forgive - noes. God, like your Mather, tries it all the time. A man's six may be like a continent, but God's forgiveness is like to Atlantic: both ahsindPzifie Oceans b , The Bible often talks about God's hand. I wonder !low it looks. You remember distinetly bow your moth- er's hand looked, though( thirty years ego it withered away. It was differ- ent from your father's hand, Wheat, you were to be chastised, you had rather have mother punish you than father, It did not hurt so much. And father's hand was different' from mother's pertly because it had out- door toil, and partly because God in- tended it to be different. The knuck- les were more firmly set and the palm „ was calloused. But mother's hand was more delicate. There were blue veins running throrgh tbe back ot it. Though, the fingers, some of them, were picked wtih a needle, the palm ot it was soft. Oh 1 it was very soft. Was there ever any poultice like that bo take pain out of a wound? God's hand ia like a mother's hand. What ie towhee it heals. If it smite you, it does not hurt as if it ware another hand. Oh yen poor wandering soul in sin, it is not a bailiff's hand that seizes ,you to -day. 1 t is not a hard hand. It is not an unsympathetic hand. It Is not a cold hand. It is not an enemy's hand. No. It is a gentle hand, a loving hand, a sympathetic hand, a soft hand, a mother's hand, "As one whom bis mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." I want to say, finally, that God has more than a another's way of putting a child to sleep. You know there is no cradle -song like a mother's. Atter the excitement of the evening it is almost impossible to get the child to sleep. If the rocking -chair stop a moment, the eyes are wide open; but the mother's patience and the moth- er's soothing manuer keep on until, atter a. while, the angel of slumber puts his wing over the pillow. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the time will come when we will be wanting to be pat to* sleep. The day at our: life will be dime, and the shadows of the night of death will be gathering around us. Then we want God to soothe us, to hush us to sleep. Let the music at our going not be the dirge al the organ, or the knell of the church -tow- er, or the drumming of a "dead welsh' but let it be the hush of a mother's Lullaby. Oh I the cradle of the grave will be soft with the pillow of all promises. When we are being rocked into that last slumber, 1 want this to be the cradle -song .• "As one whom, a mother comforteth, so will I comfoet you." "Asleep in Jesus! Far from thee Thy kindred and their graves may es; But thine is still a blessed. sleep, From which none ever wake to A Christian man was dying in Scot- land. His daughter Nellie sat by the bedside. It was Sunday evening, and the bell of the Scotch Kirk was ring- ing, calling the people to church. The good oldeman, in his dying dream, thougnt that he was on the way to church, as he used to be when he went in the sleigh across the river; and as the evening bell struck up, in his dying dream he thought it was the call to church. He said, "Hark, chil- dren, the bells are ringing; we shall be late; we must make the mare step out quick!" He shivexed, and then said, "Pull the buffalo robe up closer, my lass! It is cold crossing the river, but we will soon be there. Nellie, we will soon be there!" And he smiled and, said, "Jusb there now."' No won- der he smiled. The good old roan had got to church. Not the old Scotch kirk, but the temple In the skies. Just across the river. How comfortably did. God hush that old man to sleep! As one whom his mother comforteth, so Gbd Comfort- ed him. .....11111.+ COFFEE DRINKERS. Supported 114 the Ilse of the stamniant bY • late Authorities. The question of coffee drinking being injurious is agitated for every now and again; then the agitation subsides, and people go on drinking it. According to the beet authorities, coffee takee in moderation is not only hemlines, but highly beneficial. Its value as a stimulant has always been recognized, and the fact that it is so highly prized as a beverage, if there were no other reason would go far to prove that it has a powerful influence on the nervous system. The action imparted to the nerves, however, is natural and healthy, and ha.bitual coffee drinkers generally en- joy good health and live to a good old aige• For brain workers its value cannot be overestimated. It has been called the "mental beverage," and, unlike al- colaol, the gentle exhileration it pro- duces is not followed by any harmful reaction, It causes contentment of mind, allays hunger and bodily weak- ness, and increases the capacity for work. • The meatal exhilaration and physi- cal activity it causes explains the fond- ne,ss for it which hes been shown by ao many scientists, pads, scholars and others devoted to thought. lts effect on the imagination is remarkable, without caueing any eubsequeen de- preseion, as in the case of narcoties. Belzae, the great French noveliat, de- clared tbat he could not have.written the "Comedie amain° " without its VISUAL ORGANS ALL RIGHT. Can I see the mistress of the house?' asked the tourist in reduced eircura- atances who stood at the kitehen door, You me if you heine good wee of your eyes, coldly replied the woman eoafronting her. Yon am looking at her? ? can uare them well enough, madam, he responded, with mirth stiffness, to aee that you. WV a purist, and not a philanthropist. We have notlifng itt cOmmon. Good afternoon, madam. POINTS IN SOUTH AFRICA, Sexes abet ties enesent War Is Rotor° rho Eves or the Work,. DUNDEE ie int Natal, and is forty Miles north a Ladysmith, on tbe main line of vallroodi from Durban to Pre - Lode. It is 6901 miles below Pretoria. The famous gergs (tattle angle of the Natal territory is near there. Vryheid, formerly the capital of the South Africaa Repu,blic, is adjacent. • The region is mountainous, and aeounde in coal and iron fields. There is where all( the cool for the railroad, comes from. VRYBCTRG—This is the place where the Boers fblew up one axmored train of the British. Vryburg i the ancierit capital of Bechuanaland.. 11 18 Ou the e•ailroatl twee Cape Town to Bulawayo, 775 miles north of Cape Town. It is 127 miles north of the Kim- berley diamond tields, and lies just west en the border of the South Afri- can Republic. It is an important trade centre. KIMI3BRLEY—Here, the Boers be- sieged Cecil Rhodes, the managing clirettor of the Britisb. South Africa Company and of the De Beers Dia. mond. Mining Company. Kimberley is in Cape Colony, 67 miles above Cape Town, on the rail- road from the latter place to Bulu- wayo. , It is located on the western border of the Orange Free State. It is the centre of the greatest diaenond mines in the world, There is ai vast amount of gold locked up at' Kimber- ley, supposed to, aggregate 825,000,000. 1VIA.TUBA HILL, where the Boers de- feated the British in 1881, is fifteen miles north al Neweastle, on the bor- der of the Orange Free State. It is 275 miles trom Durban, on the railroad, ev-hieh, leadss from Durban to Pretoria. The mountain hies an altitude of .7,000 feat, and guarder the pass' at Laing's Nek, The trunk line. train Durban to Pretoria now runs through this pass. It is about 235 miles from Majuba, due north-west, to Pretoria. VAN REENEN'S PASS—This mean- -thin defile is located on the branch railroad from Ladysmith to Har- rianable, and, is in Natal, on the east side of the raonntain range whiela separates Natal from the Oran,ge Free State, From Ladysmith to the pass there is a gradual ascent from the pasture lands to the defiles of the mountains. The pass is 5,600 feet aoove the sea level. The Drakensburg is the water- shed. which :divides the Indian and At- lantic oceans. INGOGO HEIGHTS --This as -the name given to the mountains which stand at the angle where Natal, the Orange Free State and the South African Re- public come together. The region is historic, for it contains nearly all of the battle Beide in the war between the Boers and the British in 1880-1881. In.gogo station is 283 miles north! of Durban on the road from Durban' to Pretoria. The railroad pass at Ingogo is 4,000 feet above the sea level. Ladysmith is in Natal, 190 miles ourth a Durban, on the road to Pre- toria. It is on a mountain slope of 'the Klip river, '3,284 feet above the sea, and. thirty miles from the foot. of the Drakensburg range. It is just east of the Orange Free State border. (11A.RRISMITII is '250 miles north of Durban, in the Orange Free State, just west of, the Natal border. It is on a inan.ele of the road, from Durban to Pretoria, is built of white stone from the Table Mountains, and the most important trading centre of the Orange Free State. It, is a health re- sort. Harrisinieh is one of the general rendezvou,s of the militia of the Orange Free State. MAFEKING—This place is supposed to be one of the objective points of the Boers in their first campaign. lalefeking is on the railroad from Cape' Town to Buluwayo, and is 875 miles above Cape Town. Until two years ago it was the.ternainus of the railroad. It is a free warehouse port, under the South African Customs Ianion Conven- tion. It is located in Cape Colony, just west of the border of the South Afri- can Republic., and, is on the, route be- tween Bechuanaland and the Trans- vaal. The place is of strategic import- ance. Formerly it was the home of the Ba-Mangsvata, a highly developed native race. It is an important trade centre. OFFICIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA. xien who Preside over the Republics and Colonies Illade FalitisVIN In the Vrae. South African Republic, Independ- ent—President, Stephanus J. Paulus Kruger, "Oom "Paul ;" Vice-E'resident, Gen. P. J. Joubert, "Slim Peter"; Sec- retary of State, F. W. Reitz; Chair- man of First Volksraad, F. G. Wol- malaria ; Chairman of Second Volks- read, N. Steen Kamp, Capital, Pre- toria. Oage Free State, Independent— President, M. 3. Steyn ; Secretary of State, P. J. Blignaut; Chairman of the Volksraad, C. H. Wessehs; Chief Justice Supreme Court, M. de Villiers, Capital, Bloemfontein. • Bechean,aland, 'English — Governor, Sir Alfred Miln,er ; Resident Commis- sioner, Major Hamilton John Goole. Adams. No capital, The colony is gove,rne,d, from Cape Town. • Natal and also Zululand, English— Governor, Sir Walter F. Hely-Hutch- inson; Premier, Sir Henry Mans; At- torney -General, Mr. Bale, Capital, Pietermaritzburg. Cape of Good Hope and Cape Colony, English—Goverrier, Sir Alfred Mil- ner ; imperial Secretary, George V. Fiddes ; Commander of Troops, Lt. - GPM., Sir William, T. alder ; Premier, Willi tine Phillip Schreiner; Speaker of the Assembly, W. B. Berry. Capital, Cape Town, Ba ea tole red, English Resident Commissioner, Sir Godfrey Y Lagden, Capital, Maseru. THE ALTERNATIVE. I shall not go oat of that door, sir, said the irate subscriber, until I haVe 'hadiessallexrpiallassastrisessPonded the edito'r, The wiedow ts jest. as 'handy. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, nen' INTERNATIONAL LESSON, Nair. 26, "Woes of ntienaperauee." earn 23. 2P4l6• eanden Teri, even. ee. 1. PRACTICAL NOTES. Ver,se 29, Who /Lath woe? who hath sorrovv? laterally, "Who his Oh? who has Alas?" ,Whose life is made up of e.eclamatione ot distress? "Ohs" and "Alases" are occasionel interjedione- with most of us; they are outcries of pane tlaat suddenly inteerupt the peaceful flow of life. But Solomon knows a man whose life is one pxo- longed 'many of agony. Who is lie? Who bath contentioxs? who bath bab- bling? The liquor shop is the head 'quarters of fighters and of fools,' If a man ia determined to fight with an- other, he must get rid of aliment bind - n585, 80 he take e alcoholand becomes a brute. If a man wants to learn a fool's secret, he must first get rid of the fool's lingerbag senses, so he gives him aleohol, and the secret is divulged., Wounds •witho t cause. Without reason. A large proportion, of the " propn. ortioof, fatal accident, and dnfes:alsyesalwl laioth:oasuscoeuilegsse aunprofit- able ancl t- able aiaputes of life, arise from aleohot---- and intoxicating drugs. Who hath red- ness of eyes? '"Dimming of eyes" would be a better translation, but bloodshot and bleared eyes are marks of a drunkard. This versa is an awful arraignment of wine. In. Solomon's clay no intox- icant stronger than wine was known; in Gum distilled liquor and the adulter- ation of popular drinks bring ruin much nearer to our households, Reb- ert Hall, the. famous Baptist, called brandy "ltcju,id fire and distilled dam- nation." The fabled Ciree invited men to delightful banquets, which, partak- en of, tenhaforraed the guests into beasts. Such is the "liquor habit." Al- cohol overworks the heart, poisons the blood, weakens the lungs, paralyzes the nerves, congests the brain, dull the mind, and destroy ss the soul. In our day, as in Solomon's, the twenty-ninth verse can be truthfully answered Gnly abnydthderogsthir,teenth ; only that e hants e wearisome list of intoxicating drinks% to add to "wine" and "mixed wins" 30. They that tarry long at the wine., There are in almost every community . drunkards whose "sprees" are pro - treated through da,ys and even weeks, Them is an. evil charm in all intoxi- cants. They that go to seek raised wine.. " Mixed wins" is wine spiced end ilia/aged to strengthen it. "Go toseeka is 'Aerially go in to sample," to test. So we have in this valise grouped to- gether those who drank " reepeotably at home and those who haunt the grog - shop. The weaker always leads to the canstrotins,,.ger ; cider ,bo wine, wine to whis- ky, whisky to the strongest intoxi- 31. Look not thou upon the wine. , If Circe is charming, burn thine eyes, away. Total abstinence, then, Le no "nineteenth century doctrine." Three thousand years ago wise men saw clearly that moderate drinking was, not the best means to develop thor- oughly sober men, while it makes mil- lions of drunkards. But how perti- nacious is tihis vice! Three nneoueand years 1 Ninety generations I —a-Bnen- ing those long years how many lives h ave been ruined by intexicants, how many souls lost I What immeasure able practical folly there is na this wOrld in spite of ell its aggregated wisdom I When it is red. Or golden. The beauty or wine adds to its fascina- tion and Its danger. Givetat his color in the oup. Sends the sparkling en, "bead' up to the surna.ce. Moveth it- aa self aright. The Revised Version has agoeth down smoothly." .Whichever of these phrases be preferred( the re- feriencs still is to the evil charm( of wine; A glows and sparkleseto please tolftaste. 82. eye; its flavor delights the sense 62. At the Last it biteth like a ser- pent. However famineting at first, in, the end it stings. And how ritual- ple is the pain of its sting—physical enfiranities, remorse, defamation of re- putation, degradation of character, dee spair I An adder. Probably, accord - Ing to Dr. Plumatre, this is the cer- astes, or horned snake, whith coils it- self un on the sande of the Bast and darts unexpectedly at. wayfarers, 33. Thine eyes shall behold. strange -- women. The Revised. Version trans- lates, "Thine eyes shall behold strange things," a phrase, which suggests de- lirium tremens. "Strange women," is the phrase used by our Authorized Version to describe women' Who earn their livelihoed by indulging se'neual 'net. "Stranger women" would (be better—that is, foreign women, heath- en, womien,„ who had-, a low code of morals. Thine heart shall utter per- verse things. The:Hearew, word, says Dr. Taylor Lewis, •",denetes topsy-tur- . v haess, utter contradictoriness, eb- aur di ty, and wild confusion." The in- toxicated. man \having stupefied his moral purpose and de.praved Ina sen- ses, his lawless imaginings are free. Neitlaer will nor words are under con- trol. .Strong drink greatly arouses the lower passions. 134. As he that Iieth down in the midst of the sea. Very giddy and sick; very enizoN in denger, too, stis he. that lith upon, the top of alnuSt." A. climactic restatement. So meltlees and, wretched e bed as thealiaastheaa off a vessel, plunging in the trough of the open sea would not be easy le frupliceee; but it is a comfortable, safe place of repose compared with, (hat ofrfteeys drVxd.trieken and I was not sick. leaflet, "I was not hurt," The drunkard is contemp- tuous; when his friends expostu- late withhim he says, It does me no harm. You say that bad hp bit ' ins besdea Me, but I felt it not." When shall Tawake should bot be cut off erten what follows, It 18 a statemeet oi the behavior of every man who tree given himself over to this fatal fault "when I shall awake" I will emir it yat again. ACTUALLY INSULTING:: Conductor, hastily,—IIoW old i$ that child? Yoing Mot hen indiguantly,—Do look old enough to have a eeild old eienigh' to pay fare?