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The Exeter Advocate, 1895-11-22, Page 7THE BANQUET OF SIN OR. TALMAGE'S LESSON FROM THE FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR, . —..._ 'Weighed in the latittatee and Pound 'Want, ing-anteemiclatnness or God's judgments --A Thought as to Venus of Prayer -Tatou and Live. 'Washington, NOT, 10.- Since his coming to Washington Dr. Talmage's pulpit ex- perience has been a remaltable one. Not only has the church in which he preaches been filled, but the andienoes have over- flowed into tho adjoining streets to an ex- tent that has rendered them impassable. , 'Similar scenes were enacted at toelay's services, when the preacher took for his .etibject, "Handwriting on the Wall," the text chosen being Daniel v, 80. "in that night was Belshazzar, the King a the Chaldean% slain." , Night Was about to come down on J3abys Ion. The shadows of her 250 towers began - to lengthen. The Euphrates rolled on, at' embed by the fiery splendors of the set- a ting sun, and the gates of brass, burnish- ed and, glittering, openedand shut like doors a Daum The hanging gardens of Babylon, wet with the heavy clew, began . to pour from starlit flowers and dripping leaf a fragrance for Many miles around. The streets and squares were lighted for• dance and frolic and promenade. The theaters and galleries of art invited the wealth and pomp and grandeur of the oftY to rare entertainmeots. Scenes of riot and wassail were mingled in every street, hnd godless mirth and outrageous excess and splendid wickedness eame to the king's palace to do their mightiest deeds of dark- ness. ' A royal feast to -night at the king's pal- aoe I Hushing up to the gates ate 6harlots, upholstered with precious cloths from Dedan and drawn by fire eyed horses frem Togarmah, that rear and neigh in the grasp of the charioteers, while a thousand lords dismount and women dressed in all the splendors of Syrian emerald, and the color blending of agate, and the chasteness of coral, and the somber glory of Tyrian purple, and princely embroideries brought from afar by camels across the desert and, by ships of Tarshish aoross the sea. Open wide the`gates and let the guests come in. The chamberlains and oup bear- ers are all ready. Hark to the rustle of the silks, and to the carol of the music! See . the blaze of the jewels! Lift the banners. Fill the elms. Clap the cymbals. Blow the trumpets. Let the night go by with song end dance and ovation, and let the Babylonish tongue be palsied that will not say, "0 King Belshazzar, live forever!" Ah, my friends, it was not any common banquet to which these great poeple came. _A.11 parts of the earth had sent their richest viands to that table. Brackets and chan- deliers flashed their light upon tankards of burnished gold. Fruits'ripe and lusctiotis, in baskets of silver, intwined with leaves, . plucked from royal conservatories. Vases, inlaid with emerald and ridged with ex- quisite traceries'tilled with nuts that were -. thrashed from forests of distant lands. ing in the decanters and bubblingin the ' Wine orought froin the royal vats, foam- ohalioes. Tufts of cassia and frankincense wafting their sweetness from wall and " table. Gorgeous banners unfolding in the • _breeze that came through the open win- dow, bewitched with the perfumes of , hanging gardens. Fountains rising up la • from inolosures of ivory, in jets of crystal, t to fall in clattering rain of diamonds and s i pearls. Statues of mighty men looking • . down from niches in the wallupon crowns and shields brought from subdued em- . pins, Idols of wonderful work standing on pedestals of precious stones. Em- broideries stooping about the windows and wrapping pillars of cedar, and drifting on door inlaid with ivory and agate. Music, mingling the thrum of harps, and the clash of cymbals, and the blast of trum- pets in one wave of transport that went • Tippling alone the wall and breathing among the garlands and pouring down the corridors and thrilling the souls of a thous- and banqueters. The signal is given, and the lords and ladies, the naighty men and women of the land, come around the table. Pour out the wine. Let foam and bubble kiss the rim! Hoist everyone his eup and drink to the sentiment. "0 King Belshazzar, live forever!" 13estarred head band and careanet of royal beauty gleam to the uplifted chalices, as again and again and again they are emptied. .Away with case from the palace! Tear royal dignity to tatters . Pour out more wine! Give us moreaight, wilder In usic, sweeter per- tunael Lord shouts to lord, captain ogles to captain. Goblets clash; decanters rattle. There oomo in the obscene song, and the drunken hiccough, and the slavering lip, and the guffaw of idiotic laughter, burst- ing from the lips of maims, flushed, reel- ing bloodshot; while an bilging with it all I hear, "Huzza, Mazza! for great Belshaz- zar!" ' What is that on the plastering of the wall? Is it a spirit? Is it a phantom? Is it God? The mnsio stops. The goblets fall froln the nerveless grasp. There is a thrill. There is a start. There is a thous - meta and -voiced shriek of horror .Let Daniel be brought in to read that writing. He emnes in, He reads it-" Weighed in the balance and found wanting." Meanwhile the Modes, who for two years 'had boon laying •siege to Met city, took ' advantage of that carousal and came in. I tear the foot of the conduerors on the pal- . ace stairs. Massacre rushes in with a . thotisand gleaming knives. Death bursts upon the scene, and I shut the door of 4' tihat banqueting hall, for I do not want to Jook. There is 'nothing there but torn banners, and broken wreaths, and the slush of upset eankards, and the blood of tuurdered weiten, and Oho kicked and tumbled carcass of a clead king. For "in that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeatts, slain,• ! I go on to Math smile lessons from all this I learn that when God writes any- ' thing on the walla man had better teed it as it is Daelol did not tnisinterpret or modify the handwriting on the Wall. It is all foolishness to expeet a minister of •tho gospel to preach always things thet the people like or the people choose Young •reen of Washington, what shall I preach to you to -night? Shall I tell you of the dignity of human nature' Shall I tell you .of the wonders that our race has accom- plishodP "Oh, no!" you say, "Toll me the Inoseage that came from Grod," I will. If there is any handsvriting on the wall, it is this lesson: "Repent! Accept of . Christ and be sated I." I might talk of a ... great many other things, but that is the Message, and so Idealise° it. jesus never %lettered those to %atone he preaches • He • said to those who did wrong, and who Woro Offensive in his sight, " 5. e.generation •Of vipers, te whited septdenets, how oat yo ethepe the damnation of hell!? Paul the apostle preached borate a man who was not teady to heat him preach, What subject did he take? Did he say, "Oh, YOu are a good 'nom a very fine mail, a Vety noble Irian?" No; he preached Of' • itighteensneas to a man Who was tuirighte catA thus, of temperance to a Man who Was h victim of bad. appetites, of judgment to mute to a man WhO Was unlit for it. ,Fio We Must always declare the nteetage that happens to come to us. Daniel must read, it as 18 18. • A. Minister preached before jaanes 1, of Englaod, who was james VL of Scot- land, What subject did he take? The king was noted all over the world for being unsettled and wavering in hie ideas. What did the minister preach about to this man who was James I. of Euglaud and James VI. of Sootland? lEre took for his text James '1,0: "He that Wayereth is like a wave of the sea dalVen with the wind and tossed." Hugh Lati- mer offended the king by a sermon he preached, and the king said, "Hugh Latimer, came and apologize,'' "I will," said Hugh Latimer. So the day was appoiated, and the king's chapel was full of lords and dukes and the mighty men and women of the county, for Hugh Latimer was to apologize. He began his sermon by saying: "Hugh Letinter, be- think thse I Thou art in the presence of thine earthly king, who can destroy thy body. But bethink thee, Hugh Latimer, that thou art in the peesenee of the king of heaven and earth, who can destroY both body and soul in hell fire." Then he preached with appalling directness at the king's crimes. Another lesson that comes to us to- night: There is a great difference be- tween the opening of the banquet of sin and its close. Young inan, if you had looked in on the banquet in the first few hours you would have wished you had been invited there, and could sit at the feast. "Oh, the grandeur of Beishaztoar's feast!" you would have said, but you look in at the close of the banquet and your blood curdles with horror. The king of terrors lias there a ghastlier ban- quet; human blood is the wine and dying groans are the music. Sin has inade it- self a king in the earth. It has crowned itself. It has spread a banquet. It invites all the world so oome to it. It has hung in its bent:meting halls the spoils of all kingdoms, and the banners of all nations. It has gathered from all music. 11 has strewn, from its tvoelth, the tables and floors and arches. And yet how often is that banquet broken up, and how hor- rible is its end! Ever and anon there is a handwriting on the wall. A king Mlle. A great culprit is aTrosted. The knees of wickedness knock together. God's judg- ment, like an armed host, brooks in upon the banquet, and that night is Bel- shazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. Heim is a young man who -says: "I can- not see why they make such a fuss about the intoxicating cup. Why, it is exhila- rating! It tnakes me feel well. I oau talk better, think better, feel better. I cannot see why people have swan a prejudice against it." A few years pass on, and he wakes up and finds himself in the clutches of an evil habit which he tries to break, but cannot, and he cries out, "0 Lord God, help me!" It seems as though God would not hear his prayers, •'end in an agony of body and soot he cries out, "Is biteth like a serpent, and it stingeth like an adder." How briget it Was at the start! Hotedblauk it was at the last! Here is a man who begins to read loose novels.. "They are so charming," he says. "I will go out and see for myself whether all these things are so." tie opens the gate of a sintul life. He goes in. A. sinful sprite meets him with her wand. She waves her wand and it is all enchantment. Why, it seems as if the angels of God had poured out vials of perfume in the atmosphere. .As he walks on he finds the hills becoming more radi- ant with foliage and the ravines more resonant with the falling water. Oh, what a ebanning landscape he sees! But that sinful sprite, with her wand, meets him again. But now she reverses the wand, and all the enchantment is gone. The cup is full of poison. The fruit turns to asbes. All the leaves of the bower are forked tongues of hissing serpents. The flowing fountains fall back in a dead pool stenchful with corruption. The luring songs become curses and screams of demoniac laughter. Lost spirits gather about Min and feel for Ids heart and beckon him on evich "Hail, brothel.' Hail, blasted spirit, hail!" •ajo tries to get out. He comes to the trent door where he entered and tries to push it back, but the door turns against him, and in the jar of that shutting door he hears those words, '"This oiget 13 Bel- shazzar, the king of the Chaldeans. slain." Sin may open bright as the morning. It ends dark as the night! I learn further from this subject that death sometimes breaks in upon a ban- quet, Why did he not go down to the prisons in Babylon?. There were people there that would like to have died. I suppose there were men and women in torture in that city who would have welcomed death, but he comes to the palace and just at the time when the mirth is dashing to the tip-top pitch, death breaks in at the banquet. We have often seen the same thing illustrated. 1.Tere is a young man just come from eel. lees. He is kind. He is loving. He is eahusiastic. He is eloquent. By one spring he may bound to heights toward which many men have been struggling for years. A profession opens before him He is established in the law. His friends cheer him. Eminent men encourage him. After awhile you may see him standing In the American senate, or moving a popular assemblage by his eloquence, as trees are moved in a whirlwind. Some night he retires early. A fever is on him. Delirium, like a reckless charioteer,seizes the reins of his intellect. Father and mother stand by and see the tidos of his life going out to the great ocean. The banquet is coming to an end. The lights of thought and mirth and elo- quence are being extinguished. The garlands are snatched from the brow. The vision is gone., Death at the ban- quet I We saw the same thing, on a larger scale, illustrated in our civil war. Our whole nation bad been sitting at a nation- al banquet -north, south, east, and west. What grain was there but we grew it on our hills*? What invention was there but our rivers must turn the now wheel and rattle the strange elnittlet What warm Ears but our traders anust being them from the Arctic?' What fish but our nets must sweep thorn for the markets? What music but it must sing in our halls? What Wog:meow but it must speak in our senates? Ho, to tho national banquet, reaching frona nuointain to mountain and from sea to seal To prepare that ban- quet the sheepfolds and thwaviaries of the country sent their best treastires. The orchards piled up on tho tribtee their sweet fruits. The presses burst out with beW Whim, Moat at that table canto the yeontahry of Now Hampshire, and the lumberrhen or Maine, and the Carolinian from the rico plantation, and the Western einigtant from the pines of Oregon, and We were all brothera-brothers at a ban- quet. Suddenly the feast cadet', What meant those =male thrOvva Ilp at Cbieklutianga, Shiloh'Min atee GOttYae burg, South • Mottataint Wbat meant those goldep grain flolde, turned into a pasturing ground for cavalry horses? What meant, tho oorutields gullied with the wheele of tlie heavy Supply train? Why those rivers of tears -those lakes of blood? God was angry I Justise must; come. A. handwriting on the wall! The nation had beep weighed and found wanting. Darkness! Darkiaessl Woe to the north 1 Woe to the south! Woe te the east 1 Woe to the west! Dermal at the banquet, I have also to leant float the subject that the destruction of the vioious, and of those wbo despise God, will be yory Sadden. The wave of mirth had dashed to the highest point when the invading army broke through. It was unexpected. Suddenly, almost always, comes the iloom or those who despise God and defy the laWs of mem How Was it at the deluge? Do you suppose it came through a long north-east storm, so that pelage for days before were sure it was coining? No. I suppose the incoming 'wets bright; that -calmness brooded on the waters; that beauty sat enthroned on the hills, wben 'suddenly the beaveuS bursts and the mountains sank like mothers into the sea that dashed clear over the Andes and tho The Red Sea was divided. The Egypt- ians tried to °rose it. There could be no clangor. • The Istaelttes had just gone through. Where they had gone, way not the Egyptians? Oh, it was such a beau- tiful walking -place! A pavemene of tinged shells and pearls, and ou either side two great walls of water -solid. There eau be no danger. Forward, great host of the Egyptians! Clap the cymbals and blow the trumpets of victory! Atter them! We will catch them yet, and they shall be destroyed. But the walls begin to !tremble! They rock! They fall! The rushing waters! The shriek of drowning mon! The swimming of the war horses in vain for the shore! The strewiug of•the great host on the bottom of the sea or pitched by the • angry wave on the beiteh-a battered, bruised and loathsome wreck! Suddenly destruction came. One-half hour before they could Dat have believed it. Destroyed, and without remedy. I am just setting forth a fact which you have noticed as well as I. Ananias comes to the apostle. The apostle says, • "Did you sell the land for so much?" He says, "Yes." It was a lie. Dead, as quick as that! Sapphire, his wife, emnes in. "Did you sell the land for so much?" "Yes." It was a lie, and quick as that she was dead! God's judgments are aeon those who despise him and defy htm. They come suddenly. The destroying angel went through Egypt. Do you suppose that any of the ,people knew that he was coming? Did they hear the flap of his great wine No! Nol Suddenly, unexpectedly he came. Skilled sportsmen do not like to shoot a bird standing on a sprig near by. If they are skilled they pride themselves on taking it on the wing. and they wait till it starts. Death is an old sportsman, and he loves to take men flying under the very sun. He laves to take them on the wing. Oh, flee to God this night! If there be one in this presence who has wander- ed far away from Christ, though he may DOS have heard the call of the gospel for many a year; I invite him now to come and be saved. Flee from thy sin! Flee to the stronghold of the gospel Now is the accepted time. Now isthe day of salvation. Good -night, my young friends: May you have rosy sleep, guarded by hfm who never slumbers! May you awake in the morning strong and well! But, oh, art thou a despiser of God? Is this thy last night on earth? Shoula'st thoaI be awakened in the night by something, thou knowest not what, and there be shadows floating in the room, and a handwriting ,on the wall, and you feel that your last ho•ur is corae, and there be ti fainting at the'heart. and a treinor in the limb, and a catching of the breath - then thy (Mont would be but an echo of the word of the text, "In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, silOtilt," that my Lord Jesus would now make himself so attractive to your souls that you cannot resist him, and if you have never prayed before or have not prayed since those clays when you knelt down at your mother's knee, then that to- night yeti might pray, saying: Just as 1 atm without one plea . But that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bid'st me come to thee, 0 Lamb of God I come 1 But if You cannot think of so long a prayer as that, I will give you a shorter prayer that you clan say, "God be mercie ful to ine, a sinner!" Or if you cannot think of so long a prayer as that, I will' giVe you a still shorter one that you may. utter, "Lord, save me, or I perish!" Or, if that be too long a prayer, you need not mate it. 'Use the word "Help" Or, if that be too long a word you need not use any word at all. Just look and live! A Glass of Water at Bedtime. The human body is constantly under- going tissue change. Water has the power of increasing these tissue changes which multiply the waste products, but at the same time they ane renewed by its agency, giving rise to increased appetite, which in turn provides fresh nutriment. Persons but little aceuetomed to drink water are liable to have the waste products formed faster than they are removed. Any -ob- struction to the free working of natural laws at once produces disease,. Poepie ac - °maimed to rise in the morning weak and languid will find the muse in the secretion of wastes'which many times may be remedied by • drinking a full tumbler of water before retiring. This materially assists in the process during the night, attd loves the tissues fresh and strong, and ready for the active work of the day. Hot water is one of the beat remedial agents. A hot beth on going to bed, even in the hot nights of summer, is a better reliever of insomnia than many dugs. For a coal in the Head. If the cold is in the head, the following treatment prOmiSos Well: add a teaspoon- ful of powdered camphor to a aitcher of boiling Water. OVer this place a cone made of a thick paper or pastebeard and hold tho nose and mouth over the small opening. The vapor arising from the water is charged with camphor, and will speedily Volley° many of the disturaing symptoms. It should be inhaled for four or five minutes at a sitting, and throe sueli treatments ere usually sufficient to arrest the inost rebellious "cold in the head." • But many of the victims of this trouble inust be out and about. A ;muff is neore tonvenient for them. A Vora good ono eat) be made as follows: Menthol], three grains; powdead Miracle aaid, one drachm subnitratoof hisniuth nod pow- dered benzoin, eath one and one-half draehms, A geed steed pinch may be on:tufted up five 01 SIX titne8 a day. 1 01J.4'.ora8w.4.'Lettiat. SHOWING HOW, THE POLITICAI-, POT KEEPS SIMMERING, Ministers 1$1aice itoyal Progresses --- Grits I 0) II kesk Cara wcii---Dalt0,1 earthy Als0--11111 chapletta Come Back? Story cr ,cabicet D35sensions--4nother areeent Seat, For Walter }templates Montague, doc- tor of uteclicine and Secretary of Stet% evil days are in store, Wickedand cen- sorious Grits are on the trail et • this oorpulent statesman William alulock and William Gahm, two foemen of Te- notyn in the 'hattlings of the Liberals, have pledged themselves to give r. Montague many a bad quarter of an hour. Ana why? Only because the peo- ple of Canada have had the honor to Pay the travelliug expenses of Dr. Mentague, of Dr. Montague's family and of Dr.Mon, tagne's man -servant and maid -servant. Surely 'Unlock and Gibson are vastly un- patriotic). Who are they -we tnay im- agine the Secretary of State as saying - that they should object to his oecuptang a Government private ear with his faintly and a Government freight car with his household goods and °Mathis? The exi- gencies of assisting in administering the affairs of this ungrateful country COM. pelted Dr. Montague to remove from DUnnville to Ottawa. A Private oar, be- longing to the people of Canada, stood vacant on the siding at Ottawa. How might it be better employed than in con- veying to the national capital one of Canada's greatest men? And when a Government freight oar was loaded up with the Montague household goods these impossible Grits, instead of casting slurs, should have united with the rest of the people of Canada in rejoicing for that one of the greatest mail in the country had condescended to allow them to oblige him. Likewise, when the wife of the doctor and the little Montagues went down to Nova Scotia to breathe the re- vivifying Atlantic breezes, it was in a Government oar 'that they travelled. Troly, Dr. Montague has overwhelmed us with his abnegating suavity. Far should it be from las to criticize him. Ministers make Royal Progresses. But some of us there are who are via - dins of inherent perversity. We shall make bold to ask why a Cabinet Minis- ter and a Cabinet Minister's family and a Cabinet Minister's furniture should be carried at our expense, while we have to hand over the bard coin when we are compelled to travel. When the Hon. J. C. Patterson took his wife to California they journeyed in a Governteent car, and the independent newspapers that objected were stigmatised as Grit sheets, The newspapers were right in objecting. There is no clause in the British North America Act that provides for giving free transportation to Ministers and 'their families. There is no clause en- acting that they shall get free clothes or food. The Fathers of Confederation would have been amazedif they had been told that within thirty years it would be taken for granted that Ministers should make royal progresses through the coun- try, and that the country should foot the bills. The thing is unfair. It is unjust to the taxpayers, and it is unjust to those mem- bers of the Government who pay their way. Sir Frank Smith has never Used a Government car. They have been Offered him, and this sturdy old knight has answered that a first-class passenger ear was good enough for him. When Messrs. Mulook and Gibson being the matter be- fore parliament they will be doing their duty. The Ministers who defend the *Ts- • tem will be doing themselves small honor. It would be unfair to say that all of the holders of portfolios have erred as Mon- tague has erred. Most of them have not. It rested with this loud -mouthed physi- cian, who is a model of self-sufdeient in- capacity, to give an exhibition of greedy audacity that has angered every right- thinking man. There is no politics in this. Men are not hogs because they are Conservatives, nor are they angels because they are Liberals. Montague's success has named his head. And what has his suc- cess been? The success of the stump - speaker, of the faithful politinal part- izan. Compared with him, Joseph Israel Teat° is not so odorous afteT all. 'rho Grits to contest Cardwell.. The Grits of Cardwell have taken heart ' of grace. They will pirate a candidate in the fleld. His name is R. B. Henry, and he is a prosperous fanner of ales - wick, in the comity of Peel. His fellow councillors hist March elected him Wardea of the County, and, to use a thoroughly original expression, he is well and favor- ably known. Alexander Smith, tho Lib- eral organizer, has been spying out; elie land. He has returned to 'Toronto with ooxiadence tbat the Warden will have favorable chances of being elected. Be- tween Stubbs, the 1VicCarthyite, and Wil- loughby, the Government soanclidate, Honey may slip in, The six bundred Roman Catholics of Adjala are being de- pended upon to vote Liberal when the time comes. If they (1°4 Bob White's majority of something over two hundred In 1891 silent(' be oblieerated. The Mc- Caithyites and the Grits have an advant- age over the Conservatives in that they have resident candidates, Young Mr. 'Willoughby is a promising lawyer and a good speaker, Mosta recommendations will be of little weight eaten he is pitted against ' two local men. Moreover, the Goverameat oandiclate will be asked to pledge Mimed to combat interference with Manitoba. He cannot be elected un- less he does so pledge nimself. Bob White resigned mainly because, as an bonest man, he could not break his promise to his consatuents. Ana Mr. Willoughby will have to repeat White's pledge it he hopes. to be returned at the need of the poll. The ex -member had much less tofear when he so pledged Ithasele than loughby woold have now. T3ob White had foith in aleccieuald. Like matny ()al- a= iConservative, he looked to he Man to extricate the party from a most unpleasant prodioantent But the vele harseman came, and the Old Man an- swered his call. The Government of to- day has snade up its mind to faoe the woest. The 'Remedial bill. Will be brought in, and vvill be yotecl through. To this, as you have boon told befell), the Ministers; are Wedged. They will hot break their promise, for they have been told that it muse be, to use the words of another man regarcliftg anothet question, a case og oach for all and all for each Dalton Ittecartha Also. D'Alton McCarthy hes an eager oye on Cardwell. His friends in the ridihg have pursued a vigorous canvass. Next Sat- urday, at Mono Mills, the followets of McCarthy will hold a ottnateation, et Whieh there will be preeented full report tit the progress of the tainvess.It 18 known that itleCtiatily •oonsiders himself tartan or, Securing a supporter .100113 Cardwell.. Tile _Nonni Righters ere strong in the riding They Will VOW for any Man who denteauces remeaial legislation. There ere many Ortingemen In (Jardsveli, bus Melt votes aro an uncartain cpantitY.. 18 18 lmown to any man who follows the trend or Canadian politics that theta are very few Liberal Orangemen. lies not the Taboret loader eveu said eo? Taoso Orangemen may Oa vote for the Govern - Meta; candidate. It Is 'certain that they `will mit vote for a aleCerthyite, anti they wouta tis soma vote for a Venian mis for a Grit. Clarke Wallace will visit the riding. He bas been there alretcly. The (arena Sovelign may be able to bring the rebellious brethren into line. They tnay obiect; they •inay use !`language," but, if any man oan ' convince them that the Governmeut is still worthy of their support, that man is Clarke \Vallee°. .Will Cbaplean Come Tteuit? . The lion-leeked Oltepleau maintains silence. Ho has visited Montreal, and has talked with Sir tlackenzie Bosvell. To newspaper men both gentlemen have said that their conversation was of no public Unmet. Whereupon the news- paper issen have insisted that Mr. Chap - lean was implored to re,eutes the Cab- inet. Why did not the journalists go to Joesph AltleTio Calmat Minister of _ Pu blio Works? Surely 0 u imet would have been glatito have given them an - formation regarding the future move- ments of his dear friend Chapleata whom he hates with a vintlictiveness that is very, vory French in its malignity. But Mr. Onimet was not consulted, Geutle- men who are to be superseded seldom are consulted. If Chapletto comes back, Ouimob's aseendaney as ConservetiVe .leader from Quebec will have venished forever. None 'amass this better than the Minister of Public) Works. He for- gets thee he entered the Cabinet as a stop -gap, ana he has peramidea h 1118011 that he 1 s a man of importance. Story of Cabinet Dissensions. A wild story of Cabinet dissensions has gone forth from Ottawa. A Lioeral cor- respondent has told hie leaders that Hag- gart, Montague and Wend tbreivened to resign if Sir Mackenzie pet s.sted nu brjegang 111 a Remedial bill. And, this inventive gentleman goes on to state,. Sir Mackenzie told them that they might re- sign, and that he would call in Mr. Laurier on the day that they should stop out Not even the most insanely hide -bound of Gritswould believe such a tale. 11.he gentlemen who sit around the Council Board do not rush to the Grit correspond- ents with stories about each other. The alinisters are a close-mouthed lot of statesmen. They have been known to depart from the truth in their anxiety 80 keep secret the results of their cielibera- tions. Bowell is an old man, but he is not a hot-tempered fool. Haggart will leave the Government when the Gover- ment or he dies. Montague needs tae seven thousand dollars' salary that a grateful country gives him. John P. Wood, though by no means a poor man, likes polities, though he may not love his bed -fellows. lain able to tell my readers that the School question has not been mentioned in the Council chamber since the day three weeks ago, when the introduction of a Remedial bill wa,s agreed on. 'The Ministers regard the matter as settled. The Speech from' the Throne, when the legislators come to- gether in January, will contain a para- graph announcing the Government's de- termination. Until then there will be no further discussion of the question by the Ministers. There will he no necessity for raking over old ciders. And how sliall Wilfrid Laurier expect to profit by the Government's action? lie oannot vote against remedial legislation. He inay censure the Governmene for de- lay, but has not the Administration a very fair case to advance? The Ministers will assure parliament that every delay has been had in the,hope of arriving at some basis of conciliation. They will telt the menibers that their 'desire has beeh to do their best towards obtaining - a settlement. With these assertions for a text the supporters of the Government /nay continue to staled up to be number- ed with their leaders. There will be some bolters from On- ario, but their iminber will not be large. The party whip will crack, and its echoes, resounding through the eor- !Woes, will bring into lino many a mutinous brother. It may be deplorable, that such shall be the case, but the bonds of party are strong. . Anotbe?.. Vacant Seat. By the death of Henry Simard, the Conservative member for Charlevoix, an- other constituency Is lett unrepresented. The seats for West Huron, Cardwell, ;Jacques Cartier, Montreal Centre and North Ontarionre also vacant. Each of these ha's been represented by.a Ministee- ialist. The Governmene hopes to carry each again. The writs for tho by-elections, Sir Mackenzie Bowen tells us, will soon be sent outMeanwhile it is rumored in Ottawa that there is a poesibility that the Government will elect to call a parlia- ment together in the 311idd1e of Deccan - The report is hardly credible. With the session commencing early in Jantlary there assuredly would be plenty of time In Which to talk over the Remedial. bill. Beyond this :measure there witl be little on the agenda ef business that wilt cause protracted debate. It is the Government's intention to go to the country in May. A three months' session would thus give the two parties -or the three parties -- plenty of time for electioneering. It is quite conceivable that the Government will prefer tohave a short Campaign, one that shall give them time to secure a spTeehdoyavgberdHieentry Simard was classed as a ConserVative he entered parlianteno in '91 as a Liberal. For one session he voted with Mr. Laurier, and then he joined the majority. Party dos do not mean much to your Ireeneh Canadian politician. Usual- ly he is in the mItsult for the casual ad- vantages, The fiery Vollagatm Atnyot voiced the political . theories of hisecan- tPhaeLric°1att;evVioleflitliiell hie " tgitljaVrod.'h8je1nuicde been Mmobered with the Liberals, but he found that there was little glory mad no advantage in supporting Mr, LauTier. So, oia a night early in the' session Of '02 buS aroeo and calmly 15nnoun8ed to the Home that he had come to tee conclus- ion that it was useless for him to eon - Mime to seaport the Liberal leant "The Liberate are always Voted down," said this patriot "They beam no hope of attaiting power, Wba, then, should I oontintte to advocate 11 losing °arc'?" And, with this bit of philosophy, he east oll the garments et Saul the Grit ana became Paultbe Tory. I•Tis encession 10 the Government provokoa Ina OW. buret of applause from tho Idinisterialists nor at ooneenanation freak tho Opposi. len. , • ;Joan Thompeon 1tit104 tutrusealy, as who slimild eay: "We didn't ask you to (Anne, and wo sboultilt't Mourn if you stayed waere you ere." Thompson tad oo liklug tor sotdiers of tontine. Tittle W430 Why 110 respected Lauriet ; that was why he despised Tarte, whom be esteemed a political mercenary. I bear that the attempt 01 SOMO seoier members of the Conservative party in r.hOronto to arlog about a die - solution of the Young Conservative club lots met with failure. The old inetribers of the party saw their supremacy menac- ed and they eet to work to bring about disruption. The Young Coneetvatives objected and Mr. C. a Roblusen, the taewly- elected. president, circumvented ;their opponents' plans. Had the Albany (dub anen been successful tbe Young Conservatives would bay° had to accept their fighting orders from the , Colborne Street club, which is the mouthpiece of Robert Iiirmiugliana, of Dr. Montague and of Hon, John Haggart. The spirit of independence that the Young Conser- vatives have cultivated so successfully has not injured the Conservative party. On the oontrary, it has done the body good. 111 81148 115 Chill aS are now the young 1)1011 are certain to hews a large , voice in the • convention. Mr. G. 11, 11. Cookbuna the member for Centre Toronto, knows this, and has tears that the uomination may pass from him• to some younger, more popular and more energetic man. SIX MILLION BIBLES. It Has Become the cheapest Volume in the worici. Six tuttlions of books are a gnat many, and that number represents the world's output of the Christian Scriptures during the last year. The number of Bibles dis- tributed since bbs organization of the Brit- ish and Foreign .Bible Society of London. in 1804, is 260,000,000, or enougal vol- umes, if laid end to end. to reach a dis- tance of more than fifty thousand miles. The British sooiety and the American Bible Society of New York, siuceits estab- lishment, in 1810, have been the two or- ganizations ol the world for the transla- tion, mastication and circulation of the books of the Bible. Their work has been a tremendous and a growing one, yearly exhausting their inereasing resources and reaching a magnitude that is surprising. From a rare, and the most expensive, book the Bible hes become the most oom- • mon and the cheapest publication in the world. Dr. nuttier, in his tract "How to Use the Bible, ' says: -"In the thirteenth century, in England, two arches of the London Bridge cost sa25. At the same time a copy of the Bible with a few ex- planatory notes eost .-830. Then the wages of a laborer amounted to but ninepenee a week." in other words, the cost of Buell a Bible • was equal to the entire wages, in money of a laboring man for over =teen years. At so late a period as that of the American Revolution the very cheapest editions of the Bible were valued at not less than $2 •a volume. Now an entire English Bible is sold for twenty oente,and the New Eesta- ment can be boaght for five cents. The increase in the supply has been as wonderful as the decrease in the cost. Be- fore the age of printing a copyist would work for months to produce a single copy of the Bible that wasahnost priceless, to be secured to its place with a chain and handled by a fortunate few, only with the greatest of care. 'Then, though the intro- duction of printing increased the supply allitat•apaavellously, the high price yet held emabeyond the reach of the average reatiereOft was onty after organized so • cietievattictlt charge of the printing and aistribtition that no one who wished to Bible need go without it And the people have wished them with a desire that has increased with thtt advancement of gener- al learning, thealaultivation of thought, and the growth `ottffie -spirit of criticism. This growing demanasefor the Christian Scriptures has, on thitatnest part, been met, whether it has •cume from Green- land's toy mountains or India's, coral strand. and whether in the language of to Chinese, to Zulu, or any other tongue name nearly approaching the Englith, foreign countries, and the American Society distributed 2,185,618 Bibles in Last year the British and Foreign Bible Society exported 634,025 copies. These books were printed in forty-one different languages. Many oomplete Bibles and. portions of Soripture were also printed by the Ainexicais Society at Beirut, Constan- tinople, Shanghai, Bangkok, Yokohama, Paris and Bremen. An idea of the vast territory reached by the New York society and the variety of languages employed Islay be gained from the fact that last year the Chinese received from the New York -soeiety 1,205 Testa- ments in their language, the Zulus 2,005, Portuguese 2,162, Italians 4,717, Poles 3,- 406, Bohemians 1,778, Dakota Indians 824, Marshall Isanclers 680, The list also includes Irish, Dutch, Danish, Hebrew. Syriac, Arabia, Turkish, Russian and Ojibwa. The disteibution of these books and the teaching of their contents moans the em- ployment of an army of missionaries and colporteurs, who have to encoonter many a,nct great obstaoles in the way of poverty, illiteracy and prejudice. They suffer from accusations, arrest, imprisonment, an- tagonism of'other religions, uprisings against them; arid war itself. Yet they work on, andwill oontinue to work. While the heathen of foreign lands are supplied with copies of the Scriptures those at home are not neglected, and increasing work in the direotien of a systematic destribution of the English Bible le being carried on., During last year about 060,000 Bibles, Testaments and 'portions of Scriptures have been distributed by the various home societies. Six thousand families have been visited. About one-fifth of them were found without Bibles and were supplied. Then thousands of volumes of Scrip- tures aro being distributed aanong desti- tute Sunday schools, given to the •army and navy, to immigrants, freedmen, the poor and criminal institutions. In thia connection the blind are not 'oat sight of, foe fifty years ago Was begun the publica- tion ot the entire Bible in the Boston lino letter, and till books are yet Manufaetured in increasing editions and sold at a price slightly below their cost. ' During Itiat year 25,000 volumes of the Soriettires were distributed • in this city. The city Work in the distribution OT Bibles has soma intoreeting features. Through 268 dist:halting ageneies, each as ni18- sions, churches and Stinday schools,during tne year 20,000 volumes Wore sent out and 900 Bibles pleated in the rooms at protnin- ent hotels, Largo as the home distribution of Biblei Is, it is insignifieant When comparcal with the vast volume of foreign Work. Wit° (Mediate paper)-" Whet this 18 it funny thing! Here's 11 Cotineoticut genital vvho has cmistructed a dell that cart ory jUst; like a live baby." 1-111Shalicl (who has to Walk this floor at night)-"linniph I r11 bet he's on 014 bachelor." A