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The Exeter Times, 1890-10-16, Page 5THE MODERN PULPIT. THE VIGTORY Or FAITIL By (no Late Rev. Can Itedden. preachea iu St. _Fours Ont1iedrede4ondon, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, evert ottoefaith."-1 John v. 4. Our Lord's tiumpla over death naturally leads as to think of its most strikiog conse- quences; and, among these, the conquest of human neture by theereligiou of tive Cross was certainly not the least Just as in the famous Song after the deliverance from Egypt, which .Moses and the children of Is- rael sang, mod to which Mithon TeEponded, the thought passes aimed at once from the discomfiture and ruin of Pharaoh to the al- ready foreseen conquest of Canaan; just as in the twenty-second Psalm, which was M fact the picture of the passion, David, after not- ing the divinely given relief of the ideal sufferer, adds that all the ends of the world should remember this and be turned onto the Lord, and all thekindreds of the nations should worship before Him ; so in the New Testament account of our Lord's death and resection end of the events whieh fol - 'owe the same order is observed. The conquest of death on Easter morning is quiekl followed by the slow, progressive vic tozyof the Apostles over the opposition and prejudices of an unbelieving world; and the instrument whereby this victory was secur- ed is ptecisely steted, and it wits the fait of Christians. This faith is spoken of ine deed, not merely as the means of victory, but as already in itself a victory—avictory won over human bliedness and prejudice: —"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." Them are rimy words and plwaties M the Bible which _hove lost their force in caw day by being misopplied or vulgarised„ mid "Tan woorm" is one ef these. At certein periods of life all men speak of "the world" as of erne - thing with whieh they have uothiog to do, and which doeenot understand them. They have spent their whole time aud strength, it may be, in the pursuit of honour, or of wealth, or a pleasure, but in the hour of trouble, of failure, of disgrace, they talk of the hard judginents of the world, of the world's want of sympathy, of the falseness and fickleuess of the world, just as if they had never had any part whatever in the habits of life and thought whielt breed these quelities. .Again, persons who belong to a very small clique or sect do sometimes bring themselves to think of all other Christians as making up "the world" in the sense of $t. John. .MI4 thus it has come to pass that, in consequence of this misuse, tho expression, notwithstentling its bigh authority, at lea,st in its original sense, bas been tacitly dis- credited. Too often we think of "the world" as representing no serious and um doubted. reality, but only different phrases of capricious condemnation, vary with the minds of the persons who may happen to US(' it. “The world." it has been .suggested, is a religious term :inked to express dissatisfac- tion with those sections of the commuuity with which the speeker does not happen to be in sympathy, end thus the word as either dropped, or else ie is retained in a sense which is anything but condemnatory. One might euppose at times thee it had somehow been traustigured since tile days of St. John,. and we Ginutians talk commonly of "the religious world," of "the Christian world," even of “the clerical worlds» and when these adjectives are wanting, "the world" seems to be a oiting of at leasb neutral tint ; the ideas which attach to it so persistently in the New Testament love somehow disap- peared, And we all speak of our place in it, and of our deference and duties towards it, without suspecting that, as St. John says, it is something not to be acquiesced in but to be overcome. Now, the first question before us is Ude— wneo roo sr. JOUN MEAN EY “TII11. WORLD?" The old elreeks had usecl this very word which St. John Imes, to describe either the created universe or the earth in all their ordered beauty, and the wurel not sel- dom occurs in this very sense in Holy Scripture. When, for instance, St. Paul says that "the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen," be plainlymeans. by " the world" the material universe. When St. Paul tells the Athenians that God had made "the world and all things therein -es or when St. Peter, describing the flood. says that "the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished," these Apostles are thinking jo this earth, that corner of God's universe which is the home of as men. But neither of these senses can be the sense of the word in the. passage before us. This material 'world is not an enemy to be conquered; it is 'a friend to be reverently coosulted; that we may know something of the Eternal Mind that framedit " The heavens declare the ory of God, and the firmament showeth 's handiwork:" and "the earth is the Lord's, and ehe fulness thereof." Bow could faith possibly be the victory that overcometh" -suck a world as this ? ' 'The ;natural world is itself a revelation of God; it is not faith's foe, it may well be faith's best friend. Does St. John, then, mean by "the , world," the entire human family, the whole world of men? We find the term undooht- edly used in this sense also in the Bible. When our Lord tells His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world;" or when He says that "the field" in which the heavenly Sower sows His seed "is the world ;" or even when He cries, "Woe to the world because of offen' °es ;" or says, "I am the light of the worldd" or, "I speak to the Nvorld those things which I had heard of Bim'—He =ens human beiugs in general. Ancl this sense is even more apparent in St. Paul's description of the public estimate of the Apostles. "Wo are made," he says, "as ' the filch of the world, and are the ofieceur- ing of all men unto this clay," where "alt men," for so it should be render- ed, itnel " the world " are clearly paraliadl expressions. The Pharisees, as they are reperted by St. John, used the Word "world" M. this sense of everybody, when, referring to our Lord's popu'arity, they cried in their vexation, "Bohol, the world. is gone after Him." This use of the word iii our day is popular as woll asclassicalWe find it in Shakespeare and in Milton, but it is net St. John's! meaning in the present passage ; for this world, which compriees all Mimeo beings, included the Christian antra and Si. John himself ; whereas "the world" of which Si. John is speaking is plainly a world with which when writing he had noth- ing te. doe—a, world which is hostile to all that he has most entirely at heart a world to be "overcome" by everyone that is "born of God,"—by St. John himself, by the Chris- tians whom heidaddreseing. . No, in this passage "the world" means bumet life and society so far as these are alienated from God through being centered on material objects and ainis,and so opposed to the spirit ei the kingdom of God. And this is the SOSSO of the word it the great majority- of cases where it occuts at all 111 ti e writings of Si. John; this is "the w. led" of whicli our Lord said to the Jews, "the world cannot hate you, hut Me it hat- eth; " this is "the world" of which Re ob- served teat it could not receive the Spiritof truth; this is "the world" with whose gift of a false peace to its votaries He contrasted ais own gift ---"My peace I give unto you, nOt as the world giveth give Inuto yon;" this is “the world"af evhoseprineemuelord -sakl "lLc hath notbju in Me." Respectiug • this world He warned is disciples: "If the world bath you, ye know that it hated Me be- -fore it hated you. If ye were of theworld,the world wouldlove its owntbnt because ye are not of the world, but I have chosenyou out of the evothl, therefore the world bate* you," To tlibi-'world" He referred in His inter- cessory prayer, "Epray not for the world, but for them filet Thou haat given ale ;" "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the svoidie." This is "the world" which St. John bids ns not to love, Wnieb, AS lie proclaims, "passes away with the desires thereof ;" which has in itsactive essence and movement "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life I" which, he says, when we survey it as a whole, "lieth in evieltedness," and which, tlierefore, "whatsoever is born of God overcometii." This "world," wording to St. Paul, has a "spirit" of its own which is opposed to "the Spirit of God ;" and there are "the thiuga of the world" opposed to "the things of the Lord.;" and there are "rudiments" and "ele- ments" of the world which are 'coot after Christ ;" and there is even "a sorrow of the world that worketh death," as con- trasted with a "godly serrate winch worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of." So that, gazing no the cross of Jesus Christ, St. Paul says that by it "the world is erneitied" to him and he "to the world," so utter is the moral separation between liim and it. Med to the same purpose in St, James's degeition of "true religion and un- defiled before God and the Father," It mt eiste, he says, pot merely in active philan- thropy, but in "keeping oneself unspotted from the world ;" and there ie even it more oakum warning of this Ramo Apostle, thee "the friendsinp of the world is enmity with God." Now, this body of benguage, which might be largely added to, shows that the con- ception of " the world" as "human life eti far as it is alieaated from God," is one of the mostoprominent and distinee truths brought before us in the Now Testament. " The world" As a living tradition of die loyalty and dislike to God mut to Ilis kittgdoin, just as the Church is, or, I should perhape say, was meant to be, a, living tradition of faith, of hope, of charity; body of loyal, affectionete, energetic de- votion to the muse of "The world" —it is human nature sacrificing the spiritaal to the material, sacrifieing the future to the present, saefificing the mimeo and the eternal to that wbielt touches the senses and which :perish s with time. "Tho world" isa IrsIghty flood of thoughts, feelings, principles of action, eonventionul prejndiees, dislikes, attachments, which has for ages been gathering in its atrength Around BOMB AND THE 031111STIAN MIR= But before the arrival of this catastrophe another and a more remarkable change had been silently taking place. The Christie') Church hadbeenleevening theempiretemnear- ly three hundred years, and the empire, feel- ing and dreading the evemadvaneirig, ever - widening infinence, had endeavored to ex- tinguish it in a sets ef blood. Among the great persecutors are the noblest . as well as the mosb degraded of the emperora—Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aure- lius, Septimus, Severus, Maximinus, Decius dralerian, Diocletian, Diocletian, who mane last, eves the most implaceble, and Diocletian -Alter Dioeletian came Constantine, but from the year of the crucifixion 29, bathe great ecliet of toleration 313, there were 284 years of almost uninter- rupted growth, promoMd by almost perpet- ual sufferbig, until at lest, in St. Augustine's language, the cross passed from the place of public execution to the coronet of the Ctesar. Yes, by this evonderful change the • empire had become Christian; and, when it sank beneath the blows of the barbarians, the Christian Church, audit alone, remained creed, But, meanwhile, werae nen =caste' or "Tao women"— "the world of, St. John Had it, for those who dwelt within the limits of the Roman Empire at least,—leul it ceased to be? Was it banished utterly beyond the frontiers of tritunphant Ceristendorn? Or, lied it taken 4 POW form ; had it ceased to be an organization, only to become Virit, a temper, amine of mind, htehits of thought, habits of feeling, more subtle, more prostrating, more deadly, than the organize ed world which had preceded it? Yes, so indeed it was. "The world" had pessed within the conquering Churell ; " theworld" which the earlier Christian writers, such as Tertulhan, sew almost entirely without he Christian fold, SO Bornesd, and °there long leefore his day, beheld Alumet entlrel within it. "The world" had crowded a most with rush within the Clutroh. Even in $t. Aeguatiee's dey, emperors like Honorius, provincial governors like Mar- cellinus,sueeeeeful generals like Bonifacins, ware Augustine's own fellow-ettraeos. " The world" 110W, to 4 great extent, need certain laoguage, and fell in with out.. ward Christian rules; and in order to keep this "world,' whose epirit they felt and. dreaded, at toy, some Chrietians iled from the greet highwaya awl centres of life into the eolitude at the Egyptian deserts; while others, even at the e0St of Quietism unity, organized sebisms like that of the Donatists, which, if small and select, rela- tively to the great Christian body, should at least be, as they thought, unworldly. They forgot that our Lord bad auticipeted this state of thingsby His parables of the oat. and of the tares; they throat that whether “ the world" presents., itself as nn or- ,ganization or as temper, 4 Christian's business is to encounter and overcome it. The great question was and it+, how to ve ti 1 eit John 1 a to us; and gives ve exp buil'oulliTininglifeity(14PrreftglinagtilLg ito11%PeemlITIfioint; inatructions “ This is the victory that of millions of human beings who have lived, moat, probably, have contributed mime - thing, some little addition, to the great w o m calls " the world," and must hey° received something from According to his cir- cumstances the same man acts upon the world, or is acted on by it in turn ; and "the world "at different times wears differ- ent forms, passesinto different plumes. Some- times it is a solid, compact mass ; it is, if I may ,Say so, an organization a pronounced ungodliness. Sometimes it is subtle, thin, hardly suspected influence, a power that is altogether airy and impalpable,. which yet does most powerfully penetrate, in form and shape, into human life. When the Artie St. John was speaking of "the world, 'he was no doubt thinking of it generally as an organization. "The world" of the apostolic age eves the Roman society and empire, with the excep- tion of the small Christian Church. When a centurion of that day named "the world," his thoughts first rested on the vast array of wealth, prestige, and power, whose cen- tre was at Rome; he thought; of all that had made Egypt and Assyria, and. Babylon. and Tyre, to be what they bad been in bygone ages, brought together on a final and a splen- did scale; he thought of the fleets in the Mediterranean, of the legions on the Euph- rates and the Danube, of the vast 'official world which administered the provinces and the cities of the Empire; he thought of the merchants whose enterprises were carrying them even beyond the limits of the Roman rule; he thought of the numerous and power- ful literary class, which set itself to educate taste, and to conform, and to control °pin., ion; he thought of the immense slave popu- lation which ministered to the comforb and the luxury of these masters of 'men; and, above all, at the summit of, the whole, he thought of the Crew of the day, throned in A splendour and a majesty which seemed to other men to transcend even, the limits of human existence—he thought of thiscomplex yet organized mass of elegance and brutal- ity, of power, of degradation, of intelligence, of almost incalculable wealth, of hideous misery, which bad been built up by the labor and the sufferin,g of an imperial race during five or six eenturies of vicissitude and effort and then his thoughts turned to the source and centre of this organization, to the em- pire -city, to Rome. Rome was the very core and essence of this world; to Rome all the stream of human eflbrt converged,from Rome they radiate!' ; withinits walls werethe minds and the energiee .which impelled and control. ledthevamtmachine of Government ; within it was to be found the representative activity and the representative vice of the complex whole And so when two Apostles sought a name for Rome which should be to Christians of religious significance, they at once the -tight of the elder seat, of empire which in its pride, and in its Wealth, and oppressive- ness, and its ungodliness, was foremost in a,n earlier age of the world's history. St. Peter in his first epistle, St. John in the Revela- tions, alike termed pagan Rome "Babylon," as the typieal centre of organized worldly power—worldly power at the very height of its alienation from God, erect a,mong the sons of men. Yes, the world of the apostolic age was primarily a vast organization; but it was not re world that from the nature of the case could last. "After these ehings, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and he cried mightily with a fitrOng voice, and saide Babylon the great is Mee, is fallen. . . . And I heard ;another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people. . . . that ye receive not, her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God hath remembered her Alaric the Goth appeared before Rome, end the city of the Crews becalm the prey of the barbarians. The event produced a seusetion more universal mid, profound than would now be occasioned by the sack of Lon- don—the work of a thousend years, the greatest effort to organize human life per- manently under a single system of govern- ment, the greatest emilizatiou by far that the world had known, at once so meguilleent and so vicious, had. -perished, out of sight. It seemed to those who witnessed it as thoi,,,te life would be 00 longer endurable, and the end itself had come. overeometh the world, even our faith." :this, I say, my brethren, is - TI11:114ustioN Yon 1!.4 OFTO.DAY tr ulttion of inaterializedlife hi I J I no less than for our predecessore 111 the Church of Christ. For "the world" is not a piece of the furniture of bygone centuries, which has long 'duce perished, exeept in the pages of our ancient and sacred books; it is here, it is around, it is among us, living and energetic, true to the eliarecter which our Lord and which H's Ap- ostles gave it ; it is here in our thops, in our houses and business, in our homes, in our conversations, in our literature; it is here awakening echoes lotuland shrill evitlxin our own hearts, if, indeed, it be not throned "within them. Now, as of old, its essential chariteter is passionate attachment to the material and passing as - poets of human existence, to the forgetful- ness of the immaterial and the imperishable realities. DO YOLT WANT TO NNOW WIINTITER WU LOVE VIE wOnt.t. on No? You need not love it because you are fond of natural objects, and spend leech time in studying theta selentifloally—they limy well lead you up to God. You need not love it, if you have a true love of your fellow -crea- tures, and lose no importunity of doing them any service that lies in your power ; that, certainly, isnot a temper which oor Lord. wouldcondemn. But supposing, for instance, that you belong to the middle classes in so- ciety,—are you above all things anxious for a fortune and for a social position -which is at present denied you? Do you spend much thneand thought on the question how to make money, how to get on iu society? Do you experience disappointment when other people succeed, when they attain to wealth or to honours which you tidal( are rightfully your own? Do you think slightingly of those who are below you, while yeti make great efforts to stand welt with those who are above you? Does a sligbt cause you keen distress? Does a little flattery, whether eincere and deserved or not, cause you great satisfaction? Do yon measure men,- not by what they are in point of elliteacter, but by their titles and their internee, by what they are called, or what they have? And doyen contrive to convey this utterly false and de- graded estimate of life to those who are day by clay in contact with you? If so, be your position what it may, you are in league with "the world ;" it has its grip upon yon, and its prince is your ruler more entirely than you think; and be quite sere of this, that if you do not break away from it and "overcome" it, it "will drag you deeper and deeper down; it will dim the eye of your soul, till you shall see no spiritual truth clietinetly ; it will chill your heart, till you feel no pure and generous 01 - Lection stir within it ; it will unnerve your arm, and me,ke your will falter for all action teat is high-minded and unselfish, at least when. the time for real action comes. Therefore, "whatsoever is born of God over - cometh the world," as though fighting for very life—conquers this passion for mater- ialised existence--coequers it as a condition of spiritual safety. n ow is Tun WORLDLY =menu. TO BE OVER- oomn Is ,11 by meatal cultivation? We live, my brethren, in clays when language is tised about education and polite literature as if they of themeelvee had somehow an elevat- ing, a transforming power•over human life. In combination with other and higher in- fluences, mental cultivation does very'ximeh for a man ; it softens his neumers and his natural ferocity ; it refiues and stinutlates his enders-M.1)&0g, his taste, and. his imagi- nation; but it has no necessary power of purifying his affections, or of guiding and invigorating his will. In these vital re. spots it leaves bine as it finds him ; and if he is bound heart and soul to the material aspects of this present lite, literature will not help him to break his bonds. No doubt there are fine things 18 literature; you wil, remember, some of them about the unsub- stantial and fugitive character of this life and its enjoyments. Bat, then, we read therm we admire them, and pass on with the observation thet that is a striki»g pas - seen. The illustration, for such ' it is, ee-the illusion., that there is a sort oi rnoral. . I had almost said sacramental, force in literary pursuits would never be cherished by any ietelligeet man who has steadily considered the 1nstory of litera- ture. Polite learning, certainly, is no MODO, poly of Christians, 'Wlaen St. John wrote, it could hardly be said to be posiessed by them at all. They ,eertainly would have had a 'poorer chance of conquering the world than had. the Stoics, bad they been depettd- ent On it inc BOOM. Is "the world," then, to be overcome by sorrow, by failure, by diesappointinent—in a word, by the 1, tide teenhing of experience Sorrow and failure, no doubt, are to many men nothing less than a reveletion. They show that the materiel scene in which we pass our days is itself passing; they rouse from the very depths of the soul deep cur- rents of feeling into surprisieg activity; and we are apt to mistake this feeling for something which certainly it is not. Feeling is not faith; it sees nothing beyond the veil. Feeeing is not practice; it may sweep the soul in tumultous gusts before it, and yet commit as practically to nothingreelleg deplores what it does oot resist; feeling ad - owes and approves tbet which ie never attempts ; and, consequently, unless feeling leads to something higher than itself, it es soon self.exhausted and dies backeleaving the soul worse off than it would be if it xiover had felt so strongly—worse off because et is at once weaker end less sensitive than it WAS before. Ole? it is piMons to think how many adisappointment, many efealure,man.y 4 sorrow, ends like tide. lt might, had. At only been illuminated by faith, have raised the sufferer from earth mght up to heaven; but, as it is, it hos left him an .enfeebled cyme, who has iudeed fowl out much about the world that lie did not know before, but who is much less able than he was betOte even to dream of overcoming it. No, if "the world" is to lie "overcome," it meat be, as 61. John toys, by a power welich lifts as above it ; and snub a, power is faith, Ann non wevo Twiltes Witten Ant SENTTAL To SUCCESS IN Tuts AtaTrStt. It enables as to measure "the world," to appraise it, not at its own value, but at its real velue. It does this by opening out to our view 014 other, that higher world 10 which Christ our Lord is King, in which His servents and His saints ere at home; that world which, unlike this, will most assured - lee last for ever, A country lad may think much of the streets mid houses of the little village in which be was brooght up, until he bad, seen London; but when lie returus to his village borne, after bis first visit to this greet city, he learns to take a more wettest and more accurateview °fits areld teetural merits. The tirst step to "overcomiog the world" is to bow satisfied ourselves that all here is insimdfleant by comparieon with that 'which will and must follow it. Faith opens our eyes to see this, to see all things as they really are, to underatand oat only the origin of life, but also the end of life, and the InenlIS whereby that end may lie reached. When the eyes of a mau's muleretentling are thus enlightened,that be "may know what be the ho a of Isis calling, and what the mixes of the glory of his lubentance among the salute," faith enables him to take it second step. Faith is a band whereby the soul lays netual hold on the unseen realities, aud so learns to sit loosely to and to detAtel itself from that which only belongs to tine. Especially 18 18 faith in our Lowland. Saviour —the one God and the one Mon ; for us men in His unspeakable coutlescensiezt, born, crucified, risen, ascended, interceding ; Who gave Hs 11.10 for us upon the cross; Who gives by His Spirit His life to vs—that beyond all else enables us to "overcome the world." It was not natural mount) in the women and children who yielded up their livesfor Jesus Christ in the first ages of the Church, that made them more than uonquer- ors ; it was that they saw and held fast to MID whose very name their persecutors cast out as evil. And it is not good, sense, or taste, or experience, or culture, or refine. anent, which will enable any man or woman, nowadays, to conquer the strong andsubtle forces which play incessantly around the soul, and which will drag the soul down- wards with fatal certainty if it cannot count- eract them. Only when iv -o are one with Him against Whom "the world" (via its worst, aud Who bent His bead in death ere by His resurrection He once for all overcame it— only thus, can we hope to share the promise of sitting with Him on His throne, oven as He also overcame and is sat down with the Father on the Father's throne. Man Eating Bear Irina The famous man-eating bear of PtUnntle pian, near Russelkondah, who is said to have killed. over twenty individuals, and maulei many more, has at last succumbed to the rifle of Mr. Somers Eve, the Executive Engineer, and has had her career or crime cut short. The animareiferocity and cunning were. so great that every attempt to beat it out failed, and generally culminated in some of the beaters being mauled.. Mr. Somers Eve, therefore, determined to "beard the lion in his den," or rather, the bear in her stronghold. When ,Mr. Eve eame upon her she had one cub an her back, whilst another shuffled along by her side. She dertainly kept up her reputation for ferocity, for she charged the sportsman at once, statking the cub off lier back. Mr. Eve reserved his fire till the bear was within a few paces of him, and bowled her over, but she recovered her- self almost directly, and, standing up on her hind legs, endeavoured to seize her antagon- ist, when a -well directed shot through the brain laid her low. The cubs, however, escaped. The death or this bear has been the cause of great rejoiciug amongst the ryots of the district, as fear of the animal deterred them from entering the jungles to 'gather fruit and fuel. Dude Sheeting. There are different ways of shooting ducks which depend on the time of year and, the country Where you are hunting them The most commen ones, or tlaose which are the most practiol, snight be by jumping the birds oue of the grass or other -cover, either by boat or by wading; by flight -shooting on a pass or flyway; by callieg or imitating their natural note, and by decoy shooting. A regular shooter may use any or all of these ways on the same day. He will have to adapt himself to the state of things as he finds them. The way a man muse leunt de- pends lesgely of course on the sort of decks 110 is hunting. No one would think of hunt- teAl *he same way be would hinebills, • and the marsh or slough ducks usually ueed some different way ef hunting iroin the deep water ducks. Every man shoots ducka different from everybody else, and he may even change his own notions sometimes. For instance; I an) rather ,gcteing out of the notion of liking such heavy guns as I used to shoot, aud 1 now shoot! a leeeeauge instead of a 10. For suehreason I find it pretty hard to go to work telling anybody el.se how to shoot sleeks, although my way suite MO well enough. Now, I am sometimes asked what I touile 18 the most importa,nt thing in duck -shooting. or what is most essential to success. I believe thet the first thing a, duck -shoot- er wants to learn 18 to keep still in the blind. A duck m very qntck to see the leaet wow% Altogether it will very often come eloee iu to 4 shooter who le sittmg perfectly quiet. It ism% the size or elooduess of a hunter's blind that will get hint dose idiots, but the way he sits in his blind. 11 18 can't keep from bele Wog elp and dowo, or twisting arotind, lie needen't expect much shooting. Same hunt - ars can't help twisting their neelts around, and ecrewitig their .fas up to see where tile ducks have gone to wheo they draw past 'Plot does not work well- If they would keep their heads down and stay perfeetly motionless until juse the right instant, they obi find the decks paid no attention to then", but would converight in. I love 1113ny 11. time elicit in a perfectly open beet, with leo blind lying flet on the 113.y in the bottom of the boat, and have killeti plenty of duelts, Another thing is a,bout the kind of blind to use, 1 (Iola know rnoc'h about the famy blintio 01nu artifielal sort, hut Wok each of thein might be geed nosier certain eiretint- strowes, ehat 18, 11 11 happened to resemble the rotund cover to the Shooting ground. That 18 (18 main thing, that the blind AA look just like the country amend it. So you don't Avant too high or too thick a blind. A low, thin blind, with se quiet shooter in 18, 18 better than a thick ono with a twester 18 18. The blind never ought to he heAvy enough to attract attention, and it ought to be a pert of the very spot where it is. For instance, iny brother George and I were shooting on one of these wet pe3tures where there wasn't notch eover, and we eut some brush and soul nnd built a blind, out in the water, We couldn't get tho docks in close enough ; so we just to clown that blind aufl lay in the boat, just putting a little grass and stuffover the ends ot the boat, and then we got good shooting. The blind -builder should usually not go fat' front bis blind for his material. There is a great deal in the wey the de- eoys aro put cut, and many a duck is lost Ifrom the bag which vaniltI have bon saved if the decoya were a little different. You always have to consider the way the ducks are flying, or will be apt to fly. .Lf they are ole, certain 'tour passing an the feed mostly from a large body of water to a smaller, so that the flightwill be eomiugneer- ly all front that side, you thould put yonr de- coys out toward that side, and mot straight out ou a line with the front of your blind, because most ducks will pass in over a, flock of decoys und inake as if to alight beyond or back of them. This is the case especially for bluebills and most deep -water ducks, but not so much so for mallards. A mallard will hover all around over a flock of deeoys, mid nobody can tell where he is going to light. Ho may light 100 yards away from the decoy's, others get up and light right down among them. For mallards -I usually put the decoys out straight io Lent of the blind. .Ata differenthour of the day or at a change in the wind, the ducks may be coming in the opposite direction'and then you will need to chan,ge your decoys over to that side. If the birds are coming about as much from one way as tbe other, or are working Fp and down, keep your decoys straight out in front of you. The use of decoys, and the position of the blind in regard to thedecoys, differ much, according to the whul. I never followed any particular order in putting out a flock of decoys except that if you want to attract.the attention of „a distant flock of ducks you naturally will want ihe long line of your fleet to be crosswise to the line of that direction the ducks are coining from. For instance, if the ducks are coming from the east, you want your decoykind of strung out north and smith. This is the ease for most ducks; but if you are shooting bluebills you want to be careful and eot, string out or scatter your decoys very much. You want to get a. close shot into every flock that draws in, and to do this with blue bills you want to bunch your decoys and and keep them pretty close together, for that is the way bluebills light and feed. A close fleet toward the side where the birds are coming from is the thing fax bluebills. then they swing in and light, very often just back of the fleet, and therefore just in front of you. A little noise sometimes makes them hold their heads up, and then is your chance for a water shot. The soft tap of a paddle on the side of a boat will sometimes make a flock of teal hold their heads up when you are sneaking up on them. About any sort of ducks will come to mallard decoys. A inixed fioa of mallards a,nd bluebills is good In putting out such a •fleet some shooters would put each sort of ducks by itself, the mallards on one side and the blue -bills on the other. That is wrong. The best way is to mix them all tip as you put them out. Duds are less suspicious of a mixed flock of birds ad decoy much better to it. • the Searoh for Pretty Wives. Girls to be successful to -clay must have something more than pretty features. The men who are worth marrying are looking for soniethhig else than pretty faces, coy man- ners or fetching gowns. They are recogniz- ing full well that women ara progressing at O pace whichwa1e-p.-110km; rather than sleek- en.. Theygealize that the women of to -morrow will be brighter en, mind ehan her predecessor of to -clay. Hence they are looking for wives who will be the equals of their neighbors. Beauty ie.beeem considered . an adjunct te common 'sense. "1 wane a wife who kneed something, who is worth havingfoierhat she knows ; not one of these social butter- flies," said one of the greatest "catches" of the last New York season to me at the win- ter's close. Aed he expressed the sentiments of thousands of the young men of to -day. The scent for pretty wives is over, and the lookout for bright young women has begun. And the girl who to -day trains her mind will be the woman of toonorrow. Courted Nine Girls at Onoe. Lownen, Mass., Oct. 5. —William An- derson, arrested to -day on suspicion of larceny, is quite a character. In his posses- sion WOE found a memorandum book me. eording the fact that he was courting nine girls. For convenience sake he had them numbered from one to nine inclusive, and , when he had occasion to refer to them in • the memorandum it was by number. One entry is the fact that No. I became aware that lie was escorting No. 6 to places of amusement. His description of No. 7 would 'make ber tear her hair if she read it. While teavoling Anderson recorded that he had letterstrom eight of the gims in one day. Anderson claims n rmiclence hi Portland, Me., and was at ono time a pool player. A woman C11.1110 to the station house this after- noon and identified the marriage certificate foimcl in Anderson's possession as that of her brother, Who was rooming in Haverhill. • He Never Hadit, Miss Flora, (forty-five, homely and unmar- ried)- —Oh, Mr. Blunt, I had such a strange dream lest night. Mr. Illmit---What was it, MissFlora Miss Florit—I dreamed that WO wore married and an our wedding tour. Did you ever have such a dream 1, lir. Blunt (energetically)—No, indead I never heel the nightmare in my life" Colored India silk, brocaded in monotone 18 dressy for the iront of tea, Veils, LADIES' JOURNAL Bible Competitiou Ara. 2.43. The 014 Reliable again to the fore. A splendid list or Rewords. Don't Deby ! Send at OM ! Competition Number Twenty Six opens nowatthe solicitationofthousands (tithe 014 friends and competitors in fernier conteets. The Editor of TUE LAMES' Jorneeeet, has nearly forty thousand teetinioniale as to the fairness with which these Bible Competi- tions have been conducted. This competition is to be short and dee cisive. It will remain open only till the lith day of December ieclueive, The t nestions are as follows t—Where in the Bible are thefollowing words first, found, I HEM, 2 RODE) 3 GosIefENT. • To the first person sending in the correct acmes to these questions will leo givenalem, her one of these rewards— the Ptano. To the next person, tho $100.00 in cab, and SO On till all these resea.rde are giveo away. FIRST REWARDS. First One. On Elegant Upright Piarii) by eelebreted Canadlari Firm. ddt* :emend midterm Hundred Dollars in cash eee Next tifteen.each Sliperbly boolvl Teach- erei leible,e3 :gee t seven, cacti n Gentlemen's Fine Gold Open Face Watch.goodmorement *50 429 Next etc STIT.CACh n Fine QuulrapPothete Individual salt and. Penner Cruct,:-.. Next live, each a boanWul qttadrtlidoa. roc Plated Tea Service. Pmeesi .,,b 'Next nue. TwentY Donors 01 ... . 20 Next ave,an elegant katitin Dinner Service of 101 pieces. Nest five, oath a, Gne French Chine Tea Service ot GS pieces 200 Next seventeen. each a completes set of aleorse Eliat's works, hound In cloth, A vola. . ... . 25 t seven, cam! a-L.144k 'tens:Gold Open or COSO Watell. *so e10 MIDDLE REWARDS. To *18 persan sandheg tho snWiflc answer of the whole competition front first 10 last will be gWen the fifty dollars n ea,s11. TO tite Usa Tg t7rr"tann3ihrgagien one et tan 1— amounts.and eci on tIll all the middle rewards ocr dietritorted. First, Fifty do:larc in atsli ....... szo Next five„varli 519 in cash 50 Next three. cach a, flue Faunly Sewnig 3farbine, 15%1 Nast fire, each a Ladles' Fine—dad Till' 4'5" eeee Nes each a Fine Triple SilvC.r PlateefTes set.nieresiese. . 400 Next w4,nty Gee. each a set, of Works, Ecautifuliy bound In Clothge vole.. esti. .. 420 Next fire.an of 1111 pieces. by Powek • 15,Usop $4 Stonier. Darnley. Fmgland zso Istext• igtgaa 41 tat Is'.1.14;r1 Cl• Ari Tg-k , pa ed, ?elf . • 200 Next seventeen, eneb a complete set a George Eliotes waren bound In Celli, 5 vole.. S15 75 Nest eighteen, each a itemise= Silver Mattel Sugar Bowl, 8.5 , 00 Nextnee. each a ladles' Fine Gold %Vetch, SaL 240 Next fifty-five, each a lonesome long Silver Plated Button Irook 55 CONSOL.A.TION REWARDS. 0 For those Who are too into for any ot tbo above rewards the following special list is offered, as far as they will go. ',Lo the sender of the last correct answer received at LADIES' JotnrsAn office postmarked 15th December or earlier, will be given number ene at tbese eon - solution prizes, to the next to tho last, number two, And SO On till these rewards aro all given away. First one, One Itunared Dollen in eraelse) Next fifteenemel I a superbly bound Fam lly Ilible, beautifully illustrated, usually Fold et ele 225 Next seven, each it Gentleman's Flue Gold , Open 'face Wei cis geed mor %entente:NW 400 e ext nunneen, each a Set of a vow). Tca. Knives, 1 egivI ptc gin 100 Next live, each a LadiOreFino Gold IVateb $50 250 Next teen, each a Ladies' Fine Cold Gent Ring, $7. 105 Next forty -ono, each an Imitation Steel, Engraving, Itosa Bonhcurslborsolralr st4 82 Next twenty-nine, each a Complete Set of Dickens Works, Handsomely Bound iu Cloth, 10 vols., $.„7,0. 80 Next twentr.ono, each a Fine Quadruple Plate 1 ividual Salt and Pepp er Cruet new design 5 Next five, each n beautiful Quadruple SU. ver PlatedTea Service (4 pieces) $10.. 200 Next twenty-five, a Teachers' Floe, Well Bound Bible, w th concordance.. ...... 100 Each person competing must send One Dollar with their enswe.rs, for one year's subscription to the LADIES' JOURNAL. The LADIES' JOI1ENAL has been greatly enlarged and improved and is in every way equal at this price to any of the publications itatted for ledies on this continent. You, there- fore, pay nothing at all for the privilege of competing for these prizes. The prizes will, be distributed in time for Christmas Presents to friends, if you wish to use them in that way. . The distrilentiosa will bo. 18 -118 hands of disinterested parties aud the prizes given strictly in the order letters arrive at the LADIES' JOURNAL office. Over 255,000 per - eons have eeceived rewaids in previous com- petitions. Address, Editor LADIES' JOVE. nal, Toronto, Canada. Utilizing Niagara's Power. The scheme for the utilization of the power of Niagara Falls, suggested by Sir Wiliam Thomson soon after the dynamo had been brought into commercial use, but rather as a dream of the distant future than ms a practical hint, is already in a fair way to be realized. Contracts have been given out for the construction of the tminels through which water will be conveyed to chive the great turbines, and Sir William Thomson and other scientists have been con- sulting for some tree as to tbe best ways of utilizing the power. In spiteof the waste from water wheels, dynamos and motors enormous power may be developed from the Falls and conveyed a considerable distance. How far it can be economically carried is a question to be determined not so much by electrical or mechanical difficulties in the way as by the cost of copper conductors. It is the cost of the conduit, so as to speak, increasing more rapidly than 'the distance treversedethat will pnt a commercial limit on the utilization of Niagara's power 18. distant places. But there is no doubt that it can be used with great advantage in the iinmediate neighborhood manlybecause of recent discoveries in electrical science. ' , The handsomest "robe" dresses of the sea- son show lace effects under applique em- broidery. Single roses haviog buds, foliage, and it long stem are the preferred corsage bou- quet. White woolen gowns are trimmed with black, stem -green, violet or yellow volyet ribbon. "You should never take anything that doesn't Agree with you," the physician told him. --"If ret always followed that rnle, Maria," he remarked to his eife, "where would you 18 1"