DR. TALMAGE’S SERMON
ABSURDITIES OF EVOLUTION.
[Preached at Lakeside, Ohio.]
Text: “The statutes of the Lord are right."
—Psalm xix, 8.
Old books go out of date. When they were
written they discussed questions which were
being discussed; they struck at wrongs which
have long ago ceased, or advocated institu
tions which excite not our interest. Were
they books of history, the facts have been
gathered from the imperfect mass, better
classified and more lucidly presented. Were
they books of poetry, they were interlocked
with wild mythologies, which have gone up
from the face of the earth like mists at sun
rise. Were they books of morals, civilization
will not sit at the feet of barbarism, neither
do we want Sappho, Pythagoras and
Tully to teach us morals. What do the
masses of the people care now for the
pathos of Simonides, or the sarcasm of Men
ander. or the gracefulness of Philemon, or
the wit of Aristophanes # Even the old books
we have left, with a few exceptions, have but
very little effect upon our times, Books are
human; they have a time to bo born, they
are fondled, they grow in strength,they have
a middle life of usefulness: then comes old
age; they totter and they die. Many of the
national libraries are merely the cemeteries of
the dead books. Some of them lived flagitious
lives and died deaths of ignominy. Some
were virtuous and accomplished a glorious
mission. Some went into the ashes through
inquisitorial fires. Some found their funeral
pile in sacked and plundered cities. Some
were neglected and died as foundlings at the
■door of science. Some expired in the au
thor’s study, others in the publisher's hands.
Ever and anon there comes into your pos
session an old book, its author forgotten and
its usefulness done, and with leathern lips it
seems to say: “I wi-h I were dead.” Monu
ments have been raised over poets and phi
lanthropists. Would that some tall shaft
might be erected in honor of the world’s
buried books! The world’s authors would
make pilgrimage thereto, and poetry and lit
erature and science and religion would con
secrate it with their tears.
Not so with one old book. It started in the
world's infancy. It grew under theocracy
and monarchy. It withstood the storms of
fiie. It grew under prophet’s mantle and
under the fisherman’s coat of the apostles; in
Home, and Ephesus, and Jerusalem,and Pat
inos. Tyranny issued edicts against it, and
infidelity put out the tongue, and Mohamme
danism from its mosques hurled its an&the
i» as, but the old Bible still lived. It crossed
the British Channel and was greeted by
Wickliffe and James I. It crossed the At
lantic and struck Plymouth Hock, until like
that of Horeb it gushed with blessedness.
Churches and asylums have gathered along
its way, ringing their bells ana stretching out
their hands of blessing; and every Sabbath
there are ten thousand heralds of the cross
with their hands on this open, grand, free
old English Bible. But it will not have ac
complished its mission until it has climbed
the icy mountains of Greenland; until it has
gone over the granite cliffs of China; until
it has thrown its glow amid the Australian
mines: until it has scattered it 3 gems among
the diamond districts of Brazil; and all
thrones shall be gathered into one throne,
and all crown■» by the fires of revolution
ball be melted into one crown, and this
shall at the very gate of heaven have
waved in the ransomed empires. Not until
then will this g’orious Bible have accom
plished its mission.
)n carrying out. then, the idea of my text
—“The statutes of the Lord are rignt’’—l
shall show you that the Bible is right in au
thentication; that it is right in style: that it
is right in doctrine; that it is right in its ef
fects.
1. Can you doubt the authenticity of the
Scriptures? There is uot so much evidence
that Walter Scott wrote “The Lady of the
Lake;” not so much evidence that Shake
speare wrote “Hanflot;” not so much evidence
that John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” as
there is evidence that the Lord God Almighty,
by the hands of the prophets, evangelists and
apostle*, wrote this book.
Suppose a book now to be written which
came in conflict with a great many things,
ami was written by bad men or impostors,
how long would such a book stand * It would
be scouted by every body. And I ?ay if that
Bible had been an imposition; or if it had not
been written by the men who said they wrote
it; if it had been a niero collection of false
hoods, do you not suppose that it would have
been immediately rejected by the people.* If
Job, and Isaiah, ari l Jeremiah, and Paul,
ond Peter, and John were imposters they
would have been scouted by generations and
nations. If that book has come down through
fires of centuries without a scar it is Vecause
there is nothing in it destructible. How
near have they come to destroying the
Bible? When they began their opposition
there were two or three thousand copies of it.
Now there are two hundred millions, as far
as I can calculate. These Bible truths, not
withstanding all the opposition, have gone
into all languages—into the philosophic
Greek, the flowing Italian, tne grace
ful German, the passionate French, the
picturesque Indian, anl the exhaustless
Anglo-Saxon. Under the painter's pencil
the birth and the crucifixion and the resur
rection glow on the walls of palaces; or, un
der the engraver’s knife, speak from the
mantel of the mountain cabin; while stones,
touched by the sculptor’s chisel, start up into
preaching apostles and ascending martyrs,
Now, do you not suppose, if that Book had
been an imposition and a falsehood, it would
not have gone flown under these ceaseless
fires of opposition ?
Further, suppose that there was a great
pestilence going over the earth, and hundreds
of thousands of men were dying of that pesti
lence, and some one should find a medicine
that cured ten thousand people, would not
«very body acknowledge that that must be a
good medicine ? Why, some one would say:
'‘Do you deny it ? There have been ten thou
sand people cured by it” I simply state the
fact that there have been hundreds of thou
sands of Christian men and women who sav
they have felt the truthfulness of that book
ami its power in their souls. It has cured
them of the worst, leprosy that ever came
down on our earth, namely: the leprosy of
3in. And if I can point you to multitude;
who say they have felt the power of that
cure, are you not reasonable enough to ac
knowledge the fact that there must be some
power in the me Heine? Will you take the
eyidenc© of millions of patients who have
been cured, or will you take the evidence of
the skeptic who stands aloof and confesses
that he never took the medicine?
That Bible intimates that there was a city
called Petra, built out of solid rock. Infidel
ity scoffed at it: -Where is your city of
Petra? Kuekhardfc and Laborde went forth
in their explorations and they came upon
that very city. The mountains stand around
like giants guarding the tomb where the city
1s buried. They find a street in that city six
miles long, where onco flashed imperial
pomp, and which echoed with the laughter
of light-hearted mirth on its way to the
theatre. On temples fashioned out of col
ored stones—some of which have blushed
into the crimson of the ro«e, and some of
which have paled into the whiteness of the
lily—aye, on column, and pediment, and en
tablature. and statuary, God writes the truth
of that Bible.
Tile Bible says (hat Sodom and Gomorrah
were destroyed by Are and I,rim,tone. •'Ab
surd Infidels year after year said: “it i*
positively absurd that they could have been
destroyed by brimstone. Thera is nothing in
the elements to cause such n shower of d»atb
as that. ’ Lieutenant Lynch-1 think be was
the first man who went out on the discovery,
out he has been followed by many others—
Lieutenant Lynch went out in exploration
and carne to the Lead B^a,which.by a convul
?uon of nature, has overflown the place
where the cities once stood. He sank his
fathoming line, and brought up from the
bottom or the Lead Sea groat masses of sul
phur, remnants of that very tempest that
swept fiodom and Gomorrah to min. Wh<"
was right, the Bible that announced the
destruction of those cit iet, <>r the skciithf
who for ages scoffed at it f
Jttm Bible am then was s city celled
Nineveh, and that it was three days journev
around it, and that it should be destroyed by
fire and water. “Absurd,” cried out hun
dreds of voices for many years: “no city
was ever built that it would take three
days’ journey to go around. Besides, it
could not be destroyed by firo and water:
they are antagonistic elements.*' But Lay
ard, Botta ana Keith go out, and by their
explorations they find that city of Nineveh,
and they tell us that by they own experi
ment it is three days* journey around, ac
cording to the old estimate of a day’s jonr
ney, and that it was literally destroyed by
fire and water—two antagonistic elements—
a part of the city having been inundated by
the River Tigris, the brick material in those
times being dried clay instead of burned,
while in other parts they find the remains of
the fire in heaps of charcoal that have been
excavated, and in the calcined slabs of
gypsum. Who was right, the Bible or in
fidelity?
Moses intimated that they had vineyards
In EgJPt* “Absurd,” cried hundreds of
voices; ’‘you can’t raise grapes in Egypt; or,
If you can, it is a very great exception that
you can raise them.” But the traveler goes
down, and in the underground vaults of
Eilithya he finds painted on the wall all the
process of tending the vines and treading
out the grapes. It is all there, familiarly
sketched by people who evidently knew all
about it, and saw it all about tnem every
day: and in those underground vaults there
are vases still incrusted with the settlings of
the wine. You see the vine did grow in
Egvpt, whether it grows there now or not.
Thus, you see, that while God wrote-the
Bible, at the same time He wrote this com
mentary, that “the statutes of the Lord are
right,” on leaves of rock and shell, boned in
clasps of metal, and lying on mountain table
and in the jeweled vase of theses. In authen
ticity and in genuineness the statutes of the
Lord are right.
2. Again, the Bible is right in style. I know
there are a great many people who think it
is merely a collection of genealogical tables
and dry farts. That is because they do not
know how to read the hook. You take the
most interesting novel that was ever written,
and if you commence at the four hundredth
page to-day, and to-morrow at the three
hundredth, and the next day at the first
page, how much sens? or interest would you
get from it! Yet that is the very process
to which the Bible is subjected every day.
An angel from heaven reading the Bible in
that way could not understand it. The
Bible, like all other palaces, has a door by
which to enter and a door by which to
£o out. Genesis is the door by which to go
in and Revelations the door to go out.
The Epistles of Paul the Apo-tle are merely
tetters written, folded up and sent by post
men to the different Churches. Do you read
other letters the way you read Paul's letters!
Suppose you get n business letter, and you
know that in it there are important financial
propositions, do you read the last page first,
and then one line of the third page, and an
other of the second, and another of the first?
No. You begin with “Dear Sir.” and end
with “Yours truly.” Now, here is a letter
written from the* throne of God to our lost
world: it is full of magnificent hopes and
propositions, and we dip in here anil there,
and we know nothing about it. Besides that,
people read the Bible when they can not
do anything else. It Is a dark day and they
do not feel well, and they do not go to busi
ness, and after lounging about a bit they
pick up the Bible—their mind refuses to en
joy the truth. Or they come home weary
from the store or shop, and they feel, if they
do not say, it is a dull book. While tho Bible
is to be read on stormy days and while your
head aches, it is also to be read in the sun
shine and when your nerves, like harp
strings, thrum the song of health. While
your vision is clear, walk in this paradise of
truth,and while your mental appetite is good,
pluck these clusters of grace.
I am fascinated with the conciseness of this
tcok. Every word is packed full of truth.
E\ ery sentence is double barreled. Every
paragraph is like an old banyan tree with a
hundred roots and a hundred branches. It is
a great arch; poll out one stone and it all
comes down. There has never been a pearl
diver who could gather up one half of the
treasures in Any verse. John Halsehach, of
Vienna, for twenty one years every Sabbath
expounded to his congregation the first chap
ter of the Book of Isaiah, and yet did not get
through with it. Nine-tenths of all the good
literature of this age is merely the Bible
diluted.
Goethe, the admired of all skept:cs,had the
wall of his house at Weimar covered with
religious map> and pictures. Milton's “Para
dise Lest” is part of the Bible in blank verse.
Tasso's “Jerusalem Delivered” is borrowed
from the Bible. Spenser's writings are imi
tations from the Farabi.*s. John Runyan saw
in a dream only what Saint John had seen
before in Apocalyptic vision. Macaulay
crowns his most gigantic sentences with
I Scripture auota'ions. Through Addison’s
“Spectator’’ there glance-; in and out the
stream that broke from tho throne of God
clear as crystal. Walter Scott's be-t
characters are Bible men and women
nnder different names, as Meg Merri
lies, the Witch of Endor. Shakespeare's
Lady Macbeth was Je/ebei. Hobbes stole
from this Castle of Truth the weapons with
whP-h he afterward assaulted it Ix>rd Byron
caught the ruggedness and majesty of his
style from the proj herte*. The writings of
Pope aro saturated with Isaiah, and he finds
his mod successful theme in the Messiah.
The poets Thompson and Johnson dipped
their pens in the style of the inspired Orien
tal. Thomas Carlyle is only a splendid dis
tortion of Ezekiel; and wandering through
the lanes and parks of this imperial domain
of Bible truth, I find all the great American,
English, German, Spanish. Italian poets,
painters, orators and rhetoricians.
Where is there in the world of poetic de
scription anything like Job's champing,
neighing, pawing, lightning-footed, thunder
necked war horses? Dryden's, Milton's, Cow
per's tempests are very tame compared with
David's storm that wrecks the mountains of
Lebanon and shivers the wilderness of
Kadish. Why, it seems as if to the feet of
these Bible writers the mountains brought all
thrir gems, and tho seas all their pearls, and
the gardens all their frankincense, and the
spring all its blossoms, and the harvests all
their wealth, and heaven all its grandeur, and
aternity all its stupendous realities: and that
since then poets, and orators, and rhetoricians
have been drinking from exhausted foun
tains. and searching for diamonds in a realm
utterly rifled and ransacked.
This book is the hive of all sweetness. It
Is the armory of all well-tempered weapons.
It is the tower containing the crown jewels
3f the universe. It is the lamp that kindles
All other lights. It is the home of all m?ies
ties and splendors It is the marriage ring
that unites the celestial and terrestrial, while
all the clustering white-robed denizens of the
iky hovering around rejoice at the nuptials.
This book—it Is the wreath into which are
twisted all garlands: it is the song into which
are struck all harmonies; it is the river into
which are poured all the great tide? of halle
lujah; it is the firmament in which suns and
moons, and stars and constellations, and uni
verse and eternities wheel and blaze and tri
umph. Where Is the young man's soul
with any music in it that is not stirred with
Jacob's lament, or Nahum's dirge, or Habak
kuk's dithyrambic, or Paul's march of the
resurrection, or John's autbem where the el
ders with doxology on their faces respond to
the trumpet-blast of the Archangel as he
stands with one foot on the sea and the other
foot on the land, swearing by Him that liv
etb forever and ever that time shall be no
longer?
lam also amazed at the variety of this
Book. Mmd you, not contradiction or col
lision. but variety. Just as in the song yon
have the basso, and alto, an l soprano, and
tenor- they are not in collision with each
other, but come in to make up the harmony.
Ko it is in this Book; th**re arc different parts
of this great song of redemption The
prophet comes and fakes one f art and the
evangelist another part, and the apostle an
other part, and yet they all come into the
grand harmony--“the song of Mo*e> and the
Lamb.” If God had inspired men of the
same temperament to write this Book, it
might have been monotonous, but David,
and Isaiah, and Pet-'r, and Job, and
and Paul and John were men of different
femp'-rane'iitK, and so, when Go 1 mspimd
them to write. Jbeir wrote in tlwir own style.
Gad prepared the book for all classes of
people. For instance, little children would
read the Bible, and God knew that, so he
Allows Mathew and Luke to writs sweet
stories about Christ with the doctors of the
law, and Christ at the well, and Christ at the
:ross, so that any little child can understand
them. Then God knew that the aged people
would want to read the book, so He allows
Solomon to compact a world of wisdom in
that Book of Proverbs. God knew that the
historian would want to read it, and so he
Allows Moses to give the plain statement of
the Pentateuch. God knew that the poet
would want to read it, and so he allows
lob to picture the Heavens as a curtain,
&nd Isaiah, the mountains &3 weighed in
i balance, and tho waters as held in the
lollow of the Omnipotent hand ; and God
:ouched David until in the latter part of
<he Psalms he gathered a great choir
standing in the galleries above each other—
>east and man in the first gallery; above them,
sills and mountains: above them, fire and
sail and tempest; Ftbove them, sun and
moon and stars of light; and on the highest
gallery arrays the hosts of angels; and
then standing before the groat choir, reach
ingfrom the depths of earth to the heights
of Heaven, like the leader of a great orches
tra, he lifts his hands, crying: “Praise ye the
Lord! Let everything that hath breath praise
the Lord! And all earthly creatures in
their songs,and mountains with their waving
cedars, and tempests in their thunder, and
rattling hail, and stars on all thoir trembling
harps of light, and angels on their thrones,
respond in magnificent acclaim: “Praise ye
the Lord! Let every thing that hath breath
praise the Lord!”
God knew that the pensive and complain
ing world would want to read it, and so he
inspires Jeremiah to write: “Oh, that my
head were waters and mine eyes fountains of
tears!” God knew that the lovers of the
wild, the romantic and the strang? would
want to read it, so He lets Ezekiel write of
mysterious rolls and winged creitures and
flying wheels of fire. God prepared it for all
zones—for the Arctic and Tropic, as well as
for the Temperate Zone. Cold-blooded
Greenlanders would find much to interest
them, and the tanned inhabitants at the
Equator would find his passionate nature
boil with the vehemence of Heavenly truth.
The Arabian would read it on his drome
dary, and the Lanlander seated on the swift
sled, and the herdsman of Holland guarding
the cattle in the grass, and the Swiss girl re
clining amid Alpine crags. O, when I see
that the Bible is suited in stvle, exactly
suited, to all ages, to all conditions, to all
lands, I can not help repeating the conclusion
of my text: “The statutes of the Lord are
right”
3. I remark again: The Bible is right in its
doctrines. Man. a sinner; Christ, a savior—
the two doctrines. Man must come down—-
his pride, his self-righteousness, his worldli
ness; Christ the Anointed, must go up. If it
had not been for the setting forth of the
Atonement Moses would never have de
scribed tho Creation; prophets would not
have predicted; apostles would not have
preached. It seems to me as if Jesus and
the Bible were standing on a platform in a
great amphitheater, as if the prophets
were behind Him throwing light for
ward on His sacred person, and as if
the apostles and evangelist; stool before Him
like footlights throwing up their light into
His blessed countenance, and then os if all
the earth and heaven were tho applauding
auditory, the Bible speaks of Pisgah and
Carmel and Sinai, but makes all mountains
bow down to Calvary. The flocks over th)
Judean hills were emblems of “the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sins of the world ;”
and the lion leaping out of its lair, was
an emblem of “the lion of Judah's tribe.”
I will in my next breath recite to you tho
most wonderful ever written:
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation, that, Christ Jems came into the
world to save sinners.” No wonder that
when Jesus was torn in Bethlehem Heaven
sympathized with earth, and a wave of joy
dashed clear over the l>at Moments and dripped
upon the shepherds in the words: “Glory to
Gcd in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men.” In my next sentence every
word weighs a ton: “God so loved tho world
that He gave His only begotten Sou. that,
whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.” Show mo
any other book withsurti a doctrine—so high,
so deep, so vast!
4. Again: the Bible is right in its effects. I
do not care where vou put tho Bible, it just
suits the place. You put it in the hand of a
man seriously concerned about his soul. I see
people often giving to the serious soul this
and that book. It may very well; but there
is no book like the Bible. He reads the Com
mandments. and pleads to the indictment,
“Guilty.” He takes up the Psalms of David,
and says: “They just describ? mv feel
ings.” He flies to good works; rani starts
him out of that, by the announcement: “A
man is not justified by works.” He falls
back in his discouragement: the B-ble starts
him no with the sentence;: “Remember
Lot's wife,” “Grieve not tho Spirit,” “Flee
the Wrath to Come.” Then tho man in de
spair begins to erv out: “What shall I doJ
Where shall I go?” and a voice reaches him
saving: “Come unto me, all ye who are
weary and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.”
Take this Bible and place it in tho hands of
men in trouble! Is there anybody here in
trouble? Ab, I might better ask are there
any here who have never been in trouble?
But this Bible in the hands of the troubled.
You find that as some of the best berries
grow on the sharpest thorns, so some of the
sweetest consolation? of the gosnel grow on
the most stinging affliction. You thought
that death had grasped your child. Oh. no!
It was only the Heavenly Shepherd taking a
lamb out of the cold. Christ bent over you
as you held the child in your lan.and putting
His arms gently around tb a little one, said:
“Os such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Put the Bible in the school. Palsied be the
hand that would take the Bible from the col
lege and the S'bool. Educate only a man’s
head and you make him an infidel. Educate
only a man's heart and you make him a
fanatic. Educate them both together, and
you have the noblest work of Go l. An edu
cated mind without moral principle, is a shin
without a helm, a rushing rail train without
brakes or reversing rod to control the speed.
Put the Bible in the family. There it lies on the
table, an unlimited power. Polygamy and
unscriptural divorce are prohibited. Parents
are kind and faithful, children polite and
obedient. Domestic sorrows lessened by bo
ing divided, joys increased bv being multi
plied. Oh father, oh mother, take down that
long-neglected Bible and read it. yourselves
and let your children read it! Put the Bible
on the rail-train and on shiebnard, till all
parts of this lanl and all oth?r lands shall
have its illumination. This hour there rises
the yell of heathen worship, and in the face
of this day's sun smokes the blood of human
sacrifice. Give them the Bible. Unbind that
wife from the funeral prye, for no other sac
rifice is needed since the blood of Jesus
Christcleanseth from all sin.
1 am preaching this sermon because th«re
are so many who would have you believe that
the Bible is an outlandish book and obsolete.
It is fresher and more intense than any book
that yesterday came out of the great publish
ing houses. Make it your guide in life and
your pillow in death.
After the battle of Richmond, a dead
soldier was found with his hand lying on the
open Bible. The summer inserts had eaten
the flesh from the hand, but tho skeleton fin
ger lay on the words: “Yea. though I walk
through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
I will fear no evfl, for Thou art. with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Yes. this book will become in your last days,
when you turn away from till other hooks, a
solace for v .ur soul. Perhaps it will be your
mother's Bible: perhaps the one given you on
your wedding day. its cover now worn out
audits leaf faded with age: but its bright
promises will fla-h upon the opening gate* of
Heaven.
“How precious is the Book divine,
By inspiration given:
Bright as a lamp its doctrines shine,
To guide our souls to heaven.
“This lamp, through nil the tedious night
Os life, shall guiueour wav.
Till we behold the clearer light
Os au eternal day.”
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
A piece of iron rolled in the dew Fal
con Mills at Nilea the other d»y is «
thin as a sheet of ordinary paper, it
would take 150 sheets to constitute one
inch in thickness. The mill mtde this
piece just to see how thin they could
roll.
One of the curiosities of light and heat
is the fact that rays of the sun should
pass through a cake of ice without melt
ing it at all, as is the case when the ther
mometer stands a little above zero. That
the rays of heat actually penetrate the ice
is shown by the fact that a lens of ice
may bo used for setting fire to inflamma
ble substances.
The glaciers of the Alps have been
found by Forel to change in size quite
regularly—a period of growth of fifteen
to°thirt_v years being followed by a cor
responding period of diminution. The
increase seems to coincide with periods
of cold and wet years, and the decrease
with periods of warm and dry seasons.
Since 1857 the glaciers have been grow
ing- _
It has been found that when paraffine
is thoroughly mixed with linseed oil,
cast into small blocks and cooled, it may
ke used to make anjr fabric water-proof,
by simply rubbing the block over it and
ironing it afterward to equalize the ma
terial in the pores. It has the advantage
of being water-proof but not air-proof
unless too much of the paraffine is ap
plied.
It has been a matter of extensive be
lief in France that the drinking of water
in considerable quantities has a tendency
to reduce obesity, by increasing the ac
tivity of oxidations in the system, and
favoring the burning away of accumu
lated fat. The error of this idea has just
been shown by Dr. Debovc, who has
proven that the quantity of water taken
has no influence on nutrition or body
weight so long as the solid diet remains
Unchanged.
An entirely new vegetable is being in
troduced by a great French firm, which
is exciting some interest. It is called
choro gi and is a native 6f Northern Af
rica. It belongs to the mint family (bo
tanical name StaChvs affinis). Its flesh#
roots or tubers only are eaten, dressed
like string beans or fried like fritters,
and arc said also to make an excellent
pickle. Whether it will become a use
ful vegetable and a desirable regular
market crop in thia country can only be
determined by trial.
Artificial ivory exhibited at the Am
sterdam Exhibition is stated to have been
produced from the bones of sheep and
waste pieces of deer and kid skins. The
bones arc macerated and bleached for
two weeks in chloride of lime, then heated
by steam along with the skin so as to
form a fluid mass, to which a small quan
tity of alum is added. The mass is then
filtered, dried in the air, and allowed to
haidcn in a bath of alum, the result be
ing white, tough plates, which are more
easily worked than natural ivory.
When a worn car wheel tread is exam
ined under the micros cope, it is perceived
that the surface of the metal comes off In
thin flakes or scales. Examined under
high powers the scales arc found to re
semble portions of a brick wall, the frac
tures being not in the particles of iron,
but in the material which unites the par
ticles in a manner similar to which mor
tar unites the bricks of a wall. Contin
uous jarring breaks this cement or unit
ing material, thus allowing iron so treated
to fall to pieces.
Fastnro and Hogs.
It is not generally known that natur
ally the hog is a delicate feeder—that is,
naturally lie feeds only on clean sub
stances. He is an omnivorous feeder. H<
eats unclean food only when he is refused
better. Throw a hog several sorts ol
potatoes, inferior and superior in quality,
auil the best will be eaten first. Place
several varieties of corn before a hognol
severely pressed by hunger, and the besl
will be selected. It is the same with pas
turage. The hog eats fewer plants that
any other of the farm animals. Grass ii
not his natural food. The legumes, ol
which clover is a familiar example, are
They are rich in flesh-forming elements,
Thus clover and other leguminous plants
arc the natural pasture for hogs. Th<
despised purslain is eagerly sought bj
them; so is red root, a species of amaranth.
The artichoke is greedily eaten. It con
tains more nutriment than the potato,and
is cooling in its nature.
In preparing pasture for hogs it is full]
as necessary to know what plants to pro
ducc as in preparing pasture for otbei
animals. As a single plant red clover ii
the most valuable, because it is easily
and generally grown. A variety of pas
ture plants and liberal feed also of grain,
together with absolute cleanliness in thi
resting places, and perfectly pure watei
to drink, would go farther to banish ho;
cholera and other contagious diseases t<
which bogs are subject than all thi
nostrums with which they are sought ti
be dosed.
Theatre Fires.
In the twenty-one principal theatri
fires of modern times, from the destruc
tion of the Schouwburg Theatre in Ams
terdam. in 1772, to the burning of thi
King Theatre in Vienna, in 1881, a tota
of 6,548 victims arc chronicled. Amonj
the more appalling disasters may bi
given the Capo d’lstria Theatre, with i
loss of 1,000, in 1794; the Canton Thea
tie, with aloss of 1070, on May 25, 1845
and the Ring Theatre in Vienna, with i
loss of 1,100, on December 8, 1881. Thi
Brooklyn fire on December 5, 1870
caused a loss of nearly 400.
A heavy groxvtb of hair is produced by the
use of Midi’s Hair Renewer.
Every description of malarial disorder
yields to the curative power of Ayer’s Ague
Cure.
The fund for Mrs. Hancock amounts to
*15,000.
Twenty-Foil I- Hours To l.lvi-.
From John Kuhn. Lafayette, iml., who announces
I’ui- lie l. now In “iMTfeet tuudtti," we harp till, f.,1
lowlier: “One year «k" I was. in nil •ppearan- re. In
the last atasenoreenoilmptkin. Our hew phyrlrlnnn
save my in-. up. I Anally not an low that uueaoctor
mild I inulil not live twenty four hour- Mr Mend ,
then inm-tinsed n l-ottteof DK. WM. HALL’S HAI '
s\?l FOR THE LL’NO.S. whh-h bcnefltted nip | run
Umn.l until I toolr nine bntdm. 1 ntlw Krfm
health, having lined no other medicine.”
Fitly one persons l.nve I mm killed t, v
wing in tin Cnlted State ,i„,| f 'nnailn tl,i
I n: nil.
“Y6u Way fifid KuiuT
said the criminal to tbe jury, bat, I*
the same, that’s not my conviction.
yielded promptly to Bt. Jacobs Oil.
Abbe Listz, the celebrated musician, died
at Bayreuth, Germany recent y.
Diphtheria is frequently the result a W
lectcil sore throat, which can be ewed ny
single bottle of Red Star Cough Curt, rri
twenty-five cent* a bottle.
Engineering in China has certainly
anotable triumph in the bndge at
over an arm of the China Sea._ Th ■
tut e is five miles long built entirely of (done,
has 300 arches 70 feet high, the roadway is 70
feet wide, and .he pillars are 7o feet apart.
If you have cutting, scalding, or stinging
sensations in the parts when voiding i n” •
Swamp-Root will quickly relieve and cure.
An Ohio merchant says he can trace every
bad account on his books ’’directly to beer, ,
Farmers and others who have a little leis
ure time for the next few months will find it
to their interest to write to B. F. -Johnson
Co., of Richmond, whose advenisemriit ap
pears in another column. Thoy offer great
inducements to persons to work tor them
or part of their time.
The fund for the erection a monument to j I
General Grant in Riverside Bark only! I
amounts to a little over $122,000.
■ !
We Aptfehf 16 Experience.
For a long time we steadily Refused to pub j
lish testimonials, believing that, in the opinion j
of the public generelly, the great majority
were manufactured to order by unprincipled ,
parties as a means of disposing of their worth
less preparations.
T» at this view of the case is to a certain
extent true, there can be no doubt.
At last, several years ago, we came to the
conclusion that every intelligent person can .
readily discriminate between spurious and
bona fide testimonials, and determined to use
as advertisements a few Os the many hundreds
of unsolicited certificate* in otif possession.
In doing this, vt-e published them os nearly
as possible iu the exact lfeftgtiegfe used bv our
correspondents, only changing the phrase
ology, in some cases, so as to compress them
into a smaller space than they would other
wise occupy, but without in the least exag
gerating or destroying the meaning of the
writers.
We are glad to say that our final conclusion
was a correct one.—that a letter recommend
ing an article having true merit finds favor
with the people.
The original of every testimonial published
by us is on file in our office, an inspection of
which will prove to the mest skeptical that
our assertion made Above, that only the facts
are given as they appear therein, is true.
But as it would be very inconvenient, if not
impossible, for all our friends to call on us for
that purpose, wo invite those who doubt (if
there lie such) to correspond with any of the
parties whose names are signed to our testi
menials, and ask them if we have made any
mistatements, so far as their knowledge ex
tends, in this article. In other words, if we
have not published their letters as nearly ver
balism as possible.
Very respectfully,
E. T. HAZELTINE,
I Proprietor Piso’s Cure for Consumption
and Piso’s Remedy for Catarrh.
We append a recent letter, which came to
jus entirely unsolicited, with per:« fission to
publish it :
Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 12, 1880.
! You may add my testimony ns to the
merits of lino's Cure for Consumption, i
took a severe cold last February, which settled
on my lungs. They l>ecame ulcerateil and
uere so painful that I had no rest for two
(lays ana nights. I got a bottle of Piso’s Cure
for Consumption* and was relieved by the :
time I had taken half of it. Since that time !
| I have kept Piso's Cure in the house, and use j
j it as a preventive, both for lung troubles and j
j croup, for which I con recommend it. as the
I best medicine I ever used; and that is sayir.g
! a great deal, for I have used at least twenty
others. l>esides about ns many physicians’
prescriptions. Piso's Cure for Consumption
has never failed to give relief in my family.
A. J. GRUBB,
37 Springfield Bt.
The coinage of silver dollars during the last
year was $2vi,838,005.
Mensman's Peptomzkd peek tonic, the
only preparation of beef containing its entire
nutritious properties. It contains blood
making, force generating and life sustaining
properties; invaluable for indigestion, dys
jtepsia, nervous prostration, ami all forms of
general debility; also, in all enfeebled condi
tions whether the result of exhaustion, ner
vous prostration, overwork or acute disease,
particularly if resulting from pulmonary i
complaints. Caswell, Hazard & Co., Pro* I
prietors, New York, Bold by druggists.
The California crop of wheat is estimated at
52,000,000 bushels, leaving a surplus of 42,-
000.000 bushels for export.
“Nothing Like it Known.**
Among the 150 kinds of Cloth Bound Dol
«“■ Volumes given away by the Rochester
(N. Y.) American Rural Home for every $1
subscription to that 8-page, 48-col.. 16 year
old Weekly, (all 5x7 inches, from 300 to 000
pages, bound in cloth) ore:
Law Without Law- Danelson's (Medical)
yere- Counselor.
Family Cyclopedia. Boys’Useful Pastimes.
Farm Cyclopedia. Five Years Before the
Farmers and Stock Mast.
breeedeiV Guide. People’s H story of
Common Sense in United States.
Poultry Yard. Universal History of
World Cyclopedia. nil Naitons.
Popular His. of Civil War (both sides). '
I °H e bo ? k , anf J Paper one year, postpaid ,
C?’*. * oriy. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Reference: Hon. C. R. Parsons, Mayor Roth- J
ester, for I I years jiast. Sample papers 2c.
Ulral Home Co. . Ltd. . Rochester N. Y.
Turkey is again arming and proposes to i
purchase 400,000 American rifles of the latest
and most improved pattern. ,
PATENTS Send Htampfor !
!%«. Fnt,.July*wSSKsiiSc’ !
H N r—34
w yfgthw fc .“JoneaiWhatarerou
ir !• Aitalkins about-" What
ui Vevery Body talka about.
£ TheysaythottorHrlKht*’
jClPlklsSSSf « WaaMO’KMner, Liver or
uuujiiiw 0 l-laddorcomplaintu,this
X Hntn St ttonedy hit, no eoual."
SwMI.
_ w ■U’enj. art, Tii Dirham ton V Y
nvr at* vvo{i N ld the •
“ r 7. r, r*°r,; “ j “• - l i^w.s,v 'srafr*,! «•* ««■*.
hS^SLICKEP»
IV/cu OD . iiTj " ,; Js.,■ » toat.
*fn BRft”* 1 ~:;r;., l i;.r'7”'*’K2Jss!2i;!7*■.»'■>'- *?*"77*»“
OH! MY BACK
E „rj tntlf rrMtr „ w job.
iWW 9 f
fil *
Ktren*tkei» tk® the Ner»r«.
. . ...' GireeNew VSger-
Knrlcheii the Bleed; Fort vruOitaitton.
Mb. John Edwabd i *, ptOn?, in tb«* wn»fi
M 4.. *; I have »affere-r« fc rm , n ’„ iron Bit
of my buck for aboat_two- food.”
tern has done mo a K n sayr: "I
me. I gratefully recommend it.
I,U«wVTuF.m“c,VL to.. BALT!mint:. M..
Pensions
BUFFALO, NT- “3T-
Orftiliell with • ffell Was of et|Mn>
Experienced and ftktllfal rhjrglcUo*
•ad •lrgeeai for the Ireilmsml sf
•II Chr«al« Disease*.
OUR FIELD OF SUCCESS.
Chronic Nfltul Catarrh. Thront no*
Lang Dioeaees. Liver and Kid nop
DUeasea, Bladder Wl*t3£*e®» !*»•«••••
of Women, Blood DiffeufO and Werv*
oai Affections, cured hero pr at home,
with or without seeing the patient, fomeand
•ee us. or send ten cents Jn starafd .or our
“litviDlds* Guide Book,” wlfioh gffto
all particulars.
■■■■■i i winn Werrone Dcblllty.l»»y<k
ltr>ntnivfi tencr, Nocturnal bovfw.
UEUCITt and dh Morbid ConditfoiMP
JT caused by youthful Fol-
OliriCrQ lie* and PrrnJrioun .Noll*
UlaLAuCd. inry Practices arc speedily
and permanently cured oy o>if
Specialists. Book, post-paid, 10 c»c. Jn stamps
tmmmmmmnamnrm KoptUrC, Or Bf'.-fir?!, TtAi-
I rally cured without «h© knife*.
HIiPTHRF I wit bout trusses, without pain,
iivrivnu I ai|( j W jth out danger. Gtirtm
rmmmmmmmrn Guaranteed. Book serrt for
ten cents In stamps.
PILE TUMORS and STHK’TIIIfH
treated under guarantee *o cure. Jhwk;
sent for ten cent# in starm*?. Address World'*
Dispensary Medical Association, 863 Mato
3treet, Buffalo, N. Y.
i u i • TV- treatment of msnv
ftianarn thousands of OHSCE Os those
DISEASES OF peculiar to
Ufnuru ’WOTYZ.'rcINr 1
WURtlf. invalid*' Hotel an*
I Irnmmmmmammmmmma Purgl'cil! Institute, has «f
--ordod large experience in adapting icmedtog
j or their cure, Rnd
DR. FIERCE’S
Favorite Prescription
Is tbe result of this vast experience
It is a powerful Itoaiomil t o Toole*
and Nervine, Imparts vigor and strength
to the system, and cures, ns if by magic, JLeu
corriiea, or “whiles,-’ etrewire
flowing, painful (ncnsirua?ion,
natural nuprreN«(iou«, prolnowni* or
falling of tne uterus, weak buck*
Rn(over*lon, retro version, bearing
down aentmtloitk, chronic rottcei,.
lion, Inflammuilon and utccrit<to»«
of the %voml>, Inrinnivuatton, pnltt
and tenderness in marie*, itucruu?
heat, and “female wen I* no**.”
It promptly relieves and cures Nnuaen
»nd Weakness of Sfomncta, Endlges
tlou, Bloating, NervoiiH Pnot. stiou,
gnd Sleeplessness, in cither
PR’pC C I nfl oil c nftTTLFJ •
rniUL JUJU, ioi; su.oo.
Sold by Druggists everyw here. Send
ten cents Jn stamps for Dr. Fierce'* largo
Treatise on Diseases of Women, illustrated.
World’s Dispensary Medical Association,
003 Main Strati. BUFFALO. H.Y.
SICK-HEADACHE,
Rilioua J|C»adache,
Dlzziue**. Constipa
tion, lied location,
and Bilious Attacks,
!* promptly cured by Or
Pierce’s Ploaapn-
Purgative Pellets. *
oenta a vfai. by Druggttfh
Il’lmpl.*. lilotrhrß, Srnlr «r Oily Okl-a,
Illi-ml.hr. nml nil -Mu Dlu-n.r. Cur*.
•ml Complexion llrnutlflod by
Beeson's Amalie Alum Sulphur Soap..
told by llrugxl.li or uml by mall on rrrrlnt of I
JSoenUliy WM. ItItEVDUPPF.L, Itloou- Q
foctoror, 20h Norm Front St, Fhbadolphla. Fa
S7OO to $2500.&r e <tf
vxpensc. can tic made working f- .r us. Azont i
preferred who inn furnish their own h-uve-,
and give their whole time t, the huaiom.
Spore momenta may be profitably e nplovmj
also. A few vai-ant,i»n»' met rtih*,
b. f. Johnson & co .
lO.'.'t Main Bt,, Richmond, V*