0
" -. r
E. F, YOUNG, Manager
JLlVli: AND LET LIVE,"
C. K. GRANTHAM, Local Editor.
VOLUME !
DUNN, HARNETT CO., N. C., THUKSDaY, APRIL 16, 1891.
NUMBER 8.
(The Central .Siwcg.
i '"
"published Evefy Thursday
nv-V"
E." F; Yoans ani B, K. Grantlam.
SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ADVANCE:
One Year,
Vr Month, -
Thro: Mvnth, -
$1.00
50
o -
ADVERTISING RATES:
nr f"J'inin, One Venr,
i
i
l;i'- lli' lij
40.nO 1
2O.O0 J
io.no
"iitia t a'lvrrtiw.-ineiii" taken at pro- j
l..irim:trly 1" r.t-.
. : A n-i ( n a line.
?yli,(-.- ill'
nr .v,..(-i.i Ill-lit'
'..if7' ill ftltHM, .V. fj
'-'The I't'ipin.which recently went down
vtith MO passengers on board, was quite;
:n v. ell equipped with life-saving ap
paratus," sinificcntlv observes the
Washington, Wr, ,;as arc the leading
l"-tss nger lines i;oing out of New York,
the individual steamers of which often
. arry from ') to passengers in the
s:):nrner season."
Siys 'the Washington Pot : "The
treeless and apparently indiscriminate
manner witli which the. courts of to-day
destroy the wills of rich men, docu
ments that embody the purpose and ob
ject of a lifetime of toil, has become one
of the notable and notorious abuses of
the day, and against this evil there is ris
ing a vigorous demand for rectification
and reform." .
It is said that Mrs. Kyle, wife of the
Alliance Senator from South Dakota, felt
overpowering confidence during the can
vass tint her husband would.be elected,
and whenever he talked of declining the
nomination she insisted that he would
'yield aud win. This, confesses the
fjiston Traiisrrqit, brings woman's
-intuition into play in politics in a new
and admirable.wav.
7
The Stittcshi'in'a Year Book for 1891 es
timates the world's inhabitants last year,
exclusive of the Polar regions, to -have
been l,Ku,'jO(l.OOO and the land surface
they .occupy in whole or in part at 46,
r.r.oHi') square miles, of which' 2S,269,
( square miles arc fertile, 13,901,000
Moppc and 4, 1S0.000 desert. The Polar
regions are put down at 4,SS3,80'J
viii irf1 r.iiie, with a population of only
about "00 u.
A London Hoard of Trade return, just !
issued, shows tho large decrease in the I
Lours of hh r during 'the past ten years,
which I'j bringing the eight-hour limit
i. carer aud nearer. Bakers who, a decade
ago, worked seventy-two hours a week
now work titty-four hours; miners, for
Vjnerly sixty hour?, now thirty-eight and
f rty -eight .hour. Workmen of all trades
r ow lvi rmc lift v-four hours wceklv or !
" w"
nine Hours a dav.
The Atlanta Conntttntion remarks:
V;rst-ch type-written copy isf hailou
with pleasure in newspapers and niaga-r.fhYe.-.
but very little of it is first
!a-s. t y positive relief to get a
manuscript lcgibiy writteu on white pa
pei in ood black ink, with a pen that
makes a broad stroke. The trouble with
many writers is that they use a pen with
iSl'nie point, and write a hair-line scrawl
that is hard (o read.. It is possible to
make written copy as plain as print, and
this is what evcrv writer should do.
tspain is busily preparing for the cele- ;
Waiiou of the 400th anniversary of the
landing of Columbus in America. The :
Society of 'Americanists, which has de- j
voted itself-to the study of everything'
lclatinir to America, will hold a Congress 1
ii O-.tober 12, 1892, at the convent of
J.a Rabid a, where Columbus found shel-
icr wuile -be was planning hi expedi
tion. Spain's methods of celebrating the
anniversary may not appeal so much to
the popular taMe as might have a great
v i . - . I
..am.uu, mn in meir sentinc and.:
historic aspect thev will
with an event so far-rear. aintr ;n f.
fects on civilization.
A profound sensatibn has beeu created
in Ital v bv the report that a French house
- - , . , Uie '
sent ltnyKM Remington cartridges to
King Mouelek.. of Abyssinia, by way of I
Obock. As Ita'v considers Mouclek to
be under Italian" protection, this is re-
, -....'!
garded as an interference with Italian
rights, and has-not -erved to hasten the
rcvival of friendly relations between
France and Ita'.v.' A gond share of thc
i, ,- , - " .
Italians however, would like to "lve un
' ' - lc UP .
African adventures altogether, one of the
Ionian newspapers saying that "when
the whole truth is known, the riecessitv
r.r .,k . ." I
ol abandoning the entire enterprise wil
1 c " i
!c seen, and there vill be only one more ;
research necessary, namely, to find some :
one yet more foolish than ourselves who
win t,i-f fi, i - . .i . ,
win take the charge upon their shoul
-js'i, 4
A SONG OF CHANCES, ,
I sang in the sun the whole day long,
I tang in the sun a merry song,
I would not believe in grief or wrong;
I sang in the sun the whole day long.
I Bat in the dark and moaned all night;
I had lost my faith in truth and right,
And I had no hopeof coining light;
I sat in the dark and moaned all night.
And yet at dawn in my heart I heard
Once more the voice of a singing bird,
But the memory hushed it with a word,
So my lips ne'er echoed what I heard.
And now I am neither sad nor gay;
I have learned at last that night and day,
Sunshine and sorrow, pass away;
Sonowlim neither sad nor gay.
. E. C. Wliitc, in Lippittcotl
THE LITTLE GOLD NUGGET.
. A TAI.E OF AUSTRALIA.
It was given to Effie to take care of.
It was not a great prize, for it weighed
only seven ounces; but it represented the
only result of strong man's toil for
many weeks, and, as nuggets go, it was
considered by no means a bad "find."
John Archer decided that the nugget
would le safer in Lis little daughter's
keeping than in his own. There were
thieves and lawless men at this new gold
rush, as at all new gold rushes, and they
would know of his prize.. They would
probably try to annex it. They would
search all sorts of cunning hiding-places
in the neighborhood of his tent; they
might even creep into the hut at night,
to feel under his pillow nnd among his
rough bedding for the yellow earth that
folk hate each other for. If he caught
the thief he would shoot him, but better
not to run the risk of losing his treasure.
And so he gave it to Effie to put in her
old work box. The thieves of the T-
diggings would be too cunning to think
of examining such an improbable hiding
place. "You must take great care of it, dar
ling," said John Archer. "It is for
your mother." And Effie stowed the lit
tle nugget away in a corner of the old
work box which had been her moth
er's under the cotton and the socks she
was darning for her' father. She felt
duly weighted with the responsibility.
She knew that this yellow earth was of
great value, for her father, leaving her
mother, who was very delicate, with
some friends in Brisbane, had come a
long, weary way to find it, and she had
seen his sorrow, his despair, as day after
day he had eagerly worked- with pick
and 6pade, without finding what he
sought.
Having hidden the little nugget away,
Effie came out of the hut to look )ouud
and sec if any one was near who might
have seen her. No. No one was near
who might have seen her only Billy the
black King Billy, the Aboriginal mon
arch, who loved rum and tobacco, and
who was chopping same firewood for her.
King Billy evidently had not seen, for he
was wieldiqg the axe with quite excep
tional vigor; and if Billy had seen it
wouldn't have mattered very much, for
Effie trusted.
This little girl's reason for trusting
King Billy, the black, was somewhat
ttrange, and is worthy of being recorded.
She trusted him because she had been
kind to him.
' -But Effie was only twelve.
As the child stood in the broad light,
her tumbled hay-hucd hair kissed and
illumined by the bold rays of the sun,
and lier round, trustful blue eyes shaded
from the lare by two little brown hands,
waicuing rung uiiy ai uis worK, a nocK
, of laughing jackasses alighted in a neigh
j boring gum-tree and feet up a demoniac
; cachiunation. What made the ill-omened
: birds so madly' merry? AVhat was the
'.joke? Erne's trust? Billy's gratitude?
They failed to explaiu; but their amuse
ment w as huge and sardonic.
"Drive them away, Billy," cried Eftie,
and the obedient king dropped his axe
, and threw a faggot of wood at the tree,
which stopped the laughter and dispersed
the inerry-makcis.
"Billy tired now.-' said the black,
grinning '-too much work plenty
wood,' and he pointed" to the result of
! his labor.
"Yes, that will be enough, thank you.
I You're, a good boy. 111 give you some
J tobacco."
; "Billy's thirsty."
"Then you shall have some tea."
j "No tea. Rum."
f . I"? 1 1 i 1 , a
"No, Billy. Rum isn't good for you."
"Good for miners; good for Billy."
"No, it's not good for miners," said
Effie, emphatically; "it makes them
fight and say wicked things." t
"Makes black feller feel good,"' dc-
clarcd Billy, rolling his dusky eyes.
This last argument was effective.
Effie went iuto her hut her father had
i returned to his work and poured a
! little spirits from John Archer's flask iu-
to a "nnrmikin " TiHl drnk tho sT:r
. rs
its with rolling eyes, smacked his lips,
and thcu lav down in the shadow of the
hut to sleep.
The long afternoon passed very slowly
for Effie. Her few trifling duties as
housekeeper were soon done. The little
,u,t was liJicd- ami thc simple evening
u ?l PPJ and some hours must pass
before, her father returned.' How could
shc pass the time? She had only two
books a Bible and a volume of stories
or litt,c Sirls. which she had won as a
!nZC' a sch(o1 ia Brisbanc. But she was
to youncr so appreciate the first, espec-
ially as the type,bcing very small, it was
difficult reading, and she had grown be-
.von appreciating the stories for little
Trls' ha.vin? known them by heart three
years lefore. She would like to have
,i . f j i . j
slept. Everything around her suggested
and invited the siesta the steady heat;
t be brightness of the light without the
hut; tbe distant murmur of , miners'
voices which came from lieyond vonder
u , ti .u
belt of wattle gums; the monotonous
hum of thc locusts in the forest; the oc-
casional fretful cry of a strange bird, and
tbe regular snores" of the fallen king who
kluntbercd ill the hut. Even the buzz of
, - a- . j .v i
the annoying flies assisted the ge&ertd
ejtect and' brought drowsiness.
TO temaiil still for a lew minute
would hare meant inevitably falling
sleep. Effie felt this, and remembered
the little gold nugget. If) she slept,
some thief might come and take it. And
so she put on her hat, and, forsaking thc
seductive cool and shade of ths hut.went
out into tbe brightness and heat.
Arcber'e hut stood on thc edge of the
valley, over against tbe foot of the blue,
heavily-timbered'hills, About fifty yards
distant from it, hidden Among the trees,
was a high moss-grown rock, at the base
of which Effie had discovered the small
est and sweetest of natural springs.
Thither the child ran looking back often
to see that no one approached the
hut in het absence to - bathe her face.
In a few minute3 she returned, drying
her face in her apron, and slinking her
wet hair in the sun. No one had'eome;
but King Billy was now awake, and was
slouching lazily off toward tbe bush.
Effie laughed as she saw him his great
bead bent forward, and his thin', narrow
shoulders bowed. She laughed to think
of his laziness, and that he should look
so tired after such a very little wood-,
chopping.
She was still laughing at King Billy as
she opened the old work-box to take
another peep at the yellow treasure, and
to make quite sure that the heat hadn't
melted it away. And it was quite slowly
that the laugh died from the pretty eyes
and mouth quite slowly, because of the
moments it took to realize and accept a
misfortune so terrible when she lifted
the coarse socks and looked and saw no
little gold nugget saw nothing. Then
horror and great fear grew in the blue
eyes, and pale agony crept over the
childish face and made it old, and the
poor little heart seemed to stop beat
ing. h
Eftie said nothings aud made no cry j
but she closed her eyes tightly for 4 mo
ment, and looked in the box again No,
it was no illusion ; the little nugget was
net there th3 first gold her father had
found, which had been intrusted to her
care, which was to have been taken to
her mother it was gone. She put down
the box, quite quietly, and walked out
into the day; but thc sun was shining
very strangely and mistily novand the
blue sky had grown black; and the trees
seemed to move weirdly; and the locusts
had ceased humming from fear; but the
strange bird was somewhere near,shriek
ing brokenly, "What will father say?
What will father say?"
But as the child stood there despair
ingly, her sight grew clearer, and she
was conscious of a pair of dusky eyes
watching her through thc leaves. Then
only she remembered, and she knew
who had done this cruel thing. King
Billy! And she had been kind to him.
Effie suddenly burst into passionate sob
bing. The Black figure still 'hovered
among the trees, often changing its posi
tion, anddusky eyes still peered through
the leaves. And the laughing jackasses
flew down to the old tree again, and
laughed more madly 'than before
laughed at Effie's trust at Billy's grati
tude. It was ten o'clock, and darkness and
quiet reigned in John Archer's hut.
Over among the tents . behind the wattle
gums a few gamblers and heavy drinkers
were s';ill awake, and their voices, raised
in anger or ribald merriment, might oc
casionally have been faintly heard from
the hut. But Archer, who had sown his
wild oats, was- a true- worker; and he
had his little daughter, for whose sake
he had built the hut away from the ubisy
camp.
Archer had come home late and weary,
as usual, had eaten his supper, aud gone
to rest without, to Effie's intense relief,
speaking of the little gold nugget. .The
child was afraid to speak of thc loss, and
she was not without vague hopes that a
beneficent providence would restore the
nugget during the darkness, and save
her from tins great trouble.
' For this she prayed very earnestly be
fore she lay down to sleep. , Or did she
sleep at all that night? She never quite
knew. But she thinks that it was then
that she jirst experienced that terrible,
purgatorial condition which is neither
wakefulness nor sleep, when the
body and mind are, weary
enough to bring the profound sleep
which they require, but which the brain
is too overladen and loo cruelly active to
allow; when dreams seem realities and
realities .dreams. It must have been a
dream when she saw something small
and yellow float through the tiny window
on thc ghostly silver moonbeams." And
yet, having closed her eyes, 6he opened
them again, it -was still there hovering
about in the darkness less bright now,
and with a pale yellow halo. But it
faded quite away; it was a cruel, mock
ing dream.
Then was it a dream when the old
curtain, which divided her corner of'the
hut from her father's, moved near the
ground bulged slightly toward her? It
would be curious to see, andshe lay still.
From under the curtain seemed to come
a thin arm, and slowly, cautiously, after
thc arm a head with a great shock of
hair.. And the moonbeams just touched
thc face I think they kissed it, though
it was black, for they found in a black
hand the little yellow object which had
floated in the first dream.
It was all so real, so beautiful, that
the child lay still, scarce daring to
breathe, lest the vision should melt away ;
and when in her dream came the voice
of her father, with the words, "Speak,
or I'll fire," her lips refused to open.
But it was no dream when the shot
came, and the Black King rolled over oa
thc earth, dead, with the little gold nug
get he had come to restore pressed iu th
death-agony against his heart, where,
too. was a little gold.
And the laughing birds iu the old
tree, startled from their Bleep by the
shot, laughed once more, wildly and
madly, at Billy's honesty; but there was
bitterness in their merriment, for their
master, the devil had been cheated of
the soul of a Black King.
A foreign watchmaker has patented a ;
device by which, an hour or two before
a clock runs down, the word "wind" i
j will appear at an opening in thc dial.
?!
1
The Eminent Brooklyn DivinVs Snn4
day . Sermon.- ; '
Fabjrrt I The Plagu mf Ifldlltr."
Turf: "Let God be true, but erery met
iftti; Romans iii., 4. ' . . j ;j
That is If bod says one thins and the
whole human race savs tbe opposite. Paul'
would accept the Divine veracity. But therei
are many in our time who nave dared arraign;
the Almighty for Xaliehood. Infidelity Is
hot only a plague, but it L the mother of,;
fclaguea J " i
it seems irom wuat we hear ou all sides
that the Christian religion is a huge Wun
der; that the Mosaic account of the creation ;
is an absurdity large enough to throw all!
nations into rollicking gufTaw; that Adam
and Eve never existed; that the ancient;
flood and Noah's ark were impossibilities;
that there never was a miracle; that the
Bible is the friend of cruelty, of murder, of ;
polygamy, of all forms of base crime; thafc
the Christian religion is woman's tvrant
and man's stultification; that the .Bible
rrom lid to lid is a fable, a cruelty, a hum--bug,
a sham, a lie; that the martyrs whoj
died for its truth were miserable dupe?;-,
that the church of Jesus Christ is
properly gazetted as a fool; that when
Thomas Carlyle, the skeptic, said, "The!
Bible is a noble book," he was dropping
into.imbecility; that when Theodore Parker
declared in Music ball, Boston, "Never a'
boy or girl in all Christendom but was
profited ly. that f:reat book," he was be-;
coming Very weak minded; that it is fiome-i!
thing to bring a blush to , tbe Cheek of
every patriot that John Adam, the father?
of American independence-, declared ''The?
Bible is the best book in all the world ;'
and that lion hearted Andrew Jackson;
turned into a sniveling coward when he said, 5
"That boo'r, sir,- is the rock on which our re-
public rests;" and that Daniel Webster ab
dicated the throne of his intellectual power
and resigned his logic, and from being the
great expounder of the constitution and the
great lawyer of his age turned into an idiot
When he said, "'ily heart assures and reas
sures me that the gospel of Jesus Christ must,
be a divine reality. From the time that at
my mother's feet or on my father's knee ; I
first learned to lisp verses from the sacredl
writings they have been my daily study and,
vigilant contemplation, and if there is any4
thing in my style or thought to becommend-f,
ed the credit is due o my kind parents in in-J
stillinc into niv mind an earlv love of theK
( a . , ii i ii-:n: ry C3 SN
(scriptures; sou mut nuumu xa. oewmu,;
the diplomatist of the century, only showed
his puerility when he declared, ' llThe whole;
hope of human progress is suspended on the."
ever growing influences of the Bible ;?' andV
that it is wisest for us to take that book f rom
the throng in the affections of uncounted
multitudes and put it under our feet
to be trampled upon by hatred ,
and hissing contempt; and . that
your old father was hoodwinked and cajoled
and cheated and befooled when he leaned on
this as a staff after his hair grew gray, and
his hands were tremulous, and his steps
shortened as he came up to the verge of the.
grave; and that your mother sat withapack1
of lies on her lap while reading of the better
country, and of the ending of -all her aches;
and pains, and reunion not only with those?
of you who stood around her, but with tbej
children she bad buried with, infinite heart-?
ache, so that she could read no more imtilj
she took off her spectacles and wiped from'
them the heavy mist of many tears. Alast
that for forty and fifty years they should
have walked under this delusion and had
it under their pillow when they lay a-dyingj
in the back room, and asked that some worda
from the vile page might be cut upon th
tombstone under the shadow of the old!
country meeting house where they sleeps
to-day waiting for a resurrection that wilt;;
never come. . j
This book, hairing deceived them, and hay
ing deceived the mighty intellects of thej
past, must not be allowed to deceive outjj
larger, mightier, vaster, more stupendous'
intellects. And so out with the book front;
the court room, where it isusedinthesolemn-ii
ization of testimony. ' Out with it from un:
der the foundation of church and asylumJj
Out with it from the domestic circle. Gathei'i
together all the Bibles the children's Biblesjj
the family Bibles, those newly bound, ano'
those with lid nearly worn out and pages, alj
most obliterated bv the nneers lon aea
turned to dust bring them all together, aui
let us make a bonfire of them, -and. by i
warm our old criticism, and after that turn
under with the plowshare of public indigl
nation the polluted ashes of that loathsome
adulterous, obsoene, cruel and deatbf ul book
which is so antagonistic to man's liberty, and
and woman's honor, and the world's
happiness, j
Now that is the substance of what infidets
ity proposes and declares and the attack or
the Bible is accompanied by great jocosity
and there is hardly any subject about whict
more mirth is kindled than about the Bible
I like fun; no man was ever built with n
keener appreciation of it. There is health
in laughter instead of harm physical health,
mental health, moral health, spiritual health
provided you laugh at the right thin.
The morning is jocund. The Indian with its
own mist baptizes the cataract Minnehaha,
or Laughing Water. You have not kept
your eyes open cr your ears alert if you hae
not seen the sea smile, or heard the forests
clap their hands, or the orchards in blossom
week aglee with redolence. But there is.a
laughter which has the rebound of despair.
It is not healthy to giggle about God or
chuckle atout eternity or smirk about the
things of the immortal soul.
You know what caused the accident years
ago on the Hudson River Railroad. . It was
an intoxicated man who for a joke pulled the
string of the air brake and stopped thl train
at the most dangerous point of the journey.
But the lightning tram, not knowing there
was any impediment in the way, came down,
crushing out of the mangled victims the im
mortal souls that went speeding instantly to
God and judgment. It was only a joke. He
thought it would be sued fun to stop the
train . He stopped it. And so infidelity is
chiefly anxious to stop the long train of the
Bible, and the long train of the churches,
and the long train of Christrian influences,
while coming down upon us are death, judg
ment and eternity, coming a thousand miles
a minute, coming with more force than all
the avalanches that ever sbpped from, the.
Alps, coming with more strength than all
the lightning express trains that ever whip
tied or shrieked or thundered across the con
tinent, j v
Now in this jocularity of infidel thinkers' I
cannot join, and I propose to give you some
reasons why I cannot be an infidel, and so I,
will try to help out of -this present condition
any w$o may have been struck with thej
awful plague of skepticism. ijl !
First, I cannot be an infidel because infi
delity has no good substitute for the conf
lation it proposes to take away. You know
there are millions of people who get tb$r
chief consolation from this book. Wht
would you think of a crusade of this sort?
Suppose a man should resolye that he would
organize a conspiracy to destroy all j the
medicines from all the apothecaries and from
all the hospitals of the earth. The work ia
done. Tbe medicines are taken, and tbej;
are thrown into the river, or the lake, or th
sea. . W .!
A patient wakes up at midnight in a par-i
- ji 1 . ,. .nn4,.A I
OITSUl Ul UlMrGN, UIU nauu au n in xj J IX.
"Oh," Fays the nurse, "the anodynes are (ill
destroved; we have no drops to give you,
but instead of that I'll read you a book wn
tbe absurdities of morphine and tbeabhv r
dities of all remedies." But the man contin
ues to writhe in pain, and thr nurse sa):
T11 continue to read you some discoursesn
anodynes, the cruelties of anodynes, tbe jja
decencies of anodynes, the absurdities Tpf
anodynes. For your groan Til give youa
laugh." . S
Here in tbe hospital is a patient havinza
gangrened limb amputated. He aavs: "Oh,
for ether! Oh, for chloroform ! The doc
tor says: "Why, they .are all destroyed; we
.don't have anymore chloroform or ether,
but I have got something a great deal be
BEY. 1 . MM.
ter. Til read" yon a nananhlel aialnst
James i . Simpson, the discoverer of chloro
form as an anaesthetic, and against Drs. Ag-.
new and-Hamilton, and Hosack and Ifott
and Harvey and Abernethy." But," says
the man, "I must have some anaesthetic."
"No," says the doctor, "they are all de
stroyed, but we have got something a great
deal better." "What is thatr "Fun."
Fun about medicine!'. Lie down, all ye pa
tients in Bellevue "Hospital, and stop your
groaning, all ye broken hearted of all the
Cities; and quit your crying; we hav the
catholicbn at last.
Here is a dose of wit, here is a strengthen
in Plaster of sarcafim; here is a bottle of
ribaldry that you are to keep well shaken op
and take a spoonful of it after each taea
and if that does not cure yon tier is a; solu
tion of blaiphemy In which you may bathe,
and here ia a tincture of derision. Tickle the
skeleton of death with a repartee ! Make the
King of Terrors cackle ! For a.'l the agonies
of ail tho ages a joke! Millions of people
willing with uplifted hands toward heaven
to affirm that the Gospsl of Jesus Christ is
full of consolation for them, and yet infidel
ity proposes to take it away, giving nothing,
absolutely nothing, except fun. Is there any
greater height or depth or length or breadth
or immensity of meanness in all God's uni
verse?
Infidelity is a religion of "Don't know.5
Is there a God? Don't know ! Is the, soul
immortal? Don't know!. If we should meet
each other in the future world will we recog
nize each other? Don't know! A religion
of "don't know" for tho religion of "I
know," "I know in whom I have believed,"
"I know that my Redeemer liveth." Infi
delity proposes to substitute a religion of
awful negatives for our religion of glorious
positives, showing right before us a world of
reunion and ecstacy and hh companionship
and glorious Worship, and stupendous vie
toryj the mightiest joy of earth not high
enough to reach to the base of the Himalaya
of uplifted splendor .awaiting all those who
on wing of Christian faith will soar toward
yoii heard of the conspiracy to put
out all the lighthouses on the coast? Do you
know that on a certain night of next month,
Eddystdne lighthouse Bell ftock lighthouse.
Sherryvore lighthouse, Montauk' lighthouse;
Hatteras lighthouse. New London light
house, Barnegat lighthouse, and the 640
lighthouses on the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts are to be extinguished? "Oh," you
say, "what will become of the sbips on that
night? What will be the fate tf ths one
million sailors following the sea? What will
be the doom of the millions of passengers?
Who will arise to put down such a conspir
acy?'' Every man, woman and child id
America and the world. But that is only a
fable. That is what infidelity is trying to
do put out all the lighthouses on the coast
of eternity, letting the soul go up the "Nar
rows" of death with no light, no comfortj no
peace all that coast covered with the black
ness of darkness. Instead of the great light--house,
a glowworm of wit, a firefly of jocos
ity. Which do you like the bettsr, O voy
aeer forcternity, the firefly or the lizht-
f house?
j What a mission infidelity has started onl
The extinguishment of lighthouses, the
breaking up of lifeboats, the dismissal of all
the pilots, the turning of the inscription on
your child's grave into a farce and a He.
Walter Scott's "Old Mortality," chisel in
hand, went through the land to cut out into
plainer letters the half obliterated inscrip
tions on the tombstones, and it was a beau
tiful mission; but infidelity spends its time
with hammer and chisel tryinsr to cut out
from the tombstones of your dead all the
story of resurrection and heaven. It is the
iconoclast of every village graveyard and of
every city cemetery and of Westminster Ab
bey. Instead of Christian consolation for
the dying, a freezing sneer. Instead of
prayer a grimace. Instead of Paul's
triumphant defiance of death, a going out
you know not where, to stop you know not
when, to do you know not what. That is in
fidelity. .
Furthermore: I cannot be an infidel, be
cause of the false charges infidelity is all the
time making against the Bible. Perhaps the
slander that has made the most impression
and that some Christians have not been in
telligent enough to deny is that the Bible
favors polygamy. Does the God of the Bible
uphold polygamy, or did He? How many
wives did God make for Adam? He made
one wife. Does not your common sense tell
you when God started the marriage institu
tion He started it as He wanted it to con
tinue? If God had favored polygamy He
I could have created for Adamx five wives or
teli wives or twenty wives just as easily as
He. made one.
- At the very first pt the Bible God shows
Himself in favor of monogamy and antago
nistic to polygamy. Genesis ii., 34. "There
fore shall a man leave his father aud mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife." Not his
wives, but his wife. How many wives did
God spare for Noah in the ark? Two and
two "the birds; two and two the cattle; two
I' and two the lions; two and two the human
race. If the God of the Bible had favored
a multiplicity of wives He would have spared
a plurality of wives. When God first
launched the human race Ho gave Adam
one wife. At the second launching of the
human race He spares for Noah one wife, for
Ham one wife, for Shem one wife, for
Japhet one wife. Does that look as though
God favored polygamy In Leviticus xviii.,
IS, God thunders His. prohibition of more
than cne wife;' r
God permitted polygamy. Yes; jut as
He permits to-day's murder anl theft and
arson and all kinds of crime. He permits
these things, as you well know, but He does
not sanction them. Who would dare to say
He sanctions them? Because the Presidents
of the United States have permitted poly
gamy in Utah, you are not, therefore, to con
clude that they patronized it, that they ap
proved it, when, on the contrary, they de
nounced it. All of God's ancient Israel
knew that the God of the-Bible was against
po.vgamy, for in the four hundred and thirty
years of their stay in Egypt there is -only
one ca of polygamy recorded ori'.y one.
All the mighty men of the Bible stood aloof
from polygamy except those who, falling
into the crime, were chastized within an inch
of their lives. . Adam, Aaron, Noah, Joseph,
Joshua, Samuel'monogaraists. But you say,
"Didn'tDavid and Solomon favor pologamy?"
Yes; and did they not get well punished for
it? I
'Read the lives of those two men and you
will come to the conclusion that all the at
tributes of God's nature were against their
behavior. David suffered for his crimes in
the caverns "of Adulkun and Massada, in the
wilderness of Mahanaim, in the bereave
ments of Ziklag. The Bedouins after him,
sickness after him, Absalom after him,
Ahithopel after him. Adonijah after him,
the Edomites after him, the Syrians after
him, the Moabites after him, death after
him, the Lord God Almighty after him .
The poorest peasant in all tbe empire mar
ried to the plainest Jewess was happier than
tbe King hi his marital misbehavior. How
did Solomon get along with polygamy?
Read his warnings in Proverbs; read bisself
disgust in Ecclesiastes. He throws up his
hands in loathing and cries out, "Vanity o
vanities, all is vanity." His seven hundred
wives nearly pestered the life out of him.
Solomon got well paid for his- Crimea well
paid.
I repeat that all the mighty men of the
Scriptures were aloof from polygamy, save
a they were pounded and flailed and cut to
nirrai for their insult to boiv marriage. If
I the Bible is the friend of polygamy why is it
that in all the lands where tbe Bible pre-
I dominates polygamy is forbidden, and in tbe
lands where there is no rsiDie u u iavoreo.
Polygamy all over China, all over India,, all
over Africa, all over Persia, all over heathen
dom, rave tbe missionaries have done
their work,- while polygamy does not exist in
England and thMJnited States, except in de
fiance of law. The Bible abroad, God hon
ored monogamy. The Bible not abroad,
God abhorred polygamy.
Another false charge which infidelity has
made against the Bible ia that it is antago
nistic to woman, that it enjoins ber degrada
tion and belittles her mission. Under this
impression many women have been over
come of this plague of infidelity. Ia the
Bible the enemy of woman t Come into tbe
picture gaTkry, the Louvre the Luxembourg
of the Bible, and see which pictures are the
more honored. Here is Eve. a perfect
woman; as perfect a woman as could be
made by a perfect God. Here is Deborah,
with hear woman v arm hurling a host into
battle. Here is Miriam, leading tbe Israel
itish orchestra on the banks of tbe
RedSaj. Here is motherly Hannah,
with her own loving band replenishing tbe
wardrobe of her son Samuel, the prophet.
Here is Abigail, kneeling at the foot of the
mountain until the four hundred wrathful
mem at the sight of her beauty and prowess
halt, halt- hurricane stopped at the sight
of a water lily, a dew drop dashing back Ni
agara. Here is Ruth putting to shame all
modern slang about mothers-in-law. &b
turns br back cm her borne and her countrv,
and faces wild beasts and exile, and death
that she may be with Naomi, her husband's
mother. Rntb. the queen of the harvest
fields. Ruth, the granimother of David.
Ruth, the ancestress of Jesus Christ. The
story of her virtues and her life sacrifice is
the most beautiful pastoral ever written.
Here is Vashti defying tbe bacchanal of a
thousand .drunken lords, and Esther "will
ing to throw her life away that . she may
deliver her people. And here is Dorcas, the
sunlight of eternal fame gilding hef philan
thropic needle, and the woman with perfume
in a box made from the hills of Alabastron,
pouring the holy chrism on the head of Christ,
the aroma lingering all down the corridor of
the centuries. Here is Lydia, the merchan
tess of Tyrian purple immortalized for her
Christian behavior. Here is the widow wita
two mites, more famous than the Peabodys
and the Lenoxes of all the ages, while here
comes in slow of gait and with careful atten
dants and with especial honor and high favor,
leaning on the arm of inspiration, one who
is the joy and pride of any home so rarely
fortunate as to have one, an old Christian
grandmother, Grandmother Lois. Who has
more Worshipers to-day than any being
that ever lived od earth except Jesus Christ?
Mary. For what purpose did Christ perform
His first miracle upon earth? To relieve the
embarrassment ot a womanly housekeeoer
at the falling short of a beverage. Why
did Christ break up the silence of the tomb,
and tear off the shroud, and rip up the rocks?
It was to stop the bereavement of the two
Bethany sisters For whose comfort was
Christ most anxious irt the hour of dying
excruciation? For a woman, an old. woman,
a wrinkle faced woman, a woman who in
other days had held Him in her arms, His
first friend. His last friend, as it is very apt
to be, His mother. All the pathos of the ages
compressed into on 3 utterance, "Behold thy
mother." Does the Bible antagonize
woman?
If the Bible is so antagonistic to woman,
how do you account for the difference in
woman's condition Id China add Central
Africa, and her condition hi England and
America? There is no difference except that
which the Bible" makes , In lands where there
is no Bible she is hitched like a beast of bur
den to the plows, she carries the hod, she sub
mits to indescribable indignities. She must
be kept iri a private apartment, and if 6he
come forth she must be carefully hooded and
religiously veiled as though It were a shame
to be a woman. Do you not know that the
very first thing the Bible does when it comes
into a new country is to strike off the shackles
of woman's serfdom? O woman, where are
your chains to-day ? Hold np both your arms
and let Us see your handcuffs. Ob, we see
the handcuffs. They are bracelets of gold
bestowed by husbandly cr fatherly or
brotherly or sisterly or lovely affection. Un
loosen the warm robe from ycwir neck, O
woman, and, let us see tbe yoke of your bond
age. Oh, I findtheyokeacarcenetof silver,
or a string of carnelians, or a cluster of
pearls, that must gall you very much. How
bad you must all have it.
Since you put the Bible on your stand in
the sitting room, has the Bible been to you,
O woman, a curse or a blessiqg? Why is it
that a woman when she is troubled will go
to her 'worst enemy, the Bible Why do
you not go for comfort to some of the
grfeat infidel books. Spinoza's "Ethics,"
or Hume's "Natural History of Religion,"
or Paine's "Age of Reason, ' or any one of
the 230 volumes of Voltaire? No, the silly
deluded woman persists in hanging about
our Bible verses, "Let not your heart be
troubled," "All things work together for
good," "Weeping may endure for a night,"
"I am the resurrect ion," "Peace, be till."
Furthermore, rather than invite I resist
this " plague of infidelity because it has
wrought no positive good for the world and
is always ahindrauco. I ask you to mention
the name cf the merciful and the education
al institutions which infidelity founded and
is supporting, and has supported all the way
through institutions pronounced against
God and the Christian religion, and yet pro
nounced in behalf of ' suffering humanity.
What are the namjs of them? Certainlynot
the United States Christian commission, or
the sanitary commission, for Christian
George H. Stuart was the President of the
one, and Christian Henry W. Bellows was
the President of the other.
Where are the asylums and merciful in
stitutions founded ty infidelity and sup
ported by infidelity, pronounced against
God and the Bible, and yet doing work for
the alleviation of suffering? Infidelity is so
verv loud in its braggadocio it must have
some to mention. Certainly, if you come to
speak of educational institutions it is not
Yale, it is not Harvard, it is not Princeton,
it is not Middletown, it is not Cambridge or
Oxford, it is not any institution from which
a diploma would not be a disgrace. Do you
point to the German-universities as excep
tions? I have to tell you that all the German
universities to-day are under positive
Christian influences, except the University
of Heidelburg. where the ruffianly students
cut and maul and mangle and murder each
other as a matter of pride instead of infamy.
Do you mention Girard College, Philadelphia,
as an exception, that college established by
the will of Mr. Girard which forbade re-ligiou-i
instruction and the. entrance of
clergymen within its gates. My reply is
that I lived for seven years near that college
and I knew many of its professors to be
Christian instructors, and no better Christian
influences are to be found in any college than
in Girard College.
There stands Christianity. There stands
infidelity. Compare what they have done.
Compare their resource. There is Chris
tianity, a prayer on her lip; a benediction on
her brow; both hands full of help for all who
want help; the mother of thousands of col
leges; the mother of thousands of asylums
for the oppressed, the blind, the sick, th9
lame, the imbecile; the mother of missions
for the bringing back of the outcast; tbe
mother of thousands of reformatory institu
tions for the saving of tbe lost; the mother
of innumerable Sabbath-echools bringing
millions of children under a drill to prepare
them for respectability and usefobiess, to
say nothing of the great future.' - That is
Christianity.
Here is infidelity: no prayer on her lips, no
benediction on her brow, both'hands clenched
what for? To fight Christianity. That is
the entire business Tbe complete mission
of infidelity to fight Christianity. Where
ara her schools, her colleges, her asylums of
mercy? Let me throw you down a whole
ream of foolscap paper that yon may fill all
of it with the namea of her beneficent in
stitutions, the colleges and the asylums, the
institutions of mercy and learning, founded
by infidelity and supported alone by infidel
ity, pronounced against God and the Chris
tian religion, and yet in favor "of making the
world better. "Oh," yon say, "a ream of
paper is too much for the names of tho9 in
stitutions." A Veil, then, I throw yon a quire
of paper. FU1 it all up now. 1 will wait
until you get all the names down. '"Oh,"
you say, "that is too much." Well, then, I
will just hand you a sheet of letter paper.
Just fill np tbe four sides while we are talk
ing of this matter with the mbiw of the
merciful institutions and tbe educational in
stitutions founded by infidelity and supported
all along by infidelity, pronounced against
God and the Chrirtianrligion, yet in favor
of humanity.
'Oh," yon say "that is too much room.
We don't want a whole sheet of paper to
write down tbe ntmee." Perhaps 1 had bet
ter tear out one leaf from my memorandum
book and ask yon fill both aides of it with tbs
names of such institution. "Oh," you aay,
"that would be too much room. I wouldn't
want so much room as that." Well, then,
suppose yon count them on your ten fingers.
"Oh, you say, "not quite so much as that."
We)', then, count them on the finger of one
hand. !Oh," yon say "we don't want quite
so much room as that.". Suppose, then, you
halt and count on one finger the name of aay
institution founded by infidelity, supported
entirely by infidelity, pronounced against
God and the Christian religion; ret toil
ing to make the world better. Not one!
Not one!
Is infidelity so poor, so starveling, so
mean, so useless t Get out, you miserable
panper of the universe ! Crawl into boom
rathole of everlasting nothingness. Infidelity
standing to-day amid th suffering, groaning.'
! jing nation, and yet doing absolutely
nothing save trying to impede those who are
toiling until they fall exhausted into their
graves in trying to make tbe world better.
Gather np all the work, all tho merciful
work, that infidelity has ever dona, add it
all together, and there is not so much nobil
ity in it as in-the smallest bead of that sister
of charity who last night went up ths dark
alley of the town, put a jar of jelly for an
invalid appetite on a broken stall dand tbeti
knelt on the bare floor praying the mervy ot
Ohrist upon tha dying soul, -
Infidelity scrapes no lint for tilt wounded, ,
bakes no bread for the hungry, shakes up no
pillow for the sick, rouses no comfort for tho
bereft,- gilds nc grave for the dead. Whil
Christ, our Christ, our wounded Christ, our
risen Christ, the Christ of the old fashioned
Bible blessed be His glorious name forever!
our Chris stands this hoar pointing to the
hospital, r to the asylum, saying: "I was
sick and ye gave me a concb, I was lame and
ye gave me a crutch, I was blind and ye
physicianed my eyesight, I was orphaned
and ye mothered my soul, I was lost on the
mountains and ye brought , me home; inas
much as ye did it to one of the least of these,
ye did it to me."
But I thank God 'that this plague of infi
delity will be stayed. Many of those who
hear me now by the Holy G host upon their
hearts will cease to be scoffers an d will be
come disciples, aud the day will arrive whet
all nations will accept tho Scriptures. Tha
book is going to keep right on until the fire
of the last day are kindled. Some of them
will begin on one side and some on the other
side of the old book. They will not find a
bundle of loose manuscripts easily consumed
like tinder thrown into the fire. When tho
fires of the last day are kindled, some wilt
-burn on this side, from Genesis toward
Revelation, a ad others will burn on fnia
side, from Revelation toward Genesis; and ia
all their way they will not find a single
chapter or a single versa out of place. ,Tliftt
will be the first time we . can afford to do
without the Bible. . '
What will ha the use of the book of Gen
esis, descriptive of how this world was male
when the world is destroyed? What will b
the U99 of the prophecies when they ara all
fulfilled? What wilf to the use of the
evangelistic or Pauline description of Jesus
Christ wheu we see Him lace to face? What .
will be the use of His photograph when we
have met Him in glory? What will be the
use of the book of Revelation, standing as
you will with your foot on the glassy sea.
and your hand on the ringing harp, and your
forehead chapleted with eternal coronation,
amid the amethystine and - twelve -gated
glories of heaven? The emerald dasbin; its
green against the beryl, and the beryl dash
ing its blue against tha sapphire, and the
sapphire throwing its light on the jacinth,
and tho jacinth dashing its fire against the
chrysoprasus, aud you and I standing io the
giorifs of tu thousand suttsetr.
j ssssssssBs
now Some Goods Arc Sold.
We were talking with a leading up
town retailer a few days since whose an
nual sales run up into the millions, and
ameng other questions came up the ona
of "drives" or special bargains. "How
is it," we asked, "that you people; can
every now and. then advertise and ceil
some line of garments or fabrics or ar-
I tides at prices which, on thc face of
them, show a heavy loss on the cost oi
manufacture itself K"
The merchant smilingly replied":
"With the euormous-outlet which busi
ness such" as ours affords we are iu 'posi
tion to handle quantities which would
stanrer the average retailer. For in
stance, two or three weeks ago wc e!6sed
out for cash 210 silk umbrellas, n)l thc
stock of one of .the smaller manufacturers,
who needed cash for the time being more
than be did the umbrellas. The price,'
as you may readily understand, was a
low one or we would not have closed the
bargain. .
"The goods we placed in stock, ma:k
ing them in three different grades viz.,
$2. HO, $3.50 and 5. We advertised
them in the daily press and in a few days
sold over 1500 of this 'special drive,
every one of which was a bargain.
" 'Now,' we said, we have inade a
handsome proSt on those already sold.
We will create a little excitement on the
balance and .stand a loss ourselves.' :8o
! we advertised 500 silk umbrellas at;:$l
each. Every one of tho3e wc put in thi
special sale was worth from $2.50 to f5
at retail.
"The morning the sale took place the
people flocked in as' soon as the doors'
were opened, and in one hour and twenty
minutes the last umbrella was disposed
of. We sold one umbrella only to each
individual purchaser at this low figure,
and consequently ptaced this bargain with
upward of 500 different persons.
"The actual loss to us" on this sale was
several hundred dollars, but oc the whole
Io. of 2180 umbrellas we averaged a very
handsome profit,, liesides making our
selves talked about and bringing 500
special customers into the store who, it is
safe to say, bought more or less in the
other departments of the house at a
profit." Dry Ooyde Chronicle.
American Tea.
Mr. Gill, an expert on tea, shows from
careful calculations made in China, India
and Ceylon, that teas arc produced and
made ready for use at an average cost of
from 5$ to 4 r cents a pound. China, be
tells us, which formerly enjoyed a mon
opoly of the trade, now prod ucm less
than half ot the tea usea in Europe ana
America, and he maintains with great
show of reason, that tea may nc grown,
in large areas of the Southern States as
successfully and profitably a anywhere
else in the world. A rich, sandy loam
of good depth and drainage, and a moist
climate, are the two essential requisites,1
and the tree or bush will stand a con
siderable degree of cold. Xev Orleans
Picayune.
Raislnr Forests.
The ministry of imperial property cf
tbe Czar of Russia are making efforts to
plant forest in the government of
Ebatarlno8lav,Kherson, TamboT, Samara
and Toola. Last year over four thou
sand dessyatin (about twelve thousand
acres) of steppe were converted into
forests. This year the work will con
tinue in the government mentioned and
be extended also to the steppes of
Poltava, Podol, Orlor and other place.
Chicago yae$.
Ms
ft-