i
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i THE- I
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Fl.OO A VIA I !. 'jlIYAKfK..
"FOR OOD, FOR COUXXRT, ANIJ FOR TRUTH."
SINCJLK COl'V, SCENTS.
VOL. IX.
PLYMOUTH, 2T. CM FEIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1898.
JSrO. 16.
0
i
V
SUMMER
Summertime in winter the birds wore oa
V the wing,
The meadow dreamed of violets as sweet as
those of spring,
And all the birds remembered the songs they
loved to sing!
Summer time In winter the daisies decked
the sod.
Lata sprinkled with the sliver frosts, and
....
JUA,AA AAA A A AAAA A A A A A AA
An Early Bird.
3
1 :;
"Bother the fellow!" I muttered
savagely. "Just when I'd screwed up
my nerves almost to the point of put
ting the question, and so settling my
fate one way or theother, here he
mast come and upset everything with
his confounded Ohr dance, Miss Bel
linger, I believe!' Deuce take the
Aixii and his dance, too!"
My gaze followed the pair as they
. passed between the double row of
palms toward the ballroom. For a
moment the music swelled higher,and
miugling with it in my ears came the
silvery ripple of Joan's laughter. Con
fusion seize the clown! he seemed to
have the knack of amusing her, if
nothing else. Then the door of the
conservatory swung tj behind them-
I rose from the settee, frowned with
eringly at a big hydrangea bloom and
thought things not to be found in the
category of polite , proverbs. From
'jthia genial mood I was roused by the
Jrou-frou of a woman's dress and a
tripping footfall which caused me to
glance round quickly, half-expectant-ly.
But it wa3 merely my sister Ber
tha. : "What's amiss, Tom?" asked she
merrily. "You don't look extrava
r gantly amiable tonight."
Don't I, , indeed? Well, I feel
even less cheerful than I look."
"You couldn't, Tom, dear," Bertha
protested, flippantly. "Come, now,
whatsit? Anxiety about Aunt Jane's
health?" .
"Oh, hang Aunt Jane!"
' "Tom Tom!" and Bertha's hands
went up in simulated horror. "Your
own blood relation, too. How utterly
depraved of you !" 1
As a matter of confession I never
, could bring myself to a due state of
honest sympathy where Aunt Jane's
neurotic ailments were concerned.
True, they were the only only relax
'J ' ations the poor old soul allowed her
s self, but then she ever and inexorably
worked them for all they were worth.
Among other instances, whenever she
felt one of her "attacks" coming on,
nothing would do but that she must
have her favorite niece to wait upon her,
. hand and foot, from morning till
night. It was precious hard lines on
Bertha, maybe; yet it is the penalty a
girl has to pay for being a gentler
nuree than sister.
"Not Aunt Jane!" Bertha went on,
after a pause. "Then it must be
Joan. That was she I saw just now
with Captain Moston, wasn't it ?
' Have you and she been falling out or
what?" '
"Quite the contrary. We were
getting on famously together until
that conceited i jackanapes thrust him
self forward and carried her off."
"Why, what can you complain of in
that? 't suppose he simply claimed
the waltz she had promised him.
What are parties and dances for?"
"The only rational use of them is to
keep people oui of the way of those
who don't want to dance. Otherwise,
" they're nothing but stupid circuses, in
my opinion. "
"Tom, you're a grumpy bear a
downright morose, irritable, surly, rude
person! and I'm sorry uncle ever in
vited yen down here at all. You've
scarcely been 24 hours in the house
',, yet,jnd already you show a temper
that that There, Joan must
be an angel to have tolerated you for
., five minutes!"
I did not feel called upon to find
fault with the classification. My
quarrel was not with Miss Bellinger
nor vet with Bertha.
"Well," said I, quickly, "this
swash-buckler fellow this army
bounder who is he, anyway?"
"Captain Moston is "nothing more
than a gentleman," retorted Bertha,
with what she considered an air of
delicate irony. "He isn't one of your
Bort at all, Tom."
"Whoever he may be, he needs a
Itssoii in manners," I rejoined hotly.
"The way in which he has been hang
ing round Miss Bellinger ever since
I've been here is absolutely insuffer
able. Of course you haven't noticed
it; y6uA.v been upstairs with Aunt
Jane .all- the time. But I have, and
by Joyel. there'll be ructions soon if
v t v : i A i X
Sr sister, amusedly.
ind blows, is it?
v-xGracious me,
"Captain Mos-
that. Just
Trting with
y t had an
.4. L It
J""
Vtom he
kiss Bel
l 4t isn't
' t. to
,lless
a
IN WINTER.
lilies seemed to nod
And send sweot messages of love to the blue
realms of God !
. . ,, ' , , . ... ,
And all the world was beautiful, and all the
world was bright ;
The splendid day d roamed soft away to meet
the restful night
That rippled from clear stars to earth Its
' loveliness and light !
F. L. Stanton.
Moston doesn't?" Bertha put in, hur
riedly. "Oh, I've come across the type be
fore the irresistible, self-complacent,
professed gallant, who never "
Flushing scarlet, Bertha stamped
her foot angrily.
"I won't listen to you. It's dis
graceful! He is he is At all
events, I know Joan likes him is
very fond of him, in fact. She told
me so herself. And if she had to
choose between you and him, I'm per
fectly certain which she would favor."
Here Bertha broke out into another
high-pitched giggle. "Eeally, Tom,
I'm almost sorry for you. If you wish
to oust Captain Moston, I can assure
you you'll have to get up very early
in the morning."
Tnis outburst was indeed a facer for
me; but I did not intend that my tor
ment of a sister should note its ef
fects. "I wish you wouldn't be so slangy,
Bertha," I said, reprovingly. "It
shows shocking bad form in girls."
"Thanks for the benefit of the ex
ample, "retorted she, airily. "Only I
didn't mean it for slang, either. It's
a piece of advice to be taken literally.
I'll explain though you don't deserve
any such consideration from me, really.
Now listen to this. Every morning,
before breakfast, Joarp wanders off by
herself through the park toward the
shrubbery, and soon afterward, by an
odd coincidence, Captain Moston also
strolls away, but invariably in the op
posite direction. Now, doesn't that
strike you as being somewhat signi
ficant? While you are lazying in bed
unless you have amended your hab
its of late no doubt he is improving
the golden opportunities. You recol
lect uucle's adage, that women are apt
to guage a man's affection by his per
sistence, especially where But
the waltz is over, and here comes the
crowd. My poor Tom, trulv I pity
you!"
And with a mock-solemn shake of
her head she was gone.
I mooned up into the billiard room,
where subsequently I was badly beaten
by my 15-year-old cousin Harold in a
"hundred up" game. His flukes were
phenomenal.
"Say, Tom, you're a bit off color to
night, aren't you?" he exclaimed pat
ronizingly. "Never saw you make
such a rotten show in my life. But
what d'you think of my play, eh? I've
come on a lot lately, haven't I? Fact
is. Captain Moston's been tipping me
a few wrinkles the last day or two.
Jollv clever chap, the captain, you
know." ' -
I offered no comment audibly.
The youngster entered into a glow
ing eulogy of the captain's many splen
did accomplishments and good quali
ties, rattle to which I had neither the
desire nor the patience to hearken.
Incidentally, however, he happened to
mention that the bedroom of the gen
tleman in question opened out of the
same gallery as mine was, indeed,
next but one to it. Later, when I
passed this particular room on my way
up to bod, I chanced to observe that
the key projected from the lock on the
outside of the . door. Ere I fell
asleep I had settled upon a ruse de
guerre. ;
Waking soon after daybreak, I
dressed hastily andvfclipped out into
the corridor. Listening at the cap
taiu's door, I could hear his . heavy,
regular breathing within; he was stiil
fast asleep. My fingers sought the
protruding key, and Joftly, warily, I
turned it, the bolt sljding into its
socket without a sound. Now, I well
knew that all the apartments in my
uncle's house were fitted with patent
fastenings, each one having its special
key, no one key opening any other
lock than its own, and I flattered my
self upon the tactical use to which I
had been enabled to put my knowl
edge). Of a certainty there would be
no Captain Moston at the rendezvous
that morning. Chuckling over the
success of my stratagem, I thrust fhe
key into my pocket and hurried down
stairs. ,
Half an hour afterward, from the
embrasure of the library window, I
stood and watched Joan issue from
the stone porch, cross the terrace
and wend down by the shrubberies
exactly as I had been led to expect.
Myself unseen, I followed after, until
she entered the ornate wooden chalet
near the tennis court. In a few min
utes she reappeared with a bicycle,
which she trundled down to the level
gravelly path beyond. Here she
waited, tapping the ground vexe lly
with the toe of her boot, glancing this
wayand that at intervals, with growing
impatience. I thrust through the
bushes behind her.
"How late you are!" she cried, turn-
tAjrVund at the noise; then, seeing
A . lia-Aestaiineied confusedly: , "Oh,
Mr. Varcoe, I I expected T thought
it was some one else!"
"That's a little disappointing for
both of us," I answered, biting my
lip. "It was some other person you
hope:l to see eh?"
"I said expected." .
"Don't you think it amounts to
about the same thing," I hazarded
suavely, "under the circumstances?'.'
"Not at all why need it? Still, I
must confess I wish you had not come
just now. I didn't want to see you,
nor you to see me."
I swung round as if to leave her.
"A girl never looks her best when
learning to cycle," she went on. "One
always feels so helpless, so awkward,
so very ridiculous au object at first.
That's why I practise out here before
the other folks are astir. And now
you've found it out and have come to
laugh at me."
"I declare not," said I, returning
to her side. "I hadn't even the
faintest idea that you were qualifying
for a feminine Ixion "
"There!. Isn't that poking fun at
me? Eeally, it's too bad! Why.Ber
tha told me that you yourself were an
enthusiastic cyclist-almost as expert
a rider as Captain Moston. You ought
not to chaff or discourage a beginner
fur I do so want to learn."
Again she peered round in search
of him who, to my certain knowledge,
would never put in an appearance that
morning.
"How annoying!" she ejaculated,
pursing up her lips. "What can be
keeping him? I wouldn't have given
him those three dances last night if I
had thought he would have failed me
now. That was the condition."
"A pleasurable one, surely," I
murmured, trying vainly to recollect
more, than one of the three dances
mentioned. "To be of service to you
in any way, to be with you, alone, and
in "
"Oh, must it not be delightful?"
cried Joan, in ecstasy. "I can imag
ine nothing more glorious!"
The exclamation struck me as being
somewhat incredible. Looking up in
surprise, I found that she had not
been paying heed to my words at all;
her lips parted, she stood gazing with
sparkling eyes across the greensward
to where the carriage drive wound
down beneath the elm trees toward
the park gates. Along this stretch of
road a taudeui bicycle was being rid
den at a hot pace.
"Great Caesar!" I cried, on catching
sight of the distant scorchers; "that's
Bertha, isn't it? -And the other no,
it can't be "
"Is Captain Moston," interposed
Joan, eagerly. "Every morning they
go for a spin as far as Bralesley and
back. Mustn't it be just glorious?
The sense of freedom, of buoyancy, of
swift joy, of life and power, of of
Oh, how I envy them!"
"Every morning?" I repeated, con
fusedly. "Bertha and Captain Mos
ton? t don't think I quite under
stand." "Hasn't Bertha told you? She and
Captain Moston have been great friends
ever so long, and they have become
But, there, now, I'm betraying
strict confidences. I ought not to
have said a word about it, but I ma le
sure she would have told her own
brother."
"That's her way of informing me
of the fact," replied I.pointing toward
the Hying figures. "And, all things
considered, slje might have chosen a
worse method. Bertha possesses
more tact than I ever gave her credit
for. I only hope I may hit upon an
equally pleasant and original plan for
acquainting her with my engage
ment " . ,
"Your engagement'" mirmured
Joan, with a manifest effort to control
herself that set my heart thumping
with joy. "You engaged?"
"To teach you cycling."
"Oh! I thought you meant some
thing else."
"Since it's clear your regular in
structor w ill not be available today,
may I ask you to consider my proposal,
Joan?"
"It's good of you to offer, Tom.
I'm afra d you'll find me a terribly
backward pupil, and I know I shall
never be able to get on by myself."
"Then allow me to helpyou. First,
you place your ruht foot onthe pedal
so; now I lift you to thesaddle aud
keep you there firmly, securely "
"Oh, but I didn't mean that, you
stupid boy! And need you hold me
quite so 'tightly? My other teacher
did not." -
"By George, I should hope not, in
deed! He couldn't put his whole
heart and soul into the matter as I can
that is, if I am to consider myself
definitely engaged."
"Well, not definitely, Tom; say tem
porarily, until I see how you suit."
"With any prospect of a permanen
cy, Joan?" asked I, unsteadily. "I'm
serious now; you cannot have misun
derstood "
"Oh, Tom hold me! I'm go go
going! There, you nearly let me
tumble over that time! Why, I don't
believe you're a bit abler instructor
than the other one, after all. You
may be stronger and have better the
ories as to Why, here's Harold
himself! Now, isn't that tiresome?
Just when we wire managing so nice
ly, too!" L
As Joan spojie, my uncle's young
hopeful came loping along tha path,
brca'.bJess and spent with the haste
he had made.
"Awfully sorry I'm so late, Miss
Bellinger," gasped he.- "Some silly
idiot fastened me into my bedroom
this morning, and it took me a beastly
long time to screw off the lock with
my penknife. I've half a notion it
was one of Captain Moston's jokes."
"Captain Moston?" said I, my hand
going instinctively into my pocket,
where lay the incriminating key.
"Yes; our rooms are close together,
you know his two rooms to the right
of yours, just as mine is two doors to
the left. But I'll find some dodge to
pay him out for this lark before
I'm a day older, you bet. And now,
Miss Bellinger, if it isn't too late to
begin "
"I rather fancy it is, Harold," I has
tened to put in.
"For me, you mean?" exclaimed he,
grinning. "Well, I guessed some
thing of the sort when I saw you here.
I'd better clear out, eh? So I'll ta-ta
now and leave you. Go ahead, old
chap! I never like to spoil sport."
Chambers' Journal.
WHEN THE STARS FELL
Meteoric Shower Followed by a Season
of Religious Activity.
The recent eclipse was discussed in
a crowd of old-timers the other day,
and it was unanimously admitted that
whenever anything unusual occurred
in ihe heavens it impressed the be
holder more than any other phenome
non. From the subject of eclipse the
conversation turned to comets and
meteors, and the big shower of falling
star3 in November, 1833, was referred
to by one of the talker's.
"I remember it," said Colonel
George W. Adair. "At that time I
was only a small boy, but the spec
tacle was one not to be forgotten in a
hurry, and the agitation and alarm of
the older people around me impressed
it upon my mind.
"It was the night of -November 13,
1833, when the stars fell. I was then
living out in the country, in Henry
county, and was fast asleep when the
shower came.
"My father had gone that night to
a corn-shucking, and knew nothing
about the trouble until he started
home. He was with a friend, named
Jones, a man of religious turn of mind,
and when the stars commenced cutting
up their capers my father was anxious
to reach home as soon as possible.
But Jones was frightened out of his
wits, and got down on his knees by
the side of the road to pray. It was
no use reasoning with him. Every
hundred yards or so he collapsed and
dropped on his knees. He had a pow
erful voice, and his lamentations and
shouts made the woods ring and added
to the horrors of the night.
"Finally my father got home, and
he lost no time in waking my mother
and myself, I shall never forget the
scene spread out before me when I
went out into the yard. It was inde
scribably grand and awful, and the
heavens seemed to be filled with mil
lions of skyrockets. Streams of fire
rolled in every direction", and the stars,
or meteors, fell like flakes of snow.
"Nothing like it had ever been seen
by the people then living, and they
were badly scared. The colored people
set up the most unearthly yells and
howls, and from every cabin might be
heard snatches of prayer and religious
songs. Many of the spectators be
lieved that the world was coming to
an end, and they were in a frenzy of
terror and excitement.
"The next day everybody felt re
lieved, but there was very little work
done. Naturally everybody got into
a religious frame of mind, and for
weeks after the preacher had large
congregations, and a crowd of old sin
ners joined the church.
"It was a wonderful sight, and I
never expect to see anything like it
again. " Atlanta Journal.
- Remarkable Kur of Corn.
An ear of corn which Patrick Cullen
believes to be worth a small fortune is
being carefully preserved by that indi
vidual, who recently found his prize
on Farmer Upright's place at Merion
square, Montgomery county. To the
ordinary city man there is really noth
ing remarkable about the ear of com.
Its kernels are not of solid gold, nor
are there any diamonds concealed
about the cob. It3 value lies in the
fact that somewhere at some time or
other some agricultural society offered
a reward of 1000 to any one who
would find a perfect ear of corn with
the kernels growing in an uneven
number of rows. It has always been
found that the rows are even, say ten,
twelve, or fourteen to a cob. This ear
which Patrick Cullen found, however,
shows thirteen rows around the butt
and eleven around the middle of the
cob. Many farmers to whom Cullen
showed his prize assured him that the
ear was as perfect as it could be, and
that it was really a curiosity. Cullen
is now looking for the agricultural so
ciety which offered the 1000 reward.
Philadelphia Record.
' Klondike Culinary Note.
Proprietor (of Dawson City restau
rant) What's the matter with that
chap down there at the other end of
the table?
Waiter He's kickiu' because there's
more nuggets than nocdle3 in his
80up!--Chicago Tribune.
SERMONS OF THE DAY.
RELIGIOUS TOPICS DISCUSSED BY
PROMINENT AMERICAN MINISTERS. '
'Self-Heroism" la the Title of the Fifth of
the New York Herald's Competitive
Senaons By a New Jersey Minister
Talinase on "God Among: the Fishes."
"Be strong.and quit yourselves like men."
-I. Samuel, iv., 9.
reputation Is what a person seems to be;
eharacter is what he i3. A man's real self
s within, not without; and any permanent
progress must proceed from the centre
toward the circumference of his life. What
Is on him or around him cannot determine
his value. The aristocracy of character
Includes the members of the real nobility
of earth. Such are they who fight the
bravest battles and win the most valiant
victories.
Peal glory
Springs from the silent conquest of our
selves, And without that the conqueror is naught
But the first slave.
My sermon is dedicated to these victors,
and my subject is their namesake, "Self
Heroism" the heroism of self-examination,
the heroism of self-preparation, the
heroism of self-concentration, the heroism
of self-perpetuation.
I. The Heroism of Self-Examination.
Nothing is insignificant. There Is a
divine meaning in the existence of every
thing.. No life can infringe upon another's
right of way in living; for the legitimate
property of no two lives lies along exactly
the same track. Each life is a monopoly
In itself; for to each has been given the
sole permission to exercise certain exclu
sive powers. The author of my being has
made a mistake or mvute is of tremendous
significance. Introspection partakes of
the heroic. Ignorance of seh-knowledge
is the reef upon which many of the con-4
querors of the world have been wrecked.
They knew others, but did not know them
selves. They guided others, but failed to
fuide themselves. They mastered others,
ut could not master themselves. The
fields upon whioh they were victors lay
beyond themselves; the fields upon which
they were victims lay within themselves.
If self-examination were an applied science,
I venture the opinion that some who are
now in the pulpit would be behind the
plough; some who are at the bar would be
in the blacksmith shop; some who are in
Congress would be in the cornfield; some
who sit in faculties would lie in fossil beds,
and others would awake to their native
right and riches and put honor upon lives
divinely gifted. Whoever you are, wher
ever you are, be brave enough, be honest
enough to get intimately and accurately
acquainted with yourself, and with Jean
Paul Biohter be enabled to say: "I have
made as much out of myself as could be
made of the stuff, and no one can require
more.'?
II. The Heroism of Self-Preparation. ,
Gibbon tells us that every one has two
educations one whioh he receives from
others and one which he gives to himself.
The popular idea of education seems to be
the art of allowing others to do as much
for us as we have the capacity of receiv
ing. "Ho is not capable of receiving an
education" is a suggestive expression.
True education is self-preparation. It must
find something within you, or it brings
nothing out of you. It converts your
possibilities into practical powers. The
richer a nature the harder and slower its
self-preparation and development, To
day the noblest figure in Europe stands
erect under the snows of more than four
score winters, and because of his rigid,
righteous self-preparation .through all
these years the "Grand Old Man" is the
f reshest in thought and maturest in wis
dom of all who meet in the councils of men.
Patient preparation is permanent power.
In an age that lacks composure men are
apt to mature too quickly and decay too
soon. Reserve power should be greater
than spent power. By self-preparation de
posit each day for future drafts, and then
you are not apt to overcheck your ac
count. III. The Heroism of Self-Concentration.
. A life often fails to make a lasting im
pression because of its diffusion. What we
call genius is frequently only the child of
application. To attempt any thing and to
accomplish nothing is a fatal folly. While
we are striving to know something about
everything we must zealously try to know
everything about something. The higher
and more unselfish the end toward which
we direct our lives the greater is the de
mand for intense and ceaseless concen
tration of our noblest powers. Focus your
best powers upon the details of your life
work. These may seem to ba trifles; but
remember the wise words of the pains
taking artist: "Trifles make perfection,
and perfection is no trifle." Like the
fabled bird in the Oriental legend which
slept on the wing, learn to rest in your
labor, but never rest from your labor.
Contemplate! Concentrate! Consecrate!
IV. The Heroism of Salf-Ferpetuation.
Great and good men are not half living
when they are alivel Their best and truest
life on earth comes after they walk no
longer on earth. In thoir day Moses and
Paul were not near so influential as they
are to-day. Truth, like a seed, does not
bear its fruit in a day, and the richer the
truth and more precious the seed the long
er the full fruition is delayed. Great prin
ciples and groat lives, like great bodies,
move slowly. A man's self becomes a part
of the truth to which his life is wedded.and
as this truth passes beyond the limit of his
visible existence and takes its endless
course through the ages the best part of
tthe man is perpetuated. Each life is a
'contribution to history; but few lives have
their historians. Heroio lives are often
times written anonymously upon the tab
lets of time, and coming ages never recall
by name their greatest benefactors. Some
men are dead while they are living; others
are living while they are dead. Think
muoh of your post-mortem life among men.
Maintain" an uncompromising enmity to
ward the false, an invincible friendship to
ward the true. Cultivate a practical faith
in the living God. Aocept Christ s your
ideal and Redeemer. This is the hidden
spring of self-heroiam. It crowns man's
life with the truest success; and when the
veil is lifted he shall stand erect In the
light of a glorified manhood.
. H. Allen Ttppeb, Jr., D. D.,
Tastor First Baptist Church, Montclair,
N.J.
FINDS COD IN THE FISHES.
Rev. Dr. Talmae Discourses on the
Ichthyology ot the Bible.
Text: "And God said. Let the waters bring
forth abundantly the moving creatures that
hath life." Genesis i., 20.
Is it not strange that the Bible Imagery is
so inwrought from the fisaeries, when the
Holy Land is, for the most part, aa inland
recrion?
The world's geography has changed.
Lake Galilee was larger and deeper and
better stocked than now, and, no doubt,
the rivers were deeper and the fisheries
were of far more importance then than
tow. Besides that, there was the Mediter
ranean Sea only thirty-five miles away, and
the fish were salted or dried and brought
inland, and so much of that article of food
wasjsold in Jerusalem that a fish market
gave the name to one of the gates of Jeru
salem nearby, and it was called the Fish
Gate.
So important was the flsh that the God
Dagon, worshipped by the Philistines, was
made half fish and half man, and that is
the meaning of the Lord's indignation
when in 1st Samuel we read that this
Dagon-, the flsh god, stood beside the ark
of the Lord, and Dagon was by invisible
hands dashed to pieces, becaupe the Phil
istines had dared to make the flsh a god.
Layard and Wilkinson found the flsh
an objeot of idolatry all through Assyria
and Egypt. The Nile was full of flsh, and
that explains the horrors of the plague
that slaughtered the finny tribe all up and
down that river, which has been and ia
now the main artery of Egypt's life. Tha
flsh" has priority of residence over every
living "thing. It preceded the bird, the
quadruped, the human race. The next
thing done after God had kindled for our
world the golden chandelier of the sun,
and the silver chandelier of the moy
was to make the flsh. The first motlc
xL-if - j ' u.:..
lue i,uuuuu9 ul yanra mucu uuvt) uuvucoivir
able to define or analyze, the very first
stir of life was in the flsh to confound tbe
scientists. It does not take the universe to
prove a God. A fish does it. No wonder
that Linnaeus and Cuvler and Agassiz and
the greatest minds of all the centuries sat
enraptured before its anatomy. Oh, its
beauty, and the ndaptedness.
The Lord, by placing the flsh in the sec
ond course of the menu in paradise, mak
ing it precede beast and bird, indicated to
the world the importance of the flsh aa
an article of human food. We mix up a
fantastic food that kills the most of us be
fore thirty years of age. Custards and ,
whipped sillabubs and Boman punches and
chicken salads at midnight are a gauntlet
that few have strength to run. We put on
many a tombstone epitaphs saying that
the one beneath died of patriotic service,
or from exhaustion in religious work,
when nothing killed the poor fellow but
lobster eating at a party four hours after
he ought to have been sound asleep In bed.
No man or woman ever amounted to any
thing who was brought up on floating
island or angel cake. The world must turn ,
back to paradlsaio diet if it is to get para
disaic morals and paradisaic health. The
human raoe to-day needs more phosphorus,
and the flsh is charged and surcharged
with phosphorus. Phosphorus that which
shines in the dark without burning! What
made the twelve Apostles such stalwart
men that they could endure anything and
achieve everything? Next to divine inspir
ation, it was because they wore nearly all
fishermen and lived on flsh and a few plain
condiments: Paul, though not brought up
to swing the net and throw the lash, must
of necessity have -adopted the diet of the
population among whom he lived, aDd you
seethe phosphorus in his daring plea be
fore Felix, and the phosphorus in his bold
est of all utterances before the wiseacres
on Mars Hill, and the phosphorus as he
went without fright to his beheading, and
the phosphorus you see in the lives of all
the apostles, who moved right on undaunted
to certain martyrdom, whether to be de- ,
capitated or flung off precipices or hung in
crucifixion. Phosphorus, aliining in the
dark without burning! No man or woman
that ever lived was independent of ques
tions of diet. Napoleon lost one of hia
great battles through an attack of indigea-.
tion. The cook in kitchen, or encamp
ment, has decided many of the great bat
tles. The fooi3 who become infidels because
they cannot understand the engulfment of
the recreant Jonah in a sea monster might
have saved their souls by studying a little
natural history. . "Oh," says some one,
"that story of Jonah was only a fable."
Say others, "It was interpolated by some
writer of later times." Others say, "It was
a reproduction of the story of Hercules de
voured and then restored from the mon
ster." But my reply is that history tells
us that there were monsters large enough
to whelm ships. The extinot ichthyosaurus
of other ages was thirty feet long, and as
late as the sixth century of the Christian
era, up and down the Mediteranean, there
floated monsters compared with which a
modern whale was a sardine or a herring.
The shark has again and again been found
to have swallowed a man entire. A fisher
man on the coast of Turkey found a sea
monster which contained a woman and a
purse of gold. I have seen in museums sea
monsters large enough to take down a
prophet. But I have a better reasonvfor
believing the Old Testament account, and ;
that is that Christ said it was true and a
type of His own resurrection, and I sup- '
pose He ought to know. In Matthew xii.,
40, Jesus Christ says: "For as Jonas was
three days and throe nights in the whale's
belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth." "
And that settles it for me and for any man
who does not believe Christ a dupe and aa
impostor.
God help us amid the Gospel Fisheries,
whether we employ hook or net, for the
day cometh when we shall see how much
depended on our fidelity. Christ himself
declared: "The kingdom of heaven is iika
unto a net that was cast into the sea and
gathered of every kind, which, when it was
full, they drew to snore, and sat down and t
gathered the good in the vessels, but oast
the bad away; so shall it be at the end of
the world, the angels shall come forth and
separate the wioked from the just." Yes,
the fishermen think it best to keep xhe use-
ful and worthless of the haul in the same
net until It is drawn upon the beach, and
then the division takes place, and it it is on
Long Island coast, the moss-bunkers ar
thrown out and the blueflsh and shad pre
served; or, if it is on the shore of Galilee,
the flsh classified as slluroids a?e hurled
back into the water or thrown up the bank
as uoclean, while the peroh and the carp
and the barbel are put in palls to be car
ried home for use. So in the church oa
earth, and the saints and the hy poor Its, th
generous and the mean, the chaste and tha
unclean, are kept in the same membership,
but at death the division will be made, and
the good will be gathered into heaven and
the bad, however many holy communions
they may have celebrated, and how many .
rhetorical prayers they may have offered, ,
and however many years their names may
have been on the church rolls, will be cast V
away. God forbid that any of us should be
among the "cast away." But may we do
our work, whether small or great, as thor
oughly as did that renowned fisherman".
Rev. Dr. George W. Bethune, who spent his
summer rest angling in the waters around
the Thousand Islands, and beating at their
own craft those who plied It all the year,
and who, the rest ot his time, gloriously
preached Christ to the people of Philadel
phia or Brooklyn, andorderlng for his own
obsequies: "Lay me out in my pulpit
gowns and bands, with my own pocket
Bible In my right hand. Bury me with my
mother, my father and my grandmother, "'
Isabella Graham. Sing also the hymu I
composed years ago:
Jesus, Thou Prince of Life,
Thv chosen cannot die.
Like Thee they conquer in tbe strife,
To reign with Thee on high."
Six Chicago Chinamen ride blcyclea aii .I
furnidh amusement to the other wheelmo.u.
.
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