i X
I y M FSS I AN EXCELLENT!
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. VOL. X. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1899. NO. 17.
. , ; ; : ' i , " X '
THE TOILER'S
An hour ago the wind was cold
And heaven seemed far away,
And alt the gloom that my heart could
hold
Appeared to be centred there,
And I wondered If ever another day
With a cheerful sky and fair,
Would dawn for me, or would bring for me
Such joys as the joys that had fled
If the way beyond had a thing for mo
Worth the cost of tolling ahead.
5
Miss Cornelia Lunt was the only
- child of two good people who had not
married until they reached the years
which find most wedded pairs with
their children . well grown up about
them. They had been very happy,
however, and when they died left
their daughter a little income, which,
by close pinching, she could manage
to live upon.
Cornelia was not a pretty girl old
people's children never are; but thou
i sands of plainer girls had married and
settled while she remained a spinster.
Perhaps the fact that she was by no
means a good-natured person had
something to do with it. Certainly
Rhe quarreled with her friends and
felt out with her beaux, had feuds
with her relatives and was fond of
saying unpleasant things to people
generally, and the other half of her
soul was a lucky creature in having
missed her in this world.
In her youth she had also com
ported herself scornfully to well-disposed
young men who belonged to
the mechanic classes and had declared
that she would only give her hand and
heart to a merchant, a physician or a
clergyman. Merchants were rare in
Bottlehole, the only specimens of
that order being two very old bach
elors.still connected with a New York
firm, who were always to be seen
asleep on either Bide of their wide
hall door in pleasant summer weather
and who only awoke at the instance
of their housekeeper long enough to
take their meals. The two doctors
were both married, and the clergymen
always had large families. Miss Cor
nelia's ambitious hopes were never
realized, and her father's apprentice,
Tim Cornell, who had admired her and
had been quite a believer in her as a
"very elegant and genteel person,"
finally pronounced her "mighty proud
and haughty" and abandoned his suit.
The other young mechanics married
or left the village, and Miss Cornelia
at last awoke to the knowledge that
she was getting on in life and that if
she. was not careful people would find
It out
Cornelia looked in the glass care
fully every morning and very often
through the day. She did not age
rapidly, having always looked as old
as it was possible to look. But for
that dreaded family Bible, in which the
record of her birth was written down,
ehe would have felt safe in slicing oil
; ten years of her life a proceeding
which she fancied would increase her
value in the eyes of a certain Mr.
Durasday, who had recently paid her
' a few solemn calls. He was really an
old man himself, but the older the
man the younger, generally, one finds
his choice of a wife to be. And,
really, when all one's lady friends en
joy nothing so much as adding to one's
age, why should not their efforts be
thwarted by a reduction on one's own
part of the one thing nobody ever
wants more of?
Poor Miss Cornelia! She did not
know that one who never thinks about
age at all is the slowest to get old.
She eyed that well-thumbed Bible,
which her companion and assistant,
Cousin Betsy Baker, always would
have upon a stand in the parlor, with
, absolute horror. She did not dare ob-
, ject to its presence. She was a church
member and thought herself pious, but
she did wish Cousin Betsy in Green
land when she called a visitor's atten
tion to the illustrations it contained.
Suppose anyone should turn up the fly
leaf and read there: Born December,
18, Cornelia, first daughter of Mat-
. thew and Abigail Lunt. The thought
was horror.
She sat over her grate fire late one
night thinking over the matter.
Who knew her exact age? Cousin
Betsy. But Cousin Betsy would not
wish to quarrel with her and was too
old a woman to think her anything
but young. The clergymau who bap
tised her. But he was superannuate!
and lived with his son-in-law in another
state. The family doctor was dead,
and the dear old gentleman who had
hnnrdftd with them from her baby
hood, who had always given her a gift
upon her birthday and on whom she
had waited as a grandchild might,
went to Europe years before and was
probably dead. Good old man! She
baJl liked him very much. How well
she remembered him as he sat in Lis
big armchair! He had white hair and
' fat hands with dimples in them and
carried a thick, gold-headed cane.
Good Mr. Noire! But she should never
hear anything of him again. Yes, it
was safe. She would do it. She did
not 4 v to name the deed it seemed
as biH to her as robbing a church.
But ten years off one's age is a terrible
RECOMPENSE.
An hour ago the world was cold
And heaven seemed far away,
But the clouds that were leaden are tinged
with gold,
For my heart is light again,
For one with a helpful word to say
Stepped out from the ranks of men,
With a hand for me and a smile for me.
And praise for the work I've done,
And out there many a mile, for me
Is a goal that shall be won !
S. E. Riser, in Cleveland Leader.
f
ttmptation at least it was to Miss
Cornelia.
It was night half-past 12, at least
the hour when "churchyards yawn
and graves give up their dead."
Ghosts might pop in upon her
at any moment, but such a deed could
only be done at such an hour. Miss
Cornelia arose. She stood before the
lire with her back toward.it and took
the candlestick in her hand. The room
was clean and orderly. The green
Bhades were down. The chairs stood
in a row against the walls. The little
marble-top table held its wax water
lily under a glass shade. Photographs
of the good old parents, with more
cord than frame and more frame than
picture, hung in the recesses on either
side of the mantel. She did not dare
to glance toward them. Two gilt
vases and a match safe adorned the
mantel. Two feather fans stood be
hind the vases. In the middle of the
room were Cousin Betsy's rocking
chair, a candlestand and the big
Bible, a white tidy beneath it, a big,
friuged bookmark hanging over its
gilt edge.
It was a simple, cosy little "interior"
enough, but it became at this moment
as awesome to Miss Cornelia as a
churchyard might have been.
She had "creeps" up her back. Her
hair felt considerably like rising on
end. Then she put her hand in her
pocket aud drew forth a knife. The
light from the candle fell upon her
face. It was ghastly. She took one
step forward and paused; another, and
paused again.
Anyone who had observed her would
certainly have believed that she was
going straight to poor Cousin Betsy's
room to end that lady's life by a jab of
the sharp little knife-blade, but she
paused at the candlestand, set down the
candlestick, knelt down, opened the
family Bible at the fly-leaf and slowly,
cautiously, began to scrape, scrape,
scrape at the two last figures of the
record of her birth. Then she crossed
the room, took from a fireside cup
board a pen and inkstand, wrote two
other figures in the place of those she
had erased, blew upon the leaf until
it was dry, carefully touched up the
rest of the record to match in bright
ness and drew back to read the
amended lines, which now plainly
stated to all beholders that she had
entered this world 30 years before in
stead of 40.
"Nobody would guess that it had
been meddled with," gasped Miss Cor
nelia, hysterically. "Nobody oh,
gracious! 'Now I lay me' Oh, if I
could only remember my prayers! I
didn't do it oh!" for an awful voice
at that moment uttered her name in
her very ear:
"Cornelia."
It was repeated. It seemed to come
from above. Cornelia looked up, ex
pecting to see something dreadful. It
was repeated:
"Coruelia,ain't you coming to bed?"
It was only Cousin Betsy speaking
through a disused register, which had
once conveyed heat from a stove in
the sitting room to the chamber above.
All in a cold perspiration, Cornelia
managed to reply that she would come
in a moment, and then closing the
Bible and putting away the writing
materials she crept upstairs, a world
of horrible unseeu things close after
her. She felt very sure a spectral
clutch at her chignon, a cold palm on
her arm, would not have surprised
her. She had committed a crime worse
than that of robbing a church, she
feared. She had meddled with the
bolemn record made by hands long
since moldering in the grave, upon the
pages of the Holy Book, and she had
won ten imagiuary years by it.
Very pale was Miss Cornelia Lunt
next morning. Cousin Betsy predicted
"fever-nager" and advised quinine.
Mr. Dumsday, when he called, hoped
Miss Cornelia was not ill. Aunty
Pring,who took tea with them that af
ternoon, suggested that she looked
"sort q' skeered, as if she'd seen
snthin'," and Miss Cornelia felt as
though her gnilt was branded on her
brow. However, she recovered her
peace of mind in time and was, as a
general thing, herself again, though
there were times when she felt that
"a judgment" might be expected at
any moment.
Mr. Dumsday regularly "came a
courting" now. And he wa3 a rich
widower, whose married daughter pro
fessed herself anxious that "pa"
should have some one to take cave of
him. Miss Cornelia had quite made
up her mind that lavender should be
the color of her wedding dress a copper-colored
bride-expectant always
does. And the two were sitting to
gether one evening talking confiden- j
tially about rheumatism and its best
liniment when the door bell rang, and
a tall, lean gentleman in a suit oi
black was ushered into the parlor.
On courting evenings Betsy kept
herself out of the wav, and only Mr.
Dumsday was present when the gen
tleman introduced himself.
"Miss pornelia Lunt, I believe," he
said.
"Yes, sir," said Miss Cornelia.
The gentleman bowed.handed her a
card with "C. Dodridge, Solicitor,''
upon it and took the seat she offered.
"I understand that your respected
parents are no more, ma'am," said the
solicitor. "They would remembei
better than you do, probably, a period
of 30 years ago when one Mr. Noire
boarded with them."
"Yes, sir," said Cornelia, growing
red in the face. "I've heard them
speak of him."
"Ah," said the gentleman, "he was
a very dear friend as well as client of
mine. He died about two months ago
in London, England. He wa3 very
wealthy at the time of his death, and
he never forgot the extreme kindness
of the friends of 30 years ago, whe
knew him in his days of comparative
poverty. Yes, they are gone, also:
but the little girl who waited on him
so lovingly still lives. She was 11
years old at that time. I suppose 1
address her?"
"No, sir," said Miss Lunt, redder
than ever as Mr. Dumsday turned an
attentive ear to this dreadful statement
and feeling that one lie begot many
and that having fibbled in the family
Bible she must stick to it or die
"No.sir. I was not born at that date.''
"I have my old friend's record,"
said Mr. Dodridge; "18 was the date
of his arrival here. You were one
mouth old then; 18 was the date oi
his departure. Plainly you were 11
years of age. You attached yourself
fondly to my old friend's heart,
madam."
"No, I didn't," said Miss Cornelia,
tartly. "I ought to know. I never
saw him. I was . born just after he
left, I've been told. There's the Bible
on the table; look at the date."
She opened the volume at the fatal
fly-leaf; the lawyer perused it slowly.
"I see, I see," he said. "Weil,
well; and who was this little girl?"
Agony of agonies! Here was another
lie needed. Mr. Dumsday's eyes
opened widely. He listened more in
tently. He looked at the lawyer; he
looked at the lady. She must fib again
aud very blackly this time.
"That was a little adopted child, who
died," said Miss Cornelia, faintly.
"They didn't think they should have
any family of their own."
"I see," said the lawyer.rising "I
see. My friend hoped she had grown
to be a woman. Good day."
"And I can't see why you should
come here to add to a lady's age," said
Miss Cornelia. "I'm sure it's very
impolite."
"Madam," 6aid Mr. Dodridge, hat
in hand, "I have an excuse; Mr. Noire,
good old man, had left all his fortune
to that little girl. Had she lived she
would be an immense heiress. A law
yer is naturally cautious. I paved
the way paved the way, that is all."
Poor Miss Cornelia! She gazed at
the gentleman in utter consternation,
and he continued:
"However, some charities will be the
better for the fact; no wind but blows
some one good, after all."
He departed; Miss Cornelia bowed
him out. After all, what did it mat
ter? Fortune, in the person of Mr.
Dumsday.was at her feet, and she had
saved ten years of her age in his eyes.
But, alas! what ailed Mr.Dumsday?
He had arisen; his face looked pale,
his countenance anxious. He shook
his head slowly, went to the candle
stand, folded the leaves of the family
Bible and spoke as follows;
"Comely, from what I see, you're
just about 30 years of age, aren't ye?"
"Yes," said Cornelia, wonderingly.
"This is a trial to me, Corn ely, "said
Mr. Dumsday; "I know I've been to
blame if it comes to nothing, but we
must part.1'
"Did you think I was younger?"
said Cornelia. "Is that it?"
"No, Comely," said Mr. Dumsday;
"but I took a little oath to my daugh
ter, Jemmimy Mrs. Nutmegs, that is
never to marry no second wife 'twas
under 40. People generally thinks
you rising 40, so I picked you out.
'Don't make a goose of yourself by
marrying a girl at your age, pa,' says
Jemmimy; and she made me swear on
the Bible she did indeed. So you
see I can't break that, and it's all up.
Good bye, Comely. I hope I ain't
spiled yer prospex. Some younger
man will "
He paused, put his handkerchief to
his eyes and turned toward the door.
"Oh!" cried Cornelia. "Oh, come
back! I'll tell the truth. I am 40."
"Becords can't lie. I seed it in the
Bible," said Mr.Dumsday. "Farewell,
Comely. It's a cross, but I must
bear it."
He kissed Cornelia and departed,
and since that day Cornelia has had
ample time to acknowledge to herself
that she made a slight mistake in
whittling down the record of her age
in the family Bible aud to weigh
against the disadvantages of those ten
additional years the advantages of a
husband and a fortune. ,
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
The young leaves and roots of lams
supply a considerable portion of the
food in the mountain districts of
Japan.
A Hamburg (Germany) chemist has
succeede I with the aid of oxide of
aluminium in creating a heat of up to
30,000 degrees.
Although the brain is perpetually
active, yet the whole of it is never at
wprk at one time. The two hemis
pheres, or halves, do not operate sim
ultaneously, but alternate in action.
A turnip seed increases its own
weight fifteen times in a minute. On
peat ground turnips have been found
to increase by growth 15,999 times the
weight of their seed each day they
stood upon it.
Circular or elliptical halos round
the sun indicate violent storms, espe
cially if the halos are dark in tint or
of a large diameter. Lightning and
magnetic disturbances may also be ex
pected from these signs.
It is computed that the death rate
of the world is 67 and the birth rate
70 a minute, and this seemingly light
perceutage of gain is sufficient to give
a net increase in population each year
of almost 1,200,000 souls.
The phenomenoa of the milk-white
sea, much more luminous than the
starry sky, is reported by a corres
pondent of Nature. It was witnessed
on the morning of August 21 in the
Indian ocean, and continued to bo
seen throughout 50 miles of the ves
sel's course. The sea was calm,
while a bucket of the water showed
uothiug unusual.
The Flying Fox.
The flying fox is a very curious in
habitant of the forests near Moreton
Bay in East Australia. It lives in
flocks and moves generally toward the
dusk of the evening, and the noise
produced by the heavy flapping of the
so-called wings is very singular.. The
flocks like quiet places, where there
are large Araucariau pine trees, with
an underwood of scrub and creepers.
The foxes hang iu vast numbers from
horizontal branches of the pine trees.
When there is a clear space among
the trees, an enormous number of the
animals may be seen, and their noise
can be heard, for directly they see
anything unusual they utter a short
bark, something like the souud made
by young rooks. Often every branch
is crowded and the flying foxes are
seen either flapping their wings and
holding ou with their hind feet, aud
with their head downward, or snarling
and fighting for places.
Suddenly the whole take to flight
flap their furry, wing-like sides and
wheel around like heavy birds. Many
fly with their young holding onto
them.
The creature is not a true fox and
there is a fold of skiu which reaches
from the fore to the hind ' legs. Thi3
is called the wing, and it enables the
pteropus, as the animal is called, to
flout and turn in the air. Philadel
phia Press.
Klevtricity and Cats.
Strangely enough, I once had an
impression that a cat's tendency was
to travel uorth, and to face the north
as a magnet does, and that this ten
dency had some intimate association
with the electrical strength of its fur.
In brief, I looked upon a cat as a
lightning conductor on a small scale,
and that according to its temperament,
negative or positive, did it face north
or south, or just as the points of its
fur were attracted by the negative or
positive poles of the earth. I was led
to this by some observations I had
made some years previously in the
London suburb. Then I noticed that
the cats qf that particular district had
a tendency to walk iu particular di
rections ou the walls that .faced the
uorth rather than to walk ou walls
that rau east or west.
,Astothe idea that cats are good
weather gauges, I do not credit that.
I believe that the reason a cat washes
itself over its ears or not is bound up
with the particular method by which
the particular animal cleans itself. Its
main object in washing, to my mind,
is just to complete an electrical circuit,
for by so doing it generates heat aud,
therefore, a pleasing seusation in its
fur. Cassell's Magazine.
TlieX-lUy Photograph in Court.
The earliest reported instance ot
the use of the X-ray process in evi
dence seems to have been in the dis
trict court of Arapahoe county, Col
orado, in 1S90. More recently in
Tennessee it was held that an X-ray
photograph, showing the overlapping
bones of one of the legs of the plain
tiff, broken by an injury for which
suit was brought,takeu by a physician
and surgeou familiar with fractures
and with the process of taking such
photographs, who testified that it ac
curately represented the condition of
the leg, is admissible in evidence.
The court said: "The pictorial repre
sentation of the condition of the
broken leg of the plaintiff gave to the
jury a much more intelligent idea of
that particular injury than it would
have obtained from any verbal de
scription of it by a suryeou, even if
he had used for the purpose the sim
plest terms of his att."4-Law Notes.
DR. TALMAGFS SERMON.
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: ''The Cradle of Jesus" Lessona
Drawn From the Miraculous Escape
of the Infant Christ From the Perils
That Encompassed Him.
Text: "HeroTl will seek the young child
to destroy Him." Matthew 11.. 13.
The cradle of the infant Jesus had no
rockers, for it was not to be soothed by os
cillating motion, as are the cradles of other
princes. It had no embroidered pillow, for
the young head was not to have such lux
urious comfort. Though a meteor, ordin
arily the most erratic and seemingly un
governable of all skyey appearances, had
been sent to designate the place where
that cradle stood, and a choir had been
sent from the heavenly temple to serenade
its Illustrious occupant with an epic, yet
the cradle was the target for all earthly
and diabolical hostilities. Indeed, I give
you as my opinion that it was the narrow
est and most wonderful escape of the ages
that the child was not slain before He
had taken His first step or spoken His first
word. Herod could not afford to have
Him born. The Cassars couid not afford to
have Him born. The gigantic oppressions
and abominations of the world could not
afford to have Him born. Was there ever
Elanned a more systematized or appalling
ombardment In all the world than the
bombardment of that cradle?
The Herod who led the ffttack was treach
ery, vengeance and sensuality Imper
sonated. As a sort of pastime he slew Hyr
canus, the grandfather of his wife. Then
he slew Mariamme, his wife. Then he
butchered her two sons, Alexander and
Aristobulus. Then he slew Antlpater, his
oldest son. Then he ordered burned alive
forty people who had pulled down the eagle
of his authority. He ordered the nobles
who had attended upon his dying bed to be
slain, so that there might be universal
mourning after his disease. From that
same deathbed he ordered the slaughter of
all the children In Bethelem under two
years of age, feeling sure that If he mas
sacred the entire Infantile population that
would include the destruction of the child
whose birthplace astronomy had pointed
out with its finger of light. What were
the slaughtered babes to him, and as many
frenzied and bereft mothers? If he had
been well enough to leave his bed, he would
have enjoyed seeing the mothers wilily
struggling to keep their babes and holding
them, so tightly that they could notjbe
separated until the sword took both lives
at one stroke, and others, mother and
child, hurled from roofs of houses into
the street, until that village of horse
shoe shape on the hillside became one
great butcher shop. To have such a maD,
with associates just as cruel and an army
at his command, attempting the life of the
Infant Jesus, does there seem any chance
for His escape? Then that flight southward
for so many miles, across deserts and amid
bandits and wild beast3 (my friend, the
late missionary and scientist Dr. Lansing,
who took the same journey, said it was
enough to kill both the Madonna and the
Child), and poor residence in Cairo. You
know how difficult it is to take an ordinary
child successfully through the disorders
that are sure to assail it even in comfort
able homes and with all delicate ministries,
and then think of the exposure of that
famous babe in villages and lands where
all sanitary laws were put at dellance. His
first hours on earth spent in a room with
out any doors, and ofttimes swept by
chilled night winds, then afterward riding
many days under hot tropical sun, and
part of manv nights lest the avenger over
take the fugitive before Ho could be hidden
In another land.
The sanhedrin also were affronted at the
report of this mysterious arrival of a child
that might upset all conventionalities and
threaten the tbrone oi the nation. "Shut
the door and bolt It and double bar it
against Him!" cried all political and eccle
siastical power. Christ on a retreat when
only a few days of ago, with all the priva
tions and hardships and sufferings of re
treuti When the glad news camethat Herod
was dead and the Madonna was packing up
and taking her Child home, bad news also
came that Archelaus, the eon, had taken
the throne another crowned infamy. What
chance for the babe's life? Will not some
short grave hold tho wondrous Infant?
"Put Him to death!" was the order all ud
and down Palestine and all up and down
the desert between Bethlehem and Cairo.
The cry was: "Here comes an iconoclast of
all established orderl Here comes an as
pirant for the crown of Augustus! If found
on the streets of Eethlemom, dash Him to
death on the pavement! If found on a hill,
hurl Him down the rocks! Away with
Him!" But the babe got home in safety and
passed up from infancy to youth, and from
youth to manhood, and from carpenter shop
to Messiahship, and from Kessiahship to
enthronment, until the mightiest name on
earth is Jesus, and there is no mightier
name In heaven.
What I want to call your attention to is
your narrow escape and mine and the
world's narrow escape. Suppose that
attempt on the young child's life had been
successful! Suppose that delegation of
wise men, who were to report to Herod
Immediately after they discovered the hard
bed In the Bethlehem caravansary, had
obeyed orders and reported! Suppose the
beast carrying the Madonna and the Child
in the flight had stumbled and flung to
death its riders! Suppose Archolaus had
got his hands on the babe that his father
had failed to find! Suppose that among
the children dashed from the Bethlehem
house tops or separated by sword of the
enraged constabulary Jesus had perished!
Still further remarking upon the narrow
escape which you aud I had and all the
world had in that babe's escape, let me say
that had that Herodic plot been successful
the one lnstanco of absolutely perfect
character would never have been unfolded.
The world had enjoyed tho lives of many
splendid men before Christ came. It had ad
mired its Plato among philosophers, its
Mithridates among heroes, its Herodotu3
among historians, its Phidias among
sculptors, its Homer among poets, its
JEsop among fabulists, its iEschyius
among dramatists, Its Demosthenes among
orators, its JEsculapius among physicians,
yet among the contemporaries of those
men there were two opinions, as now
there are two opinions, concerning
every remarkable man. There were plenty
In those days who said of them, "He can
not speak," or "He cannot sing," or "He
cannot philosophize" or "His military
achievement was a irere accident, or "His
chisel, his pen, his medical prescription,
never deserved the applause given." But
concerning this full grown- Christ, whose
life was launched three decades before that
first Christmas, the moans of camels and
the bleat of sheep and the low of csttle
mingled with the babe's first cry, while
clouds that night were resonant with
music, and star pointing down whispered
to star, "Look, there He is!" .
That Christ, after the detectives of Herod
and Pilate and sanhedrin had watched
Him by day and watched Him by.night,
year atter year, was reported in
nocent. It was found out that when
He talked to the vagrant woman in thai
temple it was to tell ner to "go ana sin no,
more," and that if He spoke with the peni-i
tent thief it was to promise him paradis
within twenty-four hours, and that as He
moved about He dropped ease of pain upon.1
the invalid's pillow, or light upon the eye
that lacked optic nerve, or put bread into!
the hands of the hungry, or took from the?
oriental hearse the dead young man and
vitalized him and said to the widowed
mother, "Here he is, alive and well." and
she cried, "My boy, my boy!" aud he re
sponded, "Mother, mother!" And the sea,
tossing too roughly some of His friends,
by a word easier than a nurse's word
to a petulant child He made it
keep still. The very judge who for other
reason? allowed Him to be put to death de-l
clared, "I find no fault in Him." Was there'
ever a life so thoroughly ransacked and
hypercriticisedthat turned out to be sc
perfect a life? Now, you can imagine what!
would have been the calamity to earth and
heaven, what a bereavement to all history,
what swindling not only of the human
race, but of cherubim and seraphim and
archangel, if because of Infernal incursion
upon the bed of that Bethlehem babe this
life of divine and glorious manhood had
never been lived? The Christie parables,
would never have been uttered; the ser
mon on the mount, all adrip with ben-
dictions, never preached; the golden rule,
in picture frame of everlasting love, would
never have been hung up for the universe
to gaze upon and admire. -
Still further remarking upon the narrows
escape which you and I and the world had
in the diversion of the persecutors from th
place of nativity, let me say that had thatj
Herodio raid upon the swaddling clothts
been successful the world would never have!
known the value of a righteous peao4
Much has been made of the fact that that
world was at peace when Christ camej
Yes. But what kind of peace was it? It;
was a peace worse than war. It was the
peace of a graveyard. The Roman eagles!
had plucked out the world's eyesight andl
plunged their beaks through the heart of
dead nations. It was a peaee spoken of by;
a dying Indian chieftain when a Christiana
home missionary said to him, "You havaj
been a warrior, and have been in many,
feuds, but you must be at peace with ail!
your enemies in order to die aright." Tho
dying ehieftan replied: "That's easy
enough. I am at peace with all my ene-i
mies, fori have killed all of them."
That was the style ot peace on earths
when Christ came, but the spirit of ar-
bitration, which is to garland the tomb;
of this century and coronet the brow of
Via pnmlnff flntnrtr Is .nrtRanUAnt nnnni
the midnight anthem above Bethlehem,!
two bars to that music, the first of di-j
vine ascription and the second of earthy
ly pacification. "Glory to God and!
peace to men." In His manhood Christ;
pronounced the same doetrine, "Blessed:
are the merciful." Before the Bethle-1
hem star flashed ''its significance, the
theory was: "Blessed is wholesale cut-;
throatery. Blessed are those who cart
kill the most antagonists. Blessed are
those who can mo3t skillfully wield the;
battleax. Blessed are those who coal
stab the deepe3t with spear or roll a'
chariot wheel over the most wounded?
or put his charger's hoof on the most,
dead." Tho entirely new theory of our'
Christ was blessing for cursing, prayer
for those who despitefully use you.
foundries to turn spears into pruning':
hooks, redhot furnaces to melt swordi
into molds shaped like plowshares. If
gigantic acerbities and worldwide tiger
isms had, without any gospel opposi
tion, gone on until now and been aug-
I uu u waat wouiu mis wunu uavn uonu
turned into? You need not remind me ot
the awful wars since the opening of thai
year one of our Christian era; for if the'
earth has been again and again lacerated
Into an Aceldama through improved weap
onry of death and more rapidity of firej
Prussian breechloader which in 186G startled
the nations with unprecedented havooj
eclipsed by contrivances that can sweeps
vaster numbers to death by one volley and
telegraphy adding to gunnery new facili
ties for slaughter by instantly ordering
armies to where they can do the most
wholesale murder I say if all this woe has
been wrought, how much worse would it
have been if the Christly revelation had
not been let down from heaven on five
runged ladder of musical scale and thera
had been no preaching of good will all ap
and down Christendom for nineteen cen-
a. i t mi i .iUi v. . . - t
I 1 I J lt.( . 1 1 1. V,
the most potent suggestion of peace the
world has ever received. The cavalry
horses cannot eat out of that manger. :
I take another step forward ?n showing
the narrow escape you and I had and tha
world had in the secretion of Christ's blrth
plaoo from the Herodio detectives, and the
clubs with which they would have dashed
the babe's lifa.out, when I say that without
the life that began that night in Bethlehem
the world would have had no illumined
deathbeds. Before the time of Christ good
1. 1 1 I 1 11.1 1 ! .. - J -
while depending upon the Christ to come,
and there were antediluvian saints and
Assyrian saints and Egyptian saints and
Greci an saints and Jerusalem saint 3 long be
fore tho clouds above Bethlehem became a!
balcony filled with the best singers of a
world where they allslng.butl cannot read
that there was anything more than a quiet
ing guess that came to tho3e before Christ
deathbeds. Job said something bordering
on the confident, but it was mixed up withi
stroy his body. Abraham and Jacob had a
little light on the dying pillow, but com
pared with the after Christ deathbeds it
was like the dim tallow candle of old be
side the modern cluster of lights electrio.
I know Elijah went up in memorable man
ner, but it was a terrible way to go a
whirlwind of fire that must have been
splendid to look at by those who stood on
the banks of the Jordan, but it was a style
of ascent that required more nerve than
you and I over had, to be a placid oc
cupant of a chariot drawn by such a
wild team. The triumphant deathbeds,
as far as I know, were the after Christ
deathbeds. What a procession ot hosan
nas have marched through the dying room
of the saints of the last nineteen centuriesl
What cavalcade of mounted halleluiahs
has calloned through the dvincr visions of
tho last 2000 years save 100! Peaceful death
beds in the years B.C.I Triumphant death
beds, for the most part, reserved for the
years A. D.! Behold the deathbeds of the
Wesleys, of the Doddridges, of the Leigh
Kichmonds, of the Edward Paysons; of
Vara, the converted heathen chieftain
crying in his last moments: "The canoe ia
in the sea. The sails are spread. She is
ready for the gale. I have a good Pilot to
guide me. My outside man and my inside
man differ. Let the one rot till the trum-,
pet shall sound, but let my soul wing her
way to the throne of Jesus." Of tfyins
prench, though his doctors forbade him,1
and then descended to the commnntoti
table, saying, "I am going to throw my
self under the wings of the cherubim be
fore the mercy seat," thousands of peopla
a few days after following Mm to tlj
grave, singing:
With heavenlv weapons he has fought
The battles of the Lori,
Finished his course and kept the faith.
And CRind tho great reward. 1