-THE-
AN EXCELLENT
ADVERTISING MEDIU1
Official Organ of Washington County.
I FIRST OF ALL THE NEWS.
Circulates extensively in the Count!
Job Printing In ItsVarlous Branches.
,
Washington, Martin, Tyrrell and Biiaforti
l.OO A TEAR IN ADVANCE.
"FOR GOD, FOR COfXTRY, AND FOR TRUTH."
SINGCII COPT, 5 CaffttTS.
VOL. X.
PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1899.
NO. 30.
1
PATIENCE WiTH
Swt friend, when thou and I are gone
Beyond earth's weary labor,
When small shall be our need of grace
From comrade or from neighbor;
Passed all the strife, the toll, the care,
And done with all the sighing
What tender ruth shall we have gained,
Alas! by simply dying?
Then lips too chary of their praise
Will tell our merits over,
And eyes too swift our faults to see
Shall no defect discover.
Then hands that would not lift n stone
Where stones wert thick to cumber
Our steep hill path, will scatter flowers
Above our pillowed slumber,
r
A -J- 'tt V
AN UNPROFITABLE HURRY. (
ft
4
"Step this way a moment, if you
please, Miss Chadbourne."
Mr. Vaugliu had opened the letter
book and was looking at it with a puz
zled air. He . spoke quietly,' but bis
tone caused the young stenographer
to start from her chair and approach
Uim with trepidation.
'What do you call tbat figure, a
Shree or a five?" he asked.
As she caught sight of the blurred
press copy of the letter she had taken
from dictation and sent to Marshall &
Hobbs the evening before, she flashed
guiltily and with a premouition of ap
proaching trouble. Mr. Vaughn's leau
forefinger was pointiug to the fourth
item in a long column of figures, quo
tations of prices furnished to one of
the firm's best customers, and Mildred
Cbadbourue suspected that the trans
lation involved -was one of unusual
importance.
To hide her confusion she bent low
Dver the page and anxiously scruti
nized the indistinct copy; but to do
her best she could not decide whether
that fourth item was thirteen or fifteen.
Late on the previous afternoon Mr.
Vaughn had dictated this letter to her,
slowly and with extraordinary pains,
charging her to use all possible care iu
getting the figure down correctly. He
bad seemed to her quite nnnecassarily
deliberate, for she was impatient to go
home that she might finish a gown
she was making, and she had planned
to leave a few minutes before the cus
tomary closing hour.
When the dictation was completod
he had rushed off to his train, although
first charging her to write, copy aud
post the letter that night without fail.
Inwardly rebelling, she had rattled the
important conimunicatiou through ths
writing machine at railway speed, and
then, as the office boy was invisible,
she had undertaken to copy it ""herself.
It requires care to copy a letter as it
should be copied. If the tissue leaf
upon which it is to be impressed be
not wet enough, the result will be a
faint cnrv: if too wet. a blurred one,
aud iu tbat case the original sheet will.
Bometimes be so badly defaced by the
washing of the ink as to be almost il
legible. Mildred had rushed the letter
through the copying press with quite
as much haste as she had put into the
typewriting of it. She bad passed a
' dripping brush over the leaf and then
had neglected to absorb with a blot
ting pad the superfluous moisture. In
consequence, the copy bad turned out
n slovenly one, and the original had
bsen seriously defaced.
She knew then as well as she knew
afterward that haste had made waste,
aud that her plain duty would have
beeu to do the worlc over again from
beginning to end; but the letter was
a long one, G o'clock was drawing
near, and just then the completion of
her new party gown was of more im
portance to her than the business con
cerns of Theophilus Vaughn & Co.
Moreover, if she were to send the
letter off as it was, probably she never
would bear from it again; as lor the
copy, tbat might be a matter of little
importance. Not half the copies in
the letter book ever were referred to.
They were put there because it was a
business custom to preserve them, but
they seldom proved to be of vital con
sequence tbat she had discovered in
her experience thus far.
So she bad crowded the "water
logged" sheet hastily out of sight in
an envelope aud seut it away. Now,
24 hours later, it had occurred to Mr.
Vaughn to glance over the copy, and
p time of reckoning had come.
"I can't make it out, sir," she paid,
desperately, after keeping sileuce as
long as she dared. "I can't tell
whether it is a fi e or a three. I will
look at my notes . aud see what it
ought to be."
"I know perfectly well what it
ought to be," he commented, dryly.
"It ought to be a five. What I am
anxious to learn is what it is."
"I have it a five here, sir," said the
girl, who had been consulting her
shorthand notes.
"The point is, did you get it down
r five here?" her employer returned.
Mildred's spirits sank, and she daved
not meet Mr. Vaughn's gaze, but stood
before him hot, sileut and thoroughly
uncomfortable.
"These quotations," h proceeded,
i ldieating the column of figures, "were
t jmMted to Marshall & Hobbs at
theirS-ciuest to enable them to submit
THE LIVINC.
Sweet friend, perchance both thou and I,
Ere Love is past forgiving,
Should take the earnest lesson home
J3e patient with the living.
Today's repressed rebuke may save
Our blinding tears tomorrow;
Then patience, e'eu when keenest edge
May whet a nameless sorrow!
'Tls easy to be gentle when
Death's silence shames our clamor,
And easy to discern the best
Through memory's mystic glamour;
But wise it were for thee and rue,
Ere love is past forgiving,
To take the tender lesson home
Be patient with the living.
From the Boston Watchman.
A A A A A A J tJW A AJ
a bid for a large contract an unusual
ly large one, I iufer which they are
hoping to secure shortly. They asked
for bed-rock figures, and I gave them
our very lowest. Now those castings
there, which I intended to quote at fif
teen cents, they are going to want a
great many of thousands, in fact and
at fifteen cents we should make one
cent profit.while at thirteen we should
sustain a corresponding loss. So you
see if they have gone ahead and put
in their bid on a basis of thirteen
cents we naturally shall have to stand
back of our figures, aud well," he
concluded, siguificantly, "it will make
a difference to us." '
"Yes. sir," assented the girl.in faint
tones. '
"That's a wretchedly poor copy,
Miss Chadbourne," he remarked after
a few seconds of uncomfortable sileuce
uncomfortable to her,at least. "You
must speak to George. He is getting
to be unpardouably careless. He's
thinking too much about his own con
cerns, I fear."
"Y-yes, sir," stammered Mildred,
reddeniug furiously. "I will I mean
Mr. Vaughn, to tell the truth,
George didn't take that copy. He
happened not to be about, and so I
took it,"
"Indeed!" said her employer, with
an accent that caused her to flush stiU
more; but to her relief he made no fur
ther comments. "Well," he con
cluded, shutting up the letter book,
"I don't see what we can do about it
now. Thirteen is held to be an un
lucky number, and it would be partic
ularly so here. Let us hope this non
descript blotch stands for a five."
Mildred went home that night al
most wishing she had never been
born. Nearly a month now she had
been with Theophilus Vaughn & Co.
it was her first situation aDd she
had begun to flatter herself, with rea
son, tbat she was giving satisfaction.
At the end of her first week Mr. Vaughn
had gone so far as to tell her so.
"I rather think yon will suit us,"
he said. "You are quick, accurate, and
you can spell."
"Thank you, sir; I hope I know
something about spelling," -was her
wouderingresponse. 4
"The youug lady who preceded you
knew something about spelling," pro
ceeded Mr. Vaughn, with a queer shrug,
"and proved the truth of the familiar
assertion tbat a little knowledge may
be a dangerous thing. "See here!"
and openingthe letter book he showed
her the copy of a letter of about a
dozen Hues in which ho had under
scored with a pencil three misspelled
words, and words not usually consid
ered "hard" ones, either.
"I shouldn't want to employ a sten
ographer who was obliged to consult
the dictionary continually," he went
on, "but one who didn't know enough
to look in it when she ought I wouldn't
have at any price. A girl who can't
spell, or who can't learn to spell,
misses her vocation when she starts
out to become a stenographer.
"You would perhaps be surprised at
the number of such cases there are,
Miss Chadbourne," he" proceeded.
"Girls who have had only a common
school education and have neglected
thair opportunities at that, whose
knowledge of spelling and grammar is
wofully deficient, and who couldn't
write a presentable letter to one of
their own friends to pave their lives,
and yet who expect to do the corre
spondence in a business counting
room! A stenographer who has to be,
watched continually, lest she send out
something like this thing here a let
ter tbat any reputable bouse would
blush for such a stenographer
well, I have no use for her."
Now, as she took her homeward
way, Mildred reflected upon these
words of her employer, realizing with
shame and contrition that she had
been guilty of sending out on one of
Theophilus Vaughn . & Co.'s letter
heads a "thing for which any repu
table house would blush." There
were no misspelled words there, the
grammar was faultless, the sentences
properly constructed, and every figure
in it, with the possible exception of
the blurred one, had been set down
correctly; yet to send off such a letter
a letter that looked as if it had been
left Jying out overnight in the rain
was a discourtesy toward the firm's
correspondents that barely fell short
of au insult.
That renins occurred the party to
which for weeks she had been looking
forward with the liveliest anticipations
of pleasure; but her regret over that
unfortunate letter, joined to her anxiety
concerning her future standing with
Vaughn & Co., had brought on a head
ache which of itself would have spoiled
her enjoyment effectually. So, after
a dismal attempt to take part in the
gayety, she left early and came home
ready to cry with disappointment.
The next day chanced to be a holi
day, and the one following it was Sun
day. Forty-eight hours of greater ap
parent length Mildred was sure she
never had passed. On Monday she
probably would learn whether or not
Vaughn & Co. were to lose several
hundred dollars by her blunder ii
blunder it was; meanwhile the sus
pense she was being kept in seemed
intolerable.
If the firm were called upon to bear
the loss, would Mr. Vaughn visit the
consequences, so far as he could,upon
her head and decide that ho had no
further use for so unfaithful a stenog
rapher? Whatever might be the event
she was forced to admit that she de
served to lose her situation, that she
no longer merited his confidence, and
thus, with unhappy doubts and self
questionings, the two intervening dayj
dragged slowly by.
Earlier than was her custom on
Monday morning Mildred reached the
office. As she was removing , her out-of-door
garments her glance fell in
voluntarily on the pile of mail matter
that George had brought from the
posreffice and laid ready for Mr. Vaughn
upon his desk. It was a large pile, so
large that the upper part of it had slid
backward so as to reveal the edges oi
some of the lower envelopes.
She caught sight of a printed
name in the left-band corner of one of
them: "Marshall & Hobbs." She
would have giveu a week's salary to
open that letter, but taking such a lib
erty was out of the question.
Mr. Vaughn arrived late, and in so
leisurely a manner did he open and
read the letters that Mildred begau to
wish she bad taken occasion to placo
that from Marshall & Hobbs on top of
the heap and thus saved herself manj
loug minutes of torturing suspense.
Finally, when he reached it in due
course, he showed the most exasper
ating calmness in making acquaintance '
with its contents quite as if the los
ing of several thousand dollars were i
matter of no importance whatever.
While pretending to be busy herself,
Mildred watched him with tremulous
anxiety. His face, however, was ut
terly inscrutable, aud after having
held the open sheet in his fingers for
full five minutes or so it seemed to
her he turned and extended it toward
her, remarking briefly, "This may in
terest you."
She seized the letter in what came
near to being a frantic clutch aud re
seating herself, for she felt too weak
to stand, began to read:
"Your valued favor of the 20th inst.
has been received and contents noted.
The letter has been somewhat defaced
in the copying probably from a too
free use of water by your office boy
but we thiuk we have been able to
make out all of it except the estimate
given for the No. 1009 castings. We
are in doubt whether the figures in
tended are 13 or 15. Please telegraph
the correct amount ou receipt of this,
as we cannot delay much longer in
submitting our bid."
"The moral of that seems to be,'"
said Mr. Vaughn, quizzically, "if you
must make a mistake make such a very
bad o2e tbat nobody can decide what
o'n earth your driving at. Now, Miss
Chadbourne, I wish you would go out
and telegraph Marshall fe Hobbs that
the proper figure is fifteen. Prepaj
the charges, aud have the message re
peated, so as to make sure it is righ
Do you understand, and can I trus
you to do that?"
"Yes,'sir," the girl answered, blusl
ing at what she fancied to be a covert
sarcasm. "Aud, Mr. Vaughn," she
thought it best to add, "I waut to tell
you how sorry I am for my carelessness
in copying that letter. You may be
sure such a thing will not occur
again."
"I trust not, indeed," was all the
response he made, and she left the of
fice in some uncertainty as to how her
apology had been taken, but as be did
not refer to the matter afterward she
was finally encouraged to hope he had
not lost faith in her entirely.
She never really knew whether that
important figure in the hurriedly writ
ten letter was a three or a five, bat
she never, allowed herself to be trou
bled with any painful doubts as to her
figure agaiu; one escape from disaster
was enough.
Thereafter she made sure to have
every letter she seut out exactly rigbt
in all particulars before it left her
hands.and she was never again known
to neglect her employers' interests
for her .wn pleasure or convenience,
as she clearly recognized she had been
guilty of doing in the case ' her "un
profitable hurry."- Youth's Compan
ion, Teeth Made Out of Paper.
Dentists in Germany are using fakft
teeth made of paper, instead of porce
lain or mineral composition. These
paper teeth are said to be very satis
factory, as they do not break or chip,
are not sensitive to heat or cold or to
the action of the moisture of the mouth
and are very ebeap.
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
The sun gives 600,000 times as mucl
light as the full moon.
The average weight of a man's brain
is three pounds eight ounces.
It is supposed that the average depth
of sand in the deserts of Africa is from
thirty to forty feet.
It has been found that X-rays are
fatal to bacteria. In the Hygienic In
stitute of Munich, Bavaria, they ar
lsed as a disinfecting agent.
By far the greater number of flow
;rs have no smell. Only about ten
per cent, of the 4200 species of flow
ers in Europe give forth any odor.
Twenty years' study has led a cer
tain scientist to believe tbat diphthe
ria, apoplexy, and other diseases are
ilue to a deficiency of salt in the sys
;em. A German biologist has calculated
ihat the human brain contains 300,
000,000 nerve cells, 500,000 of which
die and are succeeded by new ones
jvery day. At this rate we get an en
tirely new brain every sixty days.
A Russian officer has been making
jxperiments, with very successful re
sults, in the use of falcons instead of
pigeons as carriers. It seems that
they can fly very much faster. A
oigeon covers ten or twelve leagues in
in hour, whereas a falcon can do fif
teen. It cau also carry with ease a
tail ly heavy weight.
INFANT SCALES.
balances Made Nowadays Especially foi
Weighing the Baby.
Babies have been weighed from time
mmemorial, but it is only within a
few years tbat scales have been made
especially for.that purpose. The old
fashioned, time-honored way of w eigh
ing the baby was to tie it up in a
towel and then hook the hook of a
spring balance into the knot; and this
tvay is still common. Whatever other
household scales might be in use
in a house have also been used
tor this purpose, as they still are, but
there are now made special infant
scales aud Used for that purpose
ilone.
Infant scales are made in several
ityles. They all have one feature in
:ommon, however a basket in which
to put the baby iu place of a pan. An
infant scale of a design new this year
is finished in Avhite enamel. The
weights plate, upou which the weights
ire placed in the weighing, is of iron
polished until it looks like a steel
mirror. At the other end of the
balance, where the pan would ordin
irily be.in the basket,obloug in shape,
ind fashioned with a view to the con
renieut and comfortable holding of the
;bild. The basket also is enamelled.
Ihe base of the scale projects in front
to afford a place for the weights,
which are of polished iron. The larger
weights are provided with handles.
There are no very small weights; tbo
fractional weights are taken by means
Df a sliding weight on abeam attached
to the front of the scale. Such a scale
as this sells at $25. Infant scales may
be bought, however, at $6 and $3.
The scales are used not only to
3nd out the weight of the infant when
it is bom, but to weigh it from time
to time, maybe once a week, to note
its growth. Infant scales are made tc
weigh up to 25 or 30 pounds.
American scales are sold the world
ver iu every civilized land; there is
perhaps no larger foreign consume!
than Russia, which buys American
scales of every kind, from the largest
Df railroad scales to the smallest of
little scales. It is interesting to note
ihat Russia buys cousiderable num
oers of infant scales. Sun.
Beavers Chopping Trees.
"I had heard a good many wonder
,ul stories about how beavers chopped
Jowii trees," recently said a well
known trapper, "and, being anxious
to see how far from the truth some of
these stories were, I fouud where
beavers M ere at work , in a piece of
cedar woods through which a branch
?f the Wood river flowed. I chose a
bright moonlight night to watch the
beavers at their tree chopping. I hid
myself before nightfall near the spot.
3oon after nightfall a beaver came out
sf the water, went straight to a good
sized cedar tree and began work upoD
it with his teeth.
"While he was, at work anothei
beaver appeared from the river, aud
is he drew himself out of the water tc
the bank where the moon shone full
upon him I saw that be was as white
is snow. The white beaver selected
a tree and went vigorously to work
felling it. I don't believe a wood
chopper with his axe could have felled
those trees any quicker than those two
beavers did with their chisel-lik
teeth." New York Mail and Express
Insect 'oten.
The slow flapping of a butterfly',
ving produces no sound. When the
movements are rapid, a noise is pro
duced Avhich increases with the nam
ber of vibrations. Thus the house
fly, which produces the sound F, vi
brates its wiugs 21,120 times a minute,
or 335 times iu a second; and the bee,
which makes a sound of A, as manj
as 26,400 times, or 410 a second. A
tired bee hums on E, and therefore,
according to theory, vibrates its w ings
only 330 timet a second.
DE. TALMAGffS SEEM0N.
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "The Acidities of UfeM The Ccp
of Vinegar Which Christ Took is Typi
cal of Life's Bitterness This is the Lot
ot the Distressed.
Text: "When Jesus therefore had re
ceived the vinegar." John xix., 30.
The brigands of Jerusalem had done their
work. It was almost sundown, and Jesus
was dying. Persons in crucifixion often
lingered on from day to day, crying, beg
ging, oursing, but Christ had been ex
hausted by years of maltreatment. Pillow
less, poorly fed, flogged a3 bent over and
tied to a low post Ills bare back was in
flamed with the scourges interstieed with
pieces of lead and bone and now for whole
hours the weight of His body hung on deli
cate tendons, and, according to custom, a
violent stroke under the armpits had been
glvon by the executioner. Dizzy, nausea
ted, feverish a world ot agony Is com
trussed In the two words, "I thirst!" O
skies of Juda;a, let a drop of ruin strike on
Ills burning tongue! O world, with rolling
rivers and sparkling lakes and spraying
fountains, give Jesus something to drink!
If there be any pity in earth or heaven or
hell, let it now be demonstrated in behalf
ofthlsroyul sufferer.
The wealthy women of Jerusalem used
to have a fund of money with which they
provided wine for those people who died
In crucifixion, a powerful opiate to deaden
the paiu, but Christ would not take It. He
wanted to die sober, and so He refused the
wine. But afterward they go to a cup of
vinegar and soak a sponge in it and put it
on a stick of hy3Sop and then press it
against the hot lips ot Christ. You say the
wine was an auajsthetlu and intended to re
lieve or deaden the pain. But the vinegar
was an lnsulc.
In some lives 'the saccharine seems to
predominate. Life is sunshine on a bank
of flowers. A thousand hands to clap ap
proval. In December or in January, look
ing across their table, they see all their
family present. Health rubicund. Skies
flamboyant. Days resilient. Bat in a
great many cases there are not so many
sugars as acids. The annoyances and the
vexations and the disappointments of life
overpower the successes. There is a
gravel in almost every shoe. An Arabian
legend says that there was a worm in
3olomon's staff, gnawincr its strength
away, and there is a wea spot in every
earthly support that a man leans on. King
George of England forgot all the graudeurs
of his throne because one day, iu an inter
view, Beau Brummel called him by his first
nnme and addressed him as a servant, cry
ing, "George, ring the bell!" Miss Lang
don, honored all the world over for
her poetic genius, is so worried over the
evil reports set afloat regarding her that
she is lound dead, with au empty bottle of
prussic acid in her hand. Goldsmith said
that his life was a wretched being and that
all that want and contempt could bring to
it had been brought and cries out: "What,
then, is there formidable in a jail?" Cor
reggio's line painting is hung up for a
tavern sign. Hogarth cannot sell his best
painting except through a raffle. Andre
del Sarto makes the great fresco in the
Church of the Annunciata at Florence and
gets for pay a sa.-k of corn, and there are
annoyances aDd vexations in high places
as well as In low places, showing that in a
great many lives are the sours greater than
the sweets. "When Jesus therefore had re
ceived the vinegar!"
It is absurd to suppose that a man who
has always been well can sympathize with
those who are sick, or that one who has al
ways been henored can appreciate the sor
row of those who are despised, or that one
who has been born to a great fortune can
understand the distress and the straits of
those who are destitute. The fact that
Christ Himself took the viuegar makes Him
able to sympathize to-day and forever with
J the sharp acids of this lite. He took the
vinegar.
In the first placo, thore was the sourness
of betrayal. The treachery of Judas hurt
Christ's feelings more than all the friend
ship of His disciples did Him good. You have
had many friends, but there was one friend
upon whom'you put especial stress. You
feasted him." You loanod him money. You
befriended him in the dark passes of life,
when he especially needed a Irieud. After
ward ho turned upon you, und he took ad
vantage of your former intimacies. He
wrote ugainst you. He talked against you.
He mlcroscoplzed your faults. He flung
contempt at you, wnen you ought to have
received nothing but gratitude. At first,
you eould not sleep at nigbts. Then you
went about with a sense of having been
btuug. That difficulty will never be healed,
for, though mutual friends may arbitrate
in the matter until you shall shake hands,
the old cordiality will never come back.
Now I commend to all such the sympathy
of a betrayed Christ. Why, they sold Him
far less than our $20! They all forsook Him
and lied. They cut Him to the quick. He
drank that cup to the dregs. He took the
vinegar.
There is also tho sourness of poverty.
Your income does not meet your outgoings,
and tbat always gives an honest man anx
iety. There is no sign of destitution about
you pleasant appearance and a cheerful
homo for you but God only knows what a
time you have had to manage your private
finances. Just as the bills run up the
wages seem to run down. You may say
nothing, but life to you is a hard push, and
when you sit down with your wife and talk
over the expenses you both rise up dis
couraged. You abridge here, and you
abridge there, and you get things snug for
smooth sailing, and, lo, suddenly there is a
large doctor's bill to pay, or you have lost
your pocketbook, or some debtor has failed,
and you are thrown abeam end. Well, broth
er, you are in glorious company. Christ
owned not the house in which He stopped,
or the colt on which He rode, or the boat
In which He sailed. He lived in a bor
rowed house. He was buried in a bor
rowed grave. Exposed to all kinds of
weather, yt He had only ono suit of
clothes. He breakfasted in the morning,
and no one could possibly tell where He
could got anything to eut before night.
He would have been pronounced a finan
cial failure. He had to perform a miracle
to get money to pay a tax bill. Not a dol
lar did He own. Privation of domesticity;
privation of nutritious food; privation of a
comfortable couch on which to sleep; pri
vation of all worldly resources! The
kings of the earth had chased chalices out
of which to drink, but Christ had nothing
but a plain cup set before 111m, and it was
very sharp, and It was very sour. lie took
the vinegar.
There were years that passed along be
fore vour familv circle was invaded by
death, but the moment the charmed circle
was broken everything seemed to dissolve
Hardly have you put the black apparel In
the wardrobe before you have ugaln to
take it out. Great and rapid changes In
vour family record. You got the house
and rejoiced in It, but the cnarm was gone
nssoou as the crape nung on tne dooroeii.
The one upon whom you most depended
was taken away from yon. A cold marble
I blab lies on your heart to-day. One1, as
I the children romped through the house,
J vou cut vour hand ovtr rcur aebuiz beaa
and said, "Oh, if I could only have it
still!" Oh It iatnn cMH nnve Vnn Isms'
your patience when the tops and tha
strings and the shells were left amid floorj
but, ob, you would be willing to have th
trinkets scattered all over the floor again
if they were scattered by the same hands.
With what a ruthless plowshare bereave
meui rips up tne nearti uut jesus Knows
ail about that. You cannot tell Him any4
thing now in regard to bereavement. Jit
had only a few friends, and when He Iosi
one it brought tears to His eyes. Lazarus
had often entertained Him at his housed
Vatk T n . J . I 1 .1 , I 1 j
Christ breaks down with emotion, the con
vulsion of grief shuddering through alltha
ages of bereavement. Christ knows wha
it Is to go throuRh the house missing q
familiar inmate. Christ knows what it is
to see an unoccupied place at the table.
Were there not four of them Mary anj
Martha and Christ and Lazarus? Four ot
them. But where is Lazarus? Lonelyand
afflicted Christ, His great loving eyes filled
witn tears: un, yes, yes! tie knows an
about the loneliness and the heartbreak;
He took the vinegar! i
Then there is the sourness of the death'
hour. Whatever else we may escape, thac
acid sponge will be pressed to our lips. I
sometimes have a curiosity to know how
I will behave when I come to die. Whether
I will be cajm or excited, whether I will ba
filled with reminiscence or with antlcipa-
tion. I cannot say. But come to tba
point I must and you must. An officer
from the future world will knock at that
door of our hearts and servo on us thai
writ of ejectment, and we will have to sar-i
render. And we will wake up after theaa!
autumnal and wintrv aud vernal and sum-!
mery glories have vanished from our
vision. We will wake up into a realm.'
which has only one season, and that the
season or everlasting love.
But you say: "I don't want to break out
from my present associations. It is so
chilly and so damp to go down the stairs
of that vault. I don't want anything1
drawn so tightly over my eyes. If thera
were only some way of breaking through.',
the partition between worlds without tear-;
ing this body all to shreds! I wonder ifj
tho sSrgeons and the doctors cannot aom
pound a mixture by which this body and!
soul can all the time be kept together. Isj
there no escape from this separation?"
None, absolutely none. A great many, men.'
tumble through the gates of the future, as
It were, and we do not know where theyi
have gone, and they only add gloom
and mystery to the passage, but Jesus)
Christ so mightily stormed tho gates oti
that future world that they have never;
since . been closely shut. Christ knows1
what It is to leave thi3 world, of tha;
beauty of which He was more apprecla-'
tlve than we ever could be. tie Knows;
the oxquisiteness of the phosphorescence
of the sea; He trod it. He knows the
glories of the midnight heavens, for theyj
were tne spangieu canopy or tiis wilder
ness pillow. Ho knows about the lilies; Haj
twisted them Into His sermon. He knows1
about the fowls of the air; they whirred!
they way through His discourse. He knows
about the sorrows of leaving this beautiful'
world. Not a taper was kindled in th
darkness. He died physlcIaDless. He died;
in cold sweat and dizziness and hem
morhage and agony, that have put Him in
sympathy with all the dying. He goes'
through Christendom and gathers up tha
stings out of all the death pillows, and He
puts them under His own neck and head.
To nil those to whom life has been an
a"erblty a dose thev could not swallow,'
a draft that set their teeth on edge aud a
rnsping I preach tho omnipotent sympa
thy ot Jesus Christ. The sister of Her-i
schell, the astronomer, used to spend mueh
of her time polishing the telescopes!
through which he brought the distant
worlds nigh, and it is my ambition now
this hour to clear the lens of your spiritual)
vision so that, looking through the darki
night of your earthly troubles you
may behold the glorious constella
tion of a Saviour's mercy andl
a Saviour's love. Oh, my friends, do not
try to carry all your ills alone! Do not put,
your poor shoulder under the Apennines!
when the Almighty Christ is ready to lift!
up all your burdens. When you have a!
trouble of any kind, you rush this way aadi
that way, and you wonder what this maai
will say about it and what that man will sayi
about it. and you try this prescription an.
1 1 1 1 k 1 1 '..71,11 j'HWU UU UV VfhUVA J'l VCVKJ-r
tlon. Ob, why do you not go straight t
the heart of Christ, knowing that f.or ouri
own sinning and suffering race Ho took tha
vinegar? ,
There was a vessel that had been tossed
on the sons for a great many weeks andl
been disabled, and the supply of water:
gave out, and the crew were dying of;
thirst. After many days they saw a sail
against the sky. They signaled it. When)
the vessel came nearer, the people on the
suffering ship cried to the captain of thej
other vessel: "Send us some water! We!
are dying for lack of witter!" And thai
captain on the vessel that was bailed re-i
snended: "Dip your buckets where vou are.'
You are in the mouth of the Amazon, and1
there are scores of miles of fresh water
all around about you and hundreds of
feet deep!" And then they dropped their
buckets over the side of the vessel andj
brought up the clear, bright, fresh waterj
and put out the fire of their thirst. Sol
hail you to-day, after a long and perilous
voyage, thirsting as you are for pardon
and thirsting for comfort, and thirsting
for eternal life, and I ask you what is tht
use of your going in that death-struck
state, whilo all around you is tho deep,
clear, wide, sparkling flood of God's sym
pathetic mercy? Oh, dip your buckets,
and drink and live forever! "Whosoer.
will, let him come and take of the water oi
life freely."
Yet there are people who refuse this
divine sympathy, and they try to fight
their own batties , and drink their own
vinegar, and carry their own burdens, and
their life, instead of being a triumphal
march from victory to victory, will be a
hobbling on from defeat to defeat until
they make final surrender to retributive
disaster. Oh, I wish I could to-day gather
up in my arms all the woes of men and
women, all their 'jeartaches, all their disap
pointments, all their chagrins, and just
take them right tathe feet of a sympathiz
ing Jesus! H took the vinegar. Nana.
Sahib, after ho had lost his last battle
In India, fell back into the jungles of Iherl
jungles so full ot malaria that no mortal
can live there. He carried with him also a
ruby o great lustre and of great value.
He died in those jungles. His body was
never found, and the ruby has never yet
been recovered. And I fear that t-day
there are some wiio will fall back frost
this subject into the sickiming, killing jun
gles of their Mn, carrying a gem of iulln
lte value a priceless soul to be lost for
ever. Oh, that that ruby might flash in the
eternal coronation! But, no. There are
some, J fear, who turn away from tuf.i
offered mercy and comfort aud diviua
sympathy notwithstanding that Christ, for
all who accept His grace, trudged the iocg
way, and suffered tre lacerating thongs,
and received In His face tha expectora
tions of the filthy mob, and for the Kuilty,
and the discouraged, and the discomforted
of the race took the vinegar. May God
Almighty break the infatuation and lead
you out into the etrong hope, andtbegoo.l
ebeer, and the glorious sunshine of thlJ
i r.iimiphal cosnel'