Earlier text: ESSENTIALS AND NON-ESSENTIALSNotes on the International Lesson.
By Ellen G. White
FIVE days before the crucifixion Jesus entered Jerusalem. Multitudes had flocked to Bethany to see him, and accompanied him as he approached the city. Many others on their way to the feast joined the multitude, until they formed a mighty host surrounding the Saviour. It was but a short distance to the city, but Jesus, who had always before chosen to travel on foot, sent two of his disciples to bring a "colt, the foal of an ass," that he might ride into Jerusalem. This greatly puzzled the disciples, but hope brightened in their hearts with the joyous thought that Jesus was about to enter the capital and proclaim himself King of the Jews, and assert his royal power. While on their errand, the disciples communicated their glowing anticipations to the friends of Jesus, and the excitement spread far and near, raising the expectations of the people to the highest pitch. Jesus selected for his use a colt upon which never man had sat. The disciples in glad enthusiasm spread their garments upon the colt and placed their Master upon him. No sooner was he seated than a loud shout of triumph rent the air, and the multitude hailed him as Messiah, their King. Jesus now accepted the homage which he had never before permitted, and his disciples received this as a proof that their glad hopes were to be realized by seeing him acknowledged at Jerusalem as the King of Israel. All were happy and excited; the people vied with each other in paying him homage. They could not display outward pomp and splendor, but they gave him the worship of happy hearts. They were unable to present him with costly gifts, but they spread their outer garments as a carpet in his path, and they also strewed the leafy branches of the olive and palm in the way. They could lead the triumphal procession with no royal standards, but they cut down the spreading palm boughs, nature's emblem of victory, and waved them aloft, while their loud acclamations and hosannas rent the air. As they proceeded, the multitude was continually increased by those who had heard of the coming of Jesus and hastened to join the procession. Spectators were constantly mingling with the throng and asking, Who is this? What does all this commotion signify? They had all heard of Jesus and were expecting him to go to Jerusalem, but they knew that he had heretofore refused to receive kingly honors, and they were greatly astonished to learn that this was he. They wondered what could have wrought this change in him who had declared that his kingdom was not of this world. WHILE they were wondering and questioning, the eager crowd silence their queries with a shout of triumph that is repeated again and again, and is echoed from the surrounding hills and valleys. And now the joyful procession is joined by crowds from Jerusalem, that have heard of the grand demonstration, and hasten to meet the Saviour and conduct him to Jerusalem. From the great gathering of the Hebrews to attend the passover, thousands go forth to welcome Jesus to the city. They greet him with the waving of palm branches and a burst of sacred song. The priests at the temple sound the trumpet for evening service, but there are few to respond, and the rulers say to each other in alarm, "The world has gone after him." THE Saviour during his earthly life had hitherto refused to receive kingly honor, and had resolutely discouraged all attempts to elevate him to an earthly throne; but this occasion was intended by Jesus to call public attention to him as the world's Redeemer. He was nearing the period when his life was to be offered a ransom for guilty man. Although he was soon to be betrayed and to be hanged upon the cross like a malefactor, yet he would enter Jerusalem, the scene of his approaching sacrifice, attended by demonstrations of joy and the honor belonging to royalty, to faintly prefigure the glory of his future coming to the world as Zion's King. It was the purpose of Jesus to draw attention to the crowning sacrifice that was to end his mission to a fallen world. They were assembling at Jerusalem to celebrate the passover, while he, the antitypical Lamb, by a voluntary act set himself apart as an oblation. Jesus understood that it was needful in all future ages that the church should make his death for the sins of the world a subject of deep thought and study. Every fact connected with it should be verified beyond a doubt. It was necessary, then, that the eyes of all people should be directed to him, that the demonstrations which preceded his great sacrifice should be such as to call the attention of all to the sacrifice itself. After such an exhibition as that attending his entry into Jerusalem, all eyes would follow his rapid progress to the final end. The startling events connected with this triumphal ride were calculated to be the talk of every tongue, and bring Jesus before every mind. After his crucifixion these events would be connected with his trial and death; prophecies would be searched and would reveal the fact that this was indeed the Messiah; and converts to the faith of Jesus would be multiplied in all lands. In this one triumphal scene of his earthly life, the Saviour might have appeared escorted by heavenly angels and heralded by the trumps of God; but he remained true to the life of humiliation he had accepted, bearing the burden of humanity till his life was given for the life of the world. This day, which seemed to the disciples the crowning day of their lives, would have been shadowed with gloomy clouds had they known that this scene of rejoicing was but a prelude to the suffering and death of their Master. Although he had repeatedly told them of his certain sacrifice, yet in the glad triumph of the present they forgot his sorrowful words, and looked forward to his prosperous reign on the throne of David. New accessions were being made continually to the procession, and, with few exceptions, all who joined it caught the glad inspiration of the hour, and helped to swell the hosannas that echoed and re-echoed from hill to hill and from valley to valley. The shouts went up continually, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" It was as if all that vast multitude were seeking to excel one another in responding to the call from a prophetic past. God himself had, in his special providence, arranged the order of events then taking place, and if men had failed to carry out the divine plan, he would have given a voice to the inanimate stones and they would have hailed his Son with acclamations of praise. This scene had been revealed in prophetic vision to the holy seers of old, and man was powerless to turn aside the purposes of Jehovah. As the silenced Pharisees drew back, the words of Zechariah were taken up by hundreds of voices: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." "Long years ago when Abraham was sending Hagar out into the wilderness with Ishmael in her arms he gave her some bread and a bottle of water." Mrs. Ives was talking to her girls and boys and related this incident because she wanted to give them a little lesson. "Children, who can tell me how that bottle was made?" "I can," said little Jim. "Well, darling, tell it," the mother said. Jim drew himself up as straight as his five years permitted, as he said, "Glass, of course." "No, dear, that is not right. Can you tell us, Bessie?" Bessie would have given the same reply as Jim had, but as it proved to be wrong she said, "Of clay, mamma." Mrs. Ives shook her head as she asked, "Can any one of you tell us?" No one could answer, so she said, "The bottle was made of skin." "H'm, that's funny!" put in Beth. "Was it folks' skin?" "As if it could be, silly girl," interrupted Jo. Somehow the young folks were not unaccustomed to getting into a tangled snarl when they were allowed to mix up words too much. So Mrs. Ives raised her hand, which the children knew called for silence, and then she said: "If you will keep quiet I will tell you how bottles were made. The Arabs and those that lead wandering lives keep their water, milk, etc., in leathern bottles. They kill a goat, cut off its feet and head, and draw the flesh through the openings. Then they tan it, leaving the hairy part outside." "Can I speak, mamma?" asked John. Permission being given, he added, "Why did they tan the skin?" "I am glad to have you ask the question, my son; if the skins were not tanned a disagreeable taste would have been imparted to the water. Sometimes a smaller bottle was needed; then the skin of a kid was used, and when it was necessary to have a large vessel it was made of the skin of an ox, and was called a gerba, and a camel could only carry two of these, as they contained sixty gallons each. When liquor was poured into these skin bottles and fermentation began, the bottle would sometimes be distended so much that it would burst. Jesus knew this, and he told his disciples that to avoid such loss they must put new wine into new bottles." "Can the skin bottle be mended, mamma?" asked Bessie. "Yes; sometimes they were mended by setting in a new piece, sometimes by gathering up the edges, and sometimes by inserting a round, flat piece of wood to stop the hole." "Did everybody have camels to carry the big bottles?" asked little Jim. "No; but they put them upon the asses when they went upon a journey." "I should think that the hot sun upon the bottles would dry up the water," suggested John. "So it would," Mrs. Ives said. "But to prevent that happening and letting them perish with thirst when they were traveling across the deserts, the outside of the bottles were smeared with grease; and that prevented the water from oozing through and also from being evaporated. In one of the psalms David says: 'I am become like a bottle in the smoke,' that is, the heat, which would render it useless." "Are such bottles ever used in these days, mamma?" asked John. "Yes; they are still universally employed in traveling in the East, as well as by public water-carriers; and it is said that to this day in Spain they are used for wine or other liquids. I hope my dear girls and boys will be like new bottles full of all that is needed for the Master's use, and not like a bottle in the smoke, that is good for nothing." "So do I," answered John. And each one echoed his reply.—New York Observer. ASTRONOMY WITH AN OPERA-GLASS.
"ASTRONOMY with an Opera-glass" is the title of an article contributed to the Popular Science Monthly for August, by Garret P. Serviss. The following is a quotation that will interest the lovers of Luna:— "Of course the first thing the observer will wish to see will be the mountains of the moon, for everybody has heard of them, and the most sluggish imagination is stirred by the thought that one can look off into the sky and behold 'the eternal hills' of another planet as solid and substantial as our own. But the chances are that, if left to their own guidance, ninety-nine persons out of a hundred would choose exactly the wrong time to see these mountains. At any rate, that is my experience with people who have come to look at the moon through my telescope. Unless warned beforehand, they invariably wait until full moon, when the flood of sunshine, poured perpendicularly upon the face of our satellite, conceals its rugged features as effectually as if a veil had been drawn over them. Begin your observations with the appearance of the narrowest crescent of the new moon, and follow it gradually as it fills, and then you will see how beautifully the advancing line of lunar sunrise reveals the mountains, over whose slopes and peaks it is climbing, by its ragged and sinuous outline. The observer must keep in mind the fact that he is looking straight down upon the tops of the lunar mountains. It is like a view from a balloon, only at a vastly greater height than any balloon has ever attained. Even with a powerful telescope the observer sees the moon at an apparent distance of several hundred miles, while with a field-glass, magnifying six diameters, the moon appears as if forty thousand miles off. The apparent distance with Galileo's telescope was eight thousand miles. Recollect how, when seen from a great height, the rugosities of the earth's surface flatten out and disappear, and then try to imagine how the highest mountains on the earth would look if you were suspended forty thousand miles above them, and you will, perhaps, rather wonder at the fact that the moon's mountains can be seen at all. It is the contrast of lights and shadows that not only reveals them to us, but enables us to measure their height. On the moon, shadows are very much darker than upon the earth, because of the extreme rarity of the moon's atmosphere, if indeed it has any atmosphere at all. By stepping around the corner of a rock there, one might pass abruptly from dazzling noonday into the blackness of midnight. The surface of the moon is extraordinarily rough and uneven. It possesses broad plains, which are probably the bottoms of ancient seas that have now dried up, but these cover only about two-fifths of the surface visible to us, and most of the remaining three-fifths are exceedingly rugged and mountainous. Many of the mountains of the moon are, foot for foot, as lofty as the highest mountains on the earth, while all of them, in proportion to the size of the moon's globe, are much larger than the earth's mountains. It is obvious, then, that the sunshine, as it creeps over these Alpine landscapes in the moon, casting the black shadows of the peaks and craters many miles across the plains, and capping the summits of lofty mountains with light, while the lower regions far around them are yet buried in night, must clearly reveal the character of the lunar surface. Mountains that cannot be seen at all when the light falls perpendicularly upon them, or, at the most, appear then merely as shining points, picture themselves by their shadows in startling silhouettes when illuminated laterally by the rising sun. But at full moon, when the mountains hide themselves in light, the old sea-beds are seen spread out among the shining table-lands with great distinctness. Even the naked eye readily detects these as ill-defined, dark patches upon the face of the moon, and to their presence are due the popular notions that have prevailed in all quarters of the world about the 'man in the moon,' the 'woman in the moon,' 'Jacob in the moon,' the 'hare in the moon,' the 'toad in the moon,' and so on. But, however clearly one may imagine that he discerns a man in the moon while recalling the nursery rhymes about him, an opera-glass instantly puts the specter to flight, and shows the round lunar disk diversified and shaded like a map." HERE'S to the boy who's not afraid
To do his share of work;
Who never is by toil dismayed,
And never tries to shirk. The boy whose heart is brave to meet
All lions in the way;
Who's not discouraged by defeat,
But tries another day. The boy who always means to do
The very best he can;
Who always keeps the right in view,
And aims to be a man. Such boys as those will grow to be
The men whose hands will guide
The future of our land; and we
Shall speak their names with pride. All honor to the boy who is
A man at heart, I say;
Whose legend on his shield is this:
"Right always wins the day."
—Golden Days. The Value of Cheerfulness
CHEERFULNESS is an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the fair weather of the heart.—Smiles. THE DIET OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES.
THE preference of the Chinese for food that seems to our appetites absolutely disgusting is well known. In Canton rats sell for fifty cents a dozen, and dogs' hind quarters command a higher price than lamb or mutton. Fancy, eating bird's nests worth thirty dollars a pound! That is what a mandarin revels in. The French beguiled us into eating frogs' legs, which were once tabooed in this country, and we have even come to esteem diseased goose liver in the form of pate de foie gras. The writer has met Brazilians who rave over boa constrictor steaks, and count monkeys and parrots a very good meal. In the West Indies baked snake is a common dish, as the reptiles abound, and it is a good way of getting rid of them. But when it comes to frying palm worms in fat, one would think the stomach would rebel. It is not so, however, though, by a strange inconsistency, stewed rabbit is looked upon with disgust. On the Pacific Coast the Digger Indians eat dried locusts, and in the Argentine Republic skunk flesh is a dainty. Our own favorite bivalve, the oyster, is very disgusting to a Turk, while the devil-fish, eaten in Corsica, is equally so to us. We cannot understand, either, how the inhabitants of the West Indies and the Pacific Coast can eat lizards' eggs with a relish; still less how the eggs of the turtle and alligator can become a favorite article of diet. The Brazilians eat ants, probably to get rid of them, for they literally infest the country and are of an enormous size. It is easy to pick up a handful of ants almost anywhere, though the wary do not go about it in this way, as the pestiferous insect bites in a most vicious manner. A curry of ants' eggs is a great delicacy in Siam, and the Cingalese eat the bees whose honey they have stolen. The Chinese, who seem to have stomachs like the ostrich, eat the chrysalis of the silk-worm, after unwinding the cocoon. Spiders are used in New Caledonia as a kind of dessert, while caterpillars are also relished by the African Bushmen.—Selected. THE American Magazine tells the following interesting story of how James Beard, the celebrated portrait and animal painter, learned to paint chairs:— One day, while wandering about the town, he became interested in a sign which read, "Peter Skinner, chair-maker." "Why can't I make a chair?" he asked himself. He straightway entered the establishment, resolved to ask for a job. In order to get to the office, he had to pass through the paint room, and the sight of several busy workers prompted him to inwardly exclaim, "Anyway, I can paint chairs." The firm wanted a journeyman. Mr. Skinner said the young man could come to work the next morning, and that his duties would be in the paint shop—in which Beard tarried on his way out. He spoke to the men who were at work, told them interesting stories of his travels, until they were all interested in him. Meanwhile, he watched every detail of the manner in which a chair, from beginning to end, was painted. That evening, when he reached the room which his friend was sharing with him, he got a brush broom and an old chair, and was practicing the modus operandi of painting it when his fellow-lodger entered. The latter thought Beard had lost his reason, until laconically informed that the young man was "learning his trade." The next morning Beard was on hand at the chair factory, bright and early; and there he continued to be employed for two months, at nine dollars a week. No one ever discovered that he was not an experienced chair painter. During his leisure time, he used to make pencil drawings at the house where he boarded of different things, and drop them carelessly on the floor so that they would attract attention. The landlord possessed a strong, characteristic face, and Beard drew him in uniform, he being a colonel in the militia. The young artist also dropped this drawing on the floor of his chamber. His chief ambition was to get to painting portraits again. He thought this drawing would please the colonel, and it did. In short, it led to Beard's receiving a commission to paint the portraits of the colonel and his entire family, consisting of five members, at five dollars apiece. With this work to occupy him Beard left the chair factory and resumed his portrait painting. He found considerable to do, but he was often reduced to the condition not inaptly known as being "hard up." He began to get some reputation, and made many warm friends. QUAINT old Matthew Henry points out that Abraham's slaves which he had gotten in Haran are called "souls." In these times servants are called "hands." A world of difference. Hands—four fingers and a thumb to get as much out of as one can, and to put as little into, from the master's standpoint. And from the servants'—to pick up as much as they can and to give as little back again. When master and man can find in each other's relationship a soul—a living, earnest, brotherly soul—then only are the work and wages alike right.—Mark Guy Pearse. THE Toledo Blade has well said that the plea of "personal liberty" as an excuse for the saloon is an assumption of the proposition that because the State cannot follow a man who is morally a weakling, and prevent him from ruining himself, it must allow the institution which is his tempter, which gives him the means of self-ruin, an open opportunity to make him a wreck. When a man drops into the vice of drinking, he has his own peril before his eyes, and assumes the risk; but the saloon keeper is not to be interfered with, because, forsooth, he makes money by the self-ruin of this moral weakling, who deliberately takes a risk he knows to be dangerous. The man who is willing to be a drunkard is one man; the man who helps him to the means, in order to make money, is another. The right, if any exists, of the first to be a drunkard, stops with himself; it carries with it no right for another man to aid him, to the peril of society, to the aid of vice and crime. The day is swiftly drawing on when the occupation of furnishing the means and opportunity of a personal vice that is so notoriously fruitful in crime will be stopped by the law's strong hand; when the State will stop the distillery, the brewery, the saloon. The Cost of the Liquor Traffic
During the debate on the prohibitory resolution in the Illinois Senate, February 13, Mr. Berry, of Hancock, made the following statement: "In one of the documents sent us, within the last few days, by the United States Brewers' Association, they admit that the cost of keeping and caring for 185,313 paupers, insane, and criminals, is chargeable to the liquor traffic, and that it costs $17,419,422; and they answer by saying there is received for federal and local license $136,000,000, and then they subtract one from the other, and say it leaves a balance in favor of rum of $118,000,000. Oh, such an argument!" continued Mr. Berry. "Suppose one of these insane criminals was your son or daughter, where would you then say the balance was?" Illiteracy Around the World
THE census of illiterates in the various countries of the world has recently been published by the Statistische Monatschrift. According to this the three Slavic States, Roumania, Servia, and Russia, head the list with about 80 per cent. of the population unable to read and write. Of the Latin races Spain leads with 63 per cent., followed by Italy with 48 per cent., France and Belgium with about 15 per cent. The illiterates in Hungary are under 43 per cent., in Austria 39, in Ireland 21, in England 13, Holland 10, United States (white population) 8, Scotland 7 per cent. The Teutonic races are the best favored in this regard, Switzerland with only 2½ per cent, Germany, as an empire, only 1, while in Sweden, Denmark, Bavaria, Baden, and Württemberg there is practically no one who cannot read and write. It is notorious that the saloon business is extremely profitable, and that this constitutes the great temptation to make money out of vice and misery. It must be, however, exceptionally profitable in Omaha, where a saloon keeper has prosecuted a servant for having stolen more than three thousand dollars in a short period, without its being missed from his daily receipts. It is said that "he was accustomed to put the day's receipts in a box in his room when he closed up at midnight, without counting it, and then deposit it the next morning. For some time he thought he observed a deficiency in the pile in the morning, but thought his wife was getting a little money on the sly with which to buy him a present, and for a time said nothing about it. One night, however, he marked his greenbacks and the next day, with the aid of an officer, discovered one hundred and ten dollars of the bills in a box in Rosa's room. There were eight hundred and fifty-five dollars more there, which she admitted having stolen, and it was found that she had three thousand dollars deposited in a bank." Such a little tale as this from the police court is worth a volume of explanation of the reasons why saloons spread like a contagion.—N. Y. Observer. —Chili has excluded Chinamen. —March 23 the striking weavers at Fall River, Mass., were still out. —Over thirty inches of rain recently fell at Delta, Cal., in eight days. —Great Britain is in full accord with the United States on the Samoan question. —An official inspection of Russian prisons has revealed a sad state of overcrowding. —The town of Pinsk, Russia, has been destroyed by fire. Six persons were burned to death. —A bill "to regulate the sale of horse-flesh for human food" is before the English Parliament. —Cholera has broken out in Zeamanba, in the Philippine Islands. There have been 500 deaths so far. —A further restriction on the anthracite coal supply has been ordered, throwing 5,000 men out of employment. —England proposes to add seventy new vessels to her navy, at an expense of $100,000,000, during the next five years. —Secretary Tracy has ordered Commodore A. E. K. Benham to take command of the navy yard at Mare Island, Cal. —It is said that the mail matter of Postmaster-General Wanamaker at his great Philadelphia store costs him $150 a day. —Forgerer Piggot's diary is in the hands of Parnell's attorneys, and it is asserted that it contains some things damaging to the Tories. —England has demanded of Morocco £50,000 indemnity for the massacre and pillage at the Mackenzie factory at Cape Nuby in 1888. —Oklahoma, that portion of the Indian Territory lying near its center, which is not occupied by any Indians, is about to be opened to settlement. —O'Mahony, editor of the Tipperary Nationalist, has been sentenced to two months' imprisonment, under the Crimes Act, for intimidating citizens. —Chili is about to expend $2,000,000 in the erection of light-houses along the coast, and the sum of $500,000 is to be used in promoting immigration. —Twelve of Legitime's soldiers, who had been taken prisoners, were shot in the public square at Cape Haytien, Hayti, recently by order of Hippolyte. —Herbert Bismarck and Councillor Cranel will, it is stated, represent Germany in the Samoan Conference, which will probably not meet before the first of May. —Fourteen of the largest paper makers in England have formed a syndicate for the purpose of raising prices. The capital of the combination is put at £2,000,000. —Robert Sigel, son of General Franz Sigel, who pleaded guilty to forging pension checks, was sentenced on the 21st ult. to six years' imprisonment at hard labor. —Justice Stanley Matthews, of the United States Supreme Court, died at Washington, D. C., on the 22d ult. Justice Matthews was appointed by President Garfield in 1881. —A New York State law provides that homeless and destitute persons who are willing to labor (sawing wood) shall be provided with food and shelter by the Charity Commissioners. —An explosion of dynamite occurred at the works of the Cumberland Hydraulic Cement Company at noon of March 19, fatally injuring two men and seriously wounding two others. —The severest hail-storm on record swept over New Hanover County, North Carolina, on the 20th ult. A colored man who was out in the storm was pelted to death by the huge hail-stones. —Farmers in the Northwest propose to resist the power of the Twine trust by changing their twine-binders into hand-binders and headers, and by curtailing the output of small grains where experience shows that this is doubtful profit. —George Washington's inauguration sword is now in possession of Miss Virginia T. Lewis, of Baltimore, the granddaughter of Samuel Lewis, who was an intimate friend of Washington, and to whom it was willed by the Father of his Country. —Another American schooner has been seized by the Canadian Custom officers. The offense for which the seizure was made was the selling of a boat to some fishermen. The captain declares that he was not aware that he was violating the law. —Postmaster-General Wanamaker has ordered the clerks in the Post-office Department to work from 8:30 A. M. until 6 P. M. The hours heretofore have been from 9 to 4. This order may be distasteful to the clerks but the country at large will approve. —The Leaning Tower of Pisa has actually been proposed as the great prize of a lottery. The town has become bankrupt and the creditors want to seize the Hotel de Ville. To avert this calamity a municipal councillor started the idea of a lottery. —The English have launched a light gunboat, the Spanker, which they propose shall rival our Vesuvius in speed. She carries two 36-pounder and four 3-pounder rapid-firing guns, and has torpedo appliances. She is expected to make twenty-one knots. —A man died a few days since in San Francisco from poisoning by a quantity of mushrooms which he had eaten. The fungi were the genuine edible mushrooms so much sought after, but were probably decayed, as in that condition they contain deadly poison. —The ship canal which is to connect Manchester, England, with Liverpool, is being rapidly constructed, ten thousand men and a great number of steam excavators being engaged upon it. The canal will be 35 miles long, 26 feet deep, and 120 feet wide at the bottom. —The Legislature of Michigan has been asked to grant a charter for a ship canal across the upper peninsula connecting Lakes Michigan and Superior. The proposed route is thirty-six miles long and will save two hundred and seventy-one miles between Chicago and Duluth. —Guards who were on duty at the time of the recent fire in the Imperial palace, China, are, in accord, ance with the precedent in the case of the burning of the K'ien-ts'ing Palace in the first year of Kia-k'ing (1796), to be put to death by strangulation in autumn after a period of imprisonment. —The present administration shows no disposition to recede from the position taken by Mr. Cleveland and his advisers relative to Behring Sea, and all persons convicted of taking seals and other fur animals unlawfully will be punished by the confiscation of their vessels and cargoes. —Legitime is reported to have gained, about the 1st of last month, a victory over Hippolyte in Hayti. The battle lasted several hours and was followed by indiscriminate slaughter. Men who had surrendered were massacred in cold blood and defenseless women were subjected to the most fiendish outrages. —In Washington's administration the Postmaster-General had but one clerk. There were only 75 post-offices, and 1,875 miles of post-roads, in the United States. The cost of the mail transportation was $22,081; the total revenue, $37,935; the total expenditure, $32,140, leaving a surplus of $5,795. —It is stated that the dervishers, partisans of the Mahdi's successor, have ravaged the entire western frontier of Abyssinia, massacring many thousands of the natives, carrying the women and children into slavery, burning the capital, Gondar, where King John had his palace, and destroying Dembea, another of his chief towns. —The postal telegraph lines in England do not pay expenses. The outlay last year exceeded the receipts by more than £6,000, and there was still interest to pay upon a loan of £10,880,571. The total deficiency amounts, therefore, to no less a sum than £332,501. Since 1872 the country has paid in taxation toward the working of the telegraphs the enormous sum of £3,357,400. —A Japanese paper states that some of the employes of the Naval Department are to be fed with a new and delectable delicacy—blubber. The heads of the department have decided that whale flesh is tolerably nutritious, and therefore it is to be supplied for food from time to time at Yokosuka and Uraga barracks. The War Department also propose to adopt whale flesh as an article of diet for the soldiers. —At a recent banquet in Tours, General Boulanger repudiated, on behalf of the National party, the idea of either a monarchical conspiracy or demagogic wiles, declaring that the goal toward which they were marching was a non-parliamentary republic, which would be protectress of the weak and lowly, and be preoccupied with the interests of the people, respecting the liberty of individuals, and, above all, the liberty of conscience. —A Newchang correspondent of the North China Daily News of January 25 says: "It is hardly any use giving news of this place, for what we can say is simply a repetition of the old story—starvation everywhere for poor people. It becomes monotonous, but for actual witnesses the scenes are simply harrowing. Villages of from fifty to three hundred families, all dying for want of the commonest necessaries of life. Every winter there is more or less distress in this, perhaps the poorest province of China, but this has been the worst in the experience of the oldest resident." —Excitement has been intense in Canada on account of the action of the Dominion Government in allowing the act of the Quebec Legislature endowing the Jesuit order. A resolution of censure was introduced into the Parliament and that body was flooded with petitions demanding the passage of the resolution, but finally enough members were whipped in to secure its defeat, thus sustaining the Government. —A dispatch from Atlantic City under date of March 21 says: "The waves for two days past have been steadily undermining the buildings on the inner side of the board walk, particularly at the lower end, from Michigan Avenue down, and when the terrible flood tide and furious waves last night struck them they collapsed. Near Georgia Avenue Professor Jones was in bed when the waves struck his house and demolished it. He was thrown with stunning force among the debris, and had a miraculous escape. Three families at the same time hardly succeeded in making their exit through the rear doors when their houses succumbed to the waves." —Under date of March 17 very severe storms were reported from the Atlantic coast. At Highland Head, Mass., the wind attained a velocity of 150 miles per hour. Considerable damage was done by high water but no wrecks are reported. At Highland beach the sea was over the tracks of the New Jersey Southern Railway and of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, running into Shrewsbury River. The railroad track was torn and twisted by the angry waves into all sorts of shapes. Heavy stones placed two years ago in stone jetties, designed as a protection, were tossed about by the waves like corks, and a number of them were piled upon the tracks and platform of the depot. RUE.—Sister Huldah E. (Aldrich) Rue, wife of H. P. Rue, died in Oakland, Cal., of typhoid pneumonia, March 20, 1889, aged 28 years, 7 months, and 2 days. The parents of Sister Rue began keeping the Sabbath of the Lord in 1861, shortly after her birth, and united with the Seventh-day Adventist church in Olcott, N. Y. In the year 1864 they removed to Battle Creek, Mich., where Brother Aldrich was prominently connected with the publishing interest until his death, in 1870. In 1871 Huldah was baptized by Elder James White, and joined the Battle Creek church. May 19, 1880, she was united in marriage to Brother H. P. Rue, and soon after removed to Nebraska, where they resided until the fall of 1884, when they came to Oakland and at once connected with the office of the Signs of the Times, where they have been constantly employed ever since, Sister Rue having learned the printer's trade and worked for several years in the Review and Herald Office, at Battle Creek. Her work was always characterized by conscientious faithfulness. From the time she came to Oakland she has been an active member of the church and Sabbath-school; but in the revival effort last fall, she, with many others, gained a new experience. Thorough confession of every known sin was made, and then she realized the fulfillment of 1 John 1:9. A most marked change was noticeable in her from that time. No one could doubt the completeness of her conversion, or that she was living a life of faith from day to day. She indeed found joy in believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. She leaves two little children, six and eight years of age, and it was in attempting to look after her work in the office while nursing these through a siege of typhoid fever, that she contracted the disease which so quickly ended in her death. So well had she been but a few days before that her death was a great shock to her fellow-laborers in the office. While they deeply sympathize with the bereaved companion and mother, and sorrow for the loss of a friend and sister, their sorrow is mingled with joy at the thought that she sleeps in Jesus. More than ever do we thank God for the Christian's hope. Remarks were made by Elder Loughborough at the funeral, from Rev. 14:13. (Review and Herald please copy.) WALKER.—Died in Los Angeles, Cal., March 12, 1889, our dear sister, Hattie M. Walker. Sister Walker was born in Hodgden, Maine, Nov. 13, 1849, and united with the Baptist Church at the age of fourteen. She came to Los Angeles in 1887, where she heard, through our mission workers, the great words of the law (Hos. 8:12), and turned her feet into the light, uniting with the Seventh-day Adventist church of this city in 1888, of which she was a beloved member until her death. A husband, three children, and many friends mourn the irreparable loss. Publishers' Department.
By Editor
NOTICE.—The change of figures on the address labels will be in all cases a sufficient receipt for money sent for the paper. If these changes do not appear in due time, and if books ordered by mail are not received, please notify us. All other business is acknowledged below. - REMIT by Bank Draft, Money Order, or Express Order.
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HEALDSBURG COLLEGE.—Robbie Baker $10. RECEIVED ON ACCOUNT.—Neb Tract Society $100. FOREIGN MISSIONS.—G A Baker $10, Toll House for 1888 $2.53. CALIFORNIA GENERAL FUND.—Freddie Baker $2.50, Robbie Baker $2.50. RURAL HEALTH RETREAT.—Robbie Baker, stock $7.50, Freddie Baker stock $7.50. INTERNATIONAL MISSION FUND.—G A Baker on account organ for Australia $5. CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE FUND.—Lemoore per D C Hunter $10, Selma per A E Moulthrop $40, Lemoore per L A Scott $7, San Francisco $75. SENTINELS FOR MISSIONARY WORK.
By Editor
SIXTY assorted back numbers (four different dates) of the American Sentinel sent post-paid for $1. Just the paper to hand to your neighbor or mail to a friend. All about the National Reform movement, the Sunday question, the Blair bills, etc. NOTICE TO MISSIONARY WORKERS.
By Editor
PLEASE stop sending the SIGNS to any of the following names, as this office has received notice that the papers are refused, unclaimed, or sent to the wrong post-office:— W. H. Moore, Carrie Isham, C. H. Nichols, Miss Julia Meredith, Chas. Bilke, Mrs. A. L. Kerr, Mrs. Octavia Abell, D. Sheppard, Stephen E. Pullen, James Hoen, Mrs. K. M. Moran, Mrs. S. D. French.