PERHAPS there is no nation more feared and less understood by her neighbors to-day than Russia, the great White Bear of the North; and yet the world understands that Russia has one unswerving purpose before her, from which she never deviates from one generation to another. That purpose is the ultimate domination of the continent of Asia. All her diplomacy is shaped to that end; and where she seems to yield from time to time, it is with the object of ultimate gain in the line of her ambition. Her recent declarations in reference to maintaining the integrity of China have been a surprise to European diplomats. They had thought Russia was desirous of obtaining Chinese territory; but it is because Russia is not working for a portion of China that she opposes China's dismemberment. Her purpose is the gradual absorption of the whole Asiatic continent. The dismemberment of China would mean that the other great nations would become more firmly established than they are now within the borders of what Russia considers her ultimate boundaries. Some of them are quite firmly established there now, and to dislodge such would mean a long and expensive war. Russia is now preparing for that war, and has been for many years. To that end she is husbanding her strength and hoarding her wealth. Because her diplomacy has this one essential objective, its different phases are misunderstood; and because of the already ponderous weight of her accumulating dominion, her slow, powerful progress is heartily feared. Like a great, irresistible glacier, she is forcing a channel for herself from her frozen home to the waters of the eastern and the southern seas, and, as she moves, she is storing up the power necessary to carry her project through.
Little is known of the great hoards of gold which that nation has locked up in her vaults. Some have considered Russia a very poor nation, one whose credit was questionable; and when she has negotiated loans, they have been looked upon by financiers as doubtful security; but Russia can afford to be considered a poor creditor if thereby she can keep the world in the dark as to her plans and preparations. The immediate is made secondary to the ultimate with her. Last year she contracted a loan of $20,000,000 in the United States to pay for American war ships and American locomotives. She will pay it back gradually from imposts and excises, without having to touch that which she has laid away for the time of her great stress. She is now said to be negotiating another great loan, this time of $100,000,000.
The czar, who is head of both Church and State, employs the Church as a collector for the State, and as a depository for the great sacred fund. Colonel McCarty, formerly United States military attaché at St. Petersburg, and afterward an attaché in the service of the czar, where he had special opportunity for learning the facts in the matter, gives in the October 11 issue of the Independent the following striking information:—
"Since the Napoleonic wars the Russian Church has had, in addition to its ordinary work, one great and specific charge intrusted to it, the hoarding of money in order to restrict the power of rival nations. Every year since 1815 Russia has added a vast sum to her secret hoard. In no war since then has she ever used a rouble of the money thus laid by. There are two great sources of revenue, both of them fully under control, and where the world could know nothing of them—Russian mines, and contributions to the church. Russia, in earlier days, was the one great gold-producing country. Since Peter's day she has been a large producer of gold, tho much larger than generally known, because only a part of the gold mined in Russia—it is mined by the government—has been reported. It has been secretly put into the church fund. The Russian mines were established by Peter the Great. But they have been very largely developed since, and in recent years gold-bearing rock has been worked to some extent, tho the great bulk of Russia's gold output has come from placer mining by convicts.
"A great fund has been created by collections from the people through the church. In Russia all citizens belong to the Russian Church. Every officer and soldier and every government official and employer, from the czar to the poorest moujik, contributes weekly to the church. It has been said by those who had means to know, that church expenditures have not for eighty years past exceeded one-half of the church collections. Twenty years or more ago the author had some means of knowing the extent of the accumulations from the Russian mines. And four or five years afterward it became his fortune to be able to learn something of the total from the mines and the church collections. At this time Russia's gold hoard approximated three billions of dollars,9and to-day it is nearly four billions at the rate of accumulation. Fully half of Russia's hoard has come from gold not counted in the world's production, because secretly treasured. This information comes partly from the statements of one of the highest officials of the church at St. Petersburg, who is familiar with the extent of the accumulation. In a single church in St. Petersburg the writer has seen, on an Easter morning, a cloth of the size of a blanket, so heaped with gold, paper money, diamonds, rubies, turquoises, and jewels of all kinds, that its corners could not be brought together. Rich and poor strip themselves of wealth on these great church days. The giving up of money becomes a religious frenzy and a paroxysm of patriotism. And on every Sunday, in every church in Russia, liberal contributions are made. The church is a most thorough and effective collector.
"There has been a belief generally entertained that Russia had no money and no credit. She has more money, considering the work she has to do, than any of her neighbors. She needs no credit. Russia is a slow country, but progresses very surely, and her government is never at the mercy of her money lenders.
"It is an interesting fact that the stack of gold in the Russian banks has, in late years, increased about enough to absorb the recent increase in the world's gold output. The Bank of England and the continental banks have remained nearly stationary, stood still, or lost gold; but the gain in Russian banks has been very large. The modern ammunition is gold. Russia has the largest stock of it in the world, and adds to it year by year, biding her time."
It had been considered that the Bank of France held the largest hoard of gold in the world, $450,000,000, and that America stood second, with something like $427,000,000 in gold; but how small are these when compared with what Russia has heaped together! Thus we can see with what a terrible perseverance this one great nation is preparing for the last great conflict. Truly, she is "biding her time;" but that time is not far distant. C. M. S.
TRUSTS.
THE Saturday Evening Post tells us that in recent years the combinations formed in this country have the enormous capitalization of over seven billion dollars, and gives a list of thirty companies, each of which capitalizes at over $50,000,000. The above paper further says:—
“These thirty combinations are credited with capital amounting to two and one-third billions of dollars. The entire general stocks of money of all kinds in the United States, gold, silver, notes, and certificates, amounts to about $2,700,000,000. So that if all the four hundred combines in the list should try to turn their capitalizations into cash they would use up every penny of the nation's money and then have only about forty per cent. of their demands. Indeed, the thirty corporations mentioned would nearly use up all our cash. Of course we know that business is transacted mostly on credit, and this gives an entirely different view of the case, but the comparisons show the real financial hugeness of the modern combinations.
“Congress and twenty-nine of the States have passed laws expressly designed and constructed to prohibit trusts, and yet the trusts have increased more rapidly since these laws were passed, and have grown more in capitalization than ever before in the country's history.”
WHAT OF THE NIGHT:
By M. C. W.
WE are marching toward the unknown. Who knows what to-morrow has in store for us?—Signor Francisco Crispi, ex-prime minister of Italy.
The view ten years ago showed a placid, smiling river; now we see the boiling rapids of a torrent plunging toward what abyss no one knows. War has followed war with swift succession. . . . What the next stroke will be, who shall say?—Springfield Republican.
This is the most unsettled condition of the world since the crucifixion of Christ. The stability of government is no longer a fact. Change is in the atmosphere. It is just as true now as a thousand years ago, "Thou knowest not what a day will bring forth." . . . Statesmen are at their wits' end. Philosophers speculate in vain.—The late Bishop Newman.
The bonds of society are relaxed; traditional principles are losing their sacredness, and perils hitherto unknown are menacing the life of the social organism.—Archbishop Ireland.
"O watchman on the walls of State,
What of the night?"
The watchman said: "The hour seems late,
There is no light,
Save here and there camp-fires of war
Blaze fiercely bright,
And arméd hosts, both near and far,
Prepare for fight.
"Or when the morning comes, or how,
I do not know;
The night is dark, seems darker now,
The clouds hang low.
Strong kingdoms reel and empires die,
And Peace comes not;
All nations in the darkness cry,
For what, for what?"
"O watchman on the church's walls,
What seest thou?"
The watchman said: "The shadow falls
As never now;
Earth's governments no longer stand
Stable and strong;
Injustice bold reigns in the land,
And sin and wrong.
"Philosophy knows not the way;
Statecraft is blind;
The omens of the coming day
They do not find.
Strange perils menace social life
Not known of yore;
The world is filled with doubt and strife
As ne'er before."
"O watchman true, on Zion's walls,
What of the night?
We know the heavy shadow falls,
The world's affright;
But is there not one radiant gleam,
One word of cheer?
Is there no pause to earth's sad dream,
No comfort here?"
The watchman said, with shining face,
"The night's far gone,
The day is coming on apace;
A glorious dawn
Awaits the children of the day;
For earth's dark night,
Where sin and death no more shall slay,
Breaks with the light.
"God's cloudless day is soon to rise,
Whose radiant glow
Has painted on earth's saddest skies
His covenant bow;
The day whose sun shall never set,
That knows no night;
The morn that never brings regret,
Forever bright."
M. C. W.
NOTES OF ALARM FOR BAPTISTS.
By Editor
IN the Bibliotheca for October, Dr. H. C. Vedder has a striking article on "Fifty Years of Baptist History." According to his figures, in 1880 the Baptists of the United States numbered 1 to 53 of the population. In 1850 the ratio was 1 to 32, and in 1900 it is 1 to 16. But with this remarkable growth there are discouraging features. Doctor Vedder says:—
"It is not putting it too strongly to say that Baptists from the beginning of their separate history have been fully conscious that they had no justification for a separate existence except this loyalty to what they believed the Scriptures to teach, their conviction that the teaching of the Scriptures must be followed at all cost. But the last decades of the closing century have seen a very considerable weakening among them of this conviction, some important modifications of their understanding of what the Scriptures are and what they teach. If this weakening should become general, there can not fail to be a great denominational disintegration."
Still another note of alarm is found in lax discipline. On this point Doctor Vedder says:—
"Little serious attempt is made to exercise oversight of the lives of members and to hold them to accountability for departure from even a moderate standard of Christian ethics. . . . Nothing can explain such disuse of discipline but a general awakening of moral fiber. This is an alarming phenomenon, and goes far to offset all that has been recorded of material and spiritual progress."
These are not our words; they are from the testimony of a prominent Baptist. We call attention to them because this "weakening" in regard to their former creed—"Thus saith the Lord"—no doubt has a bearing on the readiness and zeal with which some leading Baptists lent their aid in support of the Catholic amendment to the California constitution at the late election. We say Catholic amendment, because the exemption of houses of worship from taxation, which is so much in the line of State support of the church, is fundamental Catholic doctrine, and the archbishop of San Francisco led the delegation of ministers in the personal appeal to the Legislature for the submission of such an amendment to a vote of the people.
THE typhoon which devastated the coast of Formosa and a part of the southern Chinese coast, as reported last week, struck the coast of Japan on the following day, doing much damage, and causing considerable loss of life. Hundreds of houses were destroyed or flooded, and a number of vessels were lost or wrecked on the coast. At one fishing station 200 fishermen were blown out to sea, and it is reported that all were drowned.
AT the Pension Bureau there have been filed 34,000 pension claims on account of the Spanish-American War.
ON October 16 the price of Standard Oil stock went up from $566 a share to $583 dollars a share, an increase of $17 on each share of stock in the company. This means that the wealth of Mr. Rockefeller was increased on that day by the sum of $5,678,000. Are we living in ordinary times, when such an accumulation of wealth is possible in a single day? It was but a few days ago that Sir Thomas Lipton "cornered" the American pork market at $12 a barrel, to "unload" again at an advance of $16 to $18 a barrel, thereby making a profit of about $500,000. And so the work of "heaping" together treasure, of adding fortune to fortune—that certain sign of the end—goes on with increasing rapidity.
THE Surgeon-General reports a serious lack of physicians in the army, and recommends that more be secured for that service. His report also shows that 347 men have become insane during service in the Philippine Islands; that there are now on the sick list in the Philippines 5,129 men; and that the number of deaths among those on the sick roll is large, owing to the fatigue, exposure, and excitement of the long campaign.
THE Russian general at Wilna, in addressing some troops that had been brought back to Wilna on the very eve of sailing for China, said in explanation, "The czar decided it was necessary to bring you back to Wilna, so you might be ready here to join us against a foe we shall be ordered to meet." The Moscow correspondent of the London Standard asserts that the foe hinted at can be no other than Germany.
THE town of Guadaloupe, Mexico, was completely swept out of existence on October 17 by a flood following a waterspout in the mountains. The citizens heard the roaring of the flood before it reached the village, and nearly all escaped from its path. The crops of the villagers were also completely destroyed, and they left destitute and shelterless many miles from any other village.
BY an ingenious and simple device invented by Prof. G. W. Ritchie, of the Yerkes Observatory, the great telescopes of the world can be made to serve the double purpose of stellar research and photography. Ordinary telescopes are not designed for photographic use, but this device makes all the power of these great telescopes available in photographing the heavens.
CAPTAIN CUSHING, of the revenue cutter Rush, reports that at the present rate of decrease, the natives on the Aleutian Islands will soon become extinct. On one island only 110 remain of a once numerous tribe. On another island, once well peopled, only 73 persons remain in all. The captain reports the natives in a wretched condition from hunger and disease.
"The archbishop of Canterbury has received a letter from a Kongo native who has learned to write. It runs: 'Great and good chief of the tribe of Jesus Christ, greeting: The humblest of your servants kisses the hem of your garments, and begs you to send his fellow-servants more Gospel and less rum.'"
"The wide-reaching curse of the liquor traffic is strongly illustrated by the facts lately brought out, that the milk from cows fed with distillery hops contains nearly six per cent. alcohol, and so is as intoxicating as some beers. Thus we may be making drunkards of our children before they can walk."
JOHN SHERMAN, former Secretary of State, and for many years a prominent congressman, died at Washington, on October 22, at the age of 77 years. Mr. Sherman was born at Lancaster, Ohio, May 10, 1823, and for forty-four years held prominent positions in the national government.
THE steamship Orizaba, which was engaged in laying a cable between St. Michael and Nome, Alaska, was driven upon an uncharted rock near the former place and wrecked. The cable was saved, but no further attempt will be made to lay it until next summer.
AN agent of the Mexican Government is now in the Middle States laying up large numbers of saddle-horses suitable for the use of cavalry. The agent intimates that his government is preparing for war, but does not give the name of the hostile country.
IT is thought that the fuel problem at Cape Nome has been solved by the discovery, on the Russian side of the strait, of large ledges of bituminous coal, 200 tons of which have already been landed at Nome, and sold at $60 a ton.
THE steamer Alameda, which arrived at San Francisco from Australia on October 19, brought $4,000,000 worth of sovereigns. The gold was at once sent to the San Francisco mint to be recoined into American double eagles.
ON President Kruger's departure from Lourenzo Marquez for Holland, his baggage was carefully inspected by Portuguese authorities to see that he carried away no gold. This action was taken upon the demand of England.
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, the well-known American author, of Hartford, Conn., died in that city on October 20.
FOR several days reports have appeared in the daily press of the successful working of Count Zeppelin's air ship. The count conducts his experiments over a lake at Friedrichshafen, Germany, the air ship being moored to a protected float in the lake. He is reported to have made several successful ascensions, being able to steer the ship in any desired direction. It is conceded by many that the problem of aerial navigation has been solved. In speaking of Zeppelin's successful experiments, the San Francisco Chronicle says:—
"Of course, the success of Zeppelin's ship does not bring aerial navigation within the range of the practical uses of other media of transportation; but the idea is far enough advanced to warrant the belief that it may become an important and destructive agent in actual war, and, for the present, this seems to be the chief purpose of its construction."
A SEVERE earthquake shock occurred at Kadiak, Alaska, on October 9. The first shock was felt at 2:25 A.M., and lasted three minutes. In all twenty-seven distinct shocks were recorded, and the earth was in a continual tremor for six hours.
FIGHTING continues in the interior of Africa, between the British and the Ashantis. The British column met one repulse, but afterward captured three native villages and burned them, killing seventy of the natives.
GERMANY has secured from the sultan of Turkey a thirty-year lease on the island of Uroan in the Red Sea, to be used as a coaling station for her war vessels on their way to and from the Orient by the Suez Canal route.
PRINCE HOHENLOHE, imperial German chancellor, has resigned his position, on account of his disapproval of the German emperor's foreign policy. Count Von Buelow has been chosen by the emperor to fill the position.
THE longest balloon voyage ever recorded was completed October 12, the distance covered being 1,304 miles. The balloon with its occupants left Paris on October 11, and in thirty-six hours landed at Kiew, Russia.
A MACHINE to take the place of firemen on board steamers has been successfully tested at Tacoma, Wash. It is known as the automatic stoker, and by forced draft drives a stream of powdered coal into the furnace.
YELLOW fever is still epidemic at Havana, Cuba. Eighty-nine cases were reported on October 22. Many of the stricken ones were indigent people, who contracted the disease through sleeping in the streets.
THERE is a serious strike of London lightermen now in progress, and barges loaded with merchandise and provisions remain unloaded, causing much confusion at the docks and interfering with trade.
AT a conference of the Chicago post-office authorities it was decided that in the future no boys should be employed who smoked cigarettes, or who were known to have once been addicted to the habit.
THE Norwegian steamer Calanda was sunk by colliding with the Japanese steamer Ise Maru near Iowashima, Japan, and thirty-three of the passengers and crew of the Norwegian vessel were drowned.
THE local legislature of Prince Edward Island has voted unanimously for the prohibition of the liquor traffic in the island—an example worthy of imitation by every organized community in the world.
A REPORT from the City of Mexico states that a young Italian scientist has discovered a remedy for yellow fever. The Mexican Government had offered a prize of $100,000 for such a discovery.
MORE fighting is reported between the rebels and government troops in Colombia. The rebels have attacked Corazal, and the government is sending 4,000 troops to aid the garrison there.
OFFICIAL French reports show that the amount of wine produced in that country this year will be the largest recorded for thirty years, and will amount to 1,590,000,000 gallons.
FIFTY persons were killed by a boiler explosion on board a steamer plying between Tomsk and Barnaul, Russia, on October 23. Many others were terribly scalded.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL WOOD, of Cuba, has recommended to the Secretary of the Navy that the wreck of the battle-ship Maine be removed from Havana harbor.
ITALY and Austria have expressed their formal adherence to the Anglo-German agreement respecting China.
THE note-teller of the First National Bank of New York City is a fugitive and a defaulter to the extent of $700,000.
THE guerrilla operations of the Boers in the Transvaal continue to give much trouble to the British troops.
PERU's former minister of marine has sailed for Europe to purchase a war ship and war material.
SIX persons were killed at Lodi, Texas, on October 21, by a tornado which visited that place.
THE strike of anthracite coal miners is not yet ended.
ALCOHOL; ITS HISTORY, AND ITS EFFECTS UPON SOCIETY.
By W. H. Riley
By W. H. Riley, M.D., Superintendent of Colorado Sanitarium, Boulder, Colo.
[All rights reserved.]
Alcoholic Drinks.
FROM the chemical properties of alcohol, and its close relation to other powerful chemical agents, we would hardly suppose it could be used as a beverage without dilution. Only in rare instances, where the stomach has long been accustomed to strong liquors, can alcohol be drunk without mixture. We find, accordingly, that alcohol is chiefly consumed in other beverages, such as wine, beer, whisky, etc. As we have previously remarked, all intoxicating beverages contain alcohol as their characteristic principle, which is produced by a variety of methods.
Wine is obtained from the juice of grapes. This, when expressed, is sweet and wholesome, but changes greatly in this respect within a very short time. The expressed juice is exposed to the air for several days, during which time yeast cells and germs from the air drop into it, and fermentation is begun. The sugar is decomposed in a few days to alcohol and carbonic acid, and the liquid no longer has its sweet, pleasant taste. After the yeast settles, the liquid is drawn off. If some sugar has not been decomposed, a sweet wine is obtained. Red wine is the product of fermenting red grapes with their skins; but if the skins be removed, a white wine is the result. Various colors and flavors are obtained by storing the wine in casks made from different kinds of wood.
The amount of alcohol in wine varies. It is stated on good authority that fermented liquors can contain not more than 17 per cent., but the addition of distilled spirits to weaker beverages sometimes causes fermented liquors to contain far in excess of this proportion. From a table by Brande, the alcoholic strength of wines ranges from 8 per cent. in elderberry and Rhine wines to 25 per cent. in Madeira and raisin wines.
Other intoxicating drinks are made in a similar way from the juices of different fruits, as cider from the juice of the apple. Anything containing sugar may be fermented and alcohol produced therefrom. Most alcoholic drinks, however, are produced from substances containing starch, which can be converted into sugar, the cost of production being much less than if fruits are used.
Perhaps the cheapest and most extensively used of common intoxicants is beer. This is made in large quantities from grain, especially barley, at a comparatively small cost. These grains are composed largely of starch (68 per cent. in barley), which is changed to sugar, from which alcohol is procured by fermentation.
The process by which the starch is changed to sugar is very interesting. In this process, some of the most wonderful operations of nature are employed to minister to an end for which they were never made. To bring about this change, the grain is made to sprout. The grain is first steeped in water for a time, then drawn out and laid in heaps or beds to heat and sweat. A warm temperature is maintained, and the heat, combined with the moisture, awakens the life principle in the seed. This arousing of the vitalizing element causes a change in the albumen at the base of the sprout, and a peculiar substance is formed, called diastase. This diastase has the power, at ordinary temperatures, of changing starch into dextrin and sugar. The little stem begins to grow, and as it gets beyond the covering of the seed, it begins to use the sugar for its growth. At this stage of germination the growth is checked by heating the grain in dry air. The grain at this stage is called "malt." The malt is pulverized and mixed with water, in which the sugar is dissolved. Hops are added to this solution—the "wort"—to clarify it and make it keep. After boiling, this is allowed to ferment, and the product is beer, containing from 2 to 5 per cent. of alcohol.
Ale and porter are made in much the same way as beer, but are fermented more rapidly. The malt used in making porter is browned, giving the liquor a darker color. They contain from 5 to 9 per cent. of alcohol.
For brandy, wine is distilled, and the distillate stored in casks which give it a variety of colors and flavors. It contains on an average about 50 per cent. of alcohol. Whisky is distilled from grain ferments. Fusel-oil and other products are contained in it. This contains from 50 to 60 per cent. of alcohol. Rum contains as high as 77 per cent.
In the use of these drinks it is evident that considerable alcohol is consumed. Vast quantities of the beverages are drunk every day in every nation; and in them, giving them the effects for which they are drunk, is alcohol, with its weight of influence on human woe. What the effects of this substance are, when thus used, will appear further on.
[The next article in the series is entitled "Consumption of Alcohol."]
MOODY'S PRODIGAL BROTHER.
Mr. Moody related the following personal experience in a sermon on the prodigal son:—
"My father died when we were little children, and my good mother had a hard time with her large family of boys and girls. After a while one of the older boys took it into his head that he could make his fortune all alone by himself, and so he ran away.
"For years and years we heard nothing of him. Sometimes it seemed as if my mother's heart would break. 'O, if I could only know he was dead,' she would sometimes say, 'it would be better than this! Maybe he is sick and in need, or maybe he has fallen in with wicked men, who will make him as bad as themselves.
"We used to sit around the fire on the stormy winter nights and listen to the stories that mother used to tell us about our father, about what he said, how he looked, how he was kind to a friend, and lost a great deal of money by him, and so our little home was mortgaged, and we were poor; but if anybody had happened to speak the name of that lost boy, a great silence would fall upon us, the tears would come into my mother's eyes, and then we would all steal away softly to bed, whispering our good-nights, because we felt that the mention of that name was like a sword thrust to the heart of our mother.
"After we got to bed we would lie awake and listen to the roaring of the wind among the mountains, thinking perhaps he was out in the cold somewhere. Maybe he had gone to sea, and while we were snug in bed he might be keeping watch on the wave-beaten deck, perhaps climbing the mast in just such darkness and storm. Now and then, between the gusts, a sound would be heard like the wail of the summer wind when it used to make harpstrings of the leaves and branches of the great maple trees in the dooryard, now soft and gentle, then rising louder and louder. How we would hold our breath and listen! Mother was sitting up to pray for her lost boy. Next morning, perhaps, she would send one of us down to the post-office to ask for a letter—a letter from him, tho she never said so. But no letter ever came.
"Long years afterward, when our mother was growing old, and her hair was turning gray, one summer afternoon a dark, sunburned man, with a heavy black beard, was seen coming in at the gate.
"He came up under the window first, and looked in, as if he were afraid there might be strangers living in the house. He had stopped at the churchyard, on his way through the village, to see whether there were two graves instead of one where our father had been laid so many years ago, but there was only one grave there; surely his mother was not dead. But still she might have moved away. Then he went around and knocked at the door, and his mother came to open it.
"Years of hardship and exposure to sun and storm had made him strange even to his mother. She invited him to come in, but he did not move or speak; he stood there humbly and penitently; and, as a sense of his ingratitude began to overwhelm him, the big tears found their way over his weather-beaten cheeks. By those tears the mother recognized her long-lost son. He had come at last. There was so much of the old home in him that he couldn't always stay away. But he would not cross its threshold until he confessed his sin against it, and heard from the same lips which had prayed so often and so long for him the sweet assurance11that he was forgiven. 'No, no,' said he, 'I can not come in until you forgive me.'
"Do you suppose that mother kept her boy out there in the porch until he had gone through with a long list of apologies, done a long list of penances, and said ever so many prayers? Not a bit of it. She took him to her heart at once; she made him come right in; she forgave him all, and rejoiced over his coming more than over all the other children that had not run away.
"And that is just the way God forgives all the prodigal souls who come back to Him. O wanderer, come home! come home!"—Christian's Guide.
LITTLE AND MUCH.
It matters little where I was born,
Or if my parents were rich or poor;
Whether they shrank at the cold world's scorn,
Or walked in the pride of wealth secure;
But whether I live an honest man,
And hold my integrity firm in my clutch,
I tell you, brother, plain as I am,
It matters much.
It matters little how long I stay
In a world of sorrow, sin, and care;
Whether in youth I am called away,
Or live till my bones and head are bare;
But whether I do the best I can
To soften the weight of adversity's touch
On the faded cheek of my fellow-man,
It matters much.
It matters little where be my grave,
Whether on land or in the sea,
By purling brook or 'neath stormy wave,
It matters little or naught to me;
But whether the angel of God comes down
And marks my brow, with his loving touch,
As one that shall wear the victor's crown,
It matters much.
—From the Swedish.
Knowledge and Godliness
By G. W. Dungan
The more we know the more useful we become, if this knowledge is God directed. Therefore, while we affirm that ignorance is anything but helpful to the Christian, we also desire to say that the highest culture without godliness is complete ignorance, as compared with spiritual culture.—Rev. G. W. Dungan.
A DAUGHTER WORTH HAVING.
By New York Evangelist
TWO gentlemen friends, who had been parted for years, met in a crowded city street. The one who lived in the city was on his way to meet a pressing business engagement. After a few expressions of delight, he said:—
"Well, I'm off. I'm sorry, but it can't be helped. I will look for you to-morrow at dinner. Remember, two o'clock sharp. I want you to see my wife and child."
"Only one child?" asked the other.
"Only one," came the answer tenderly, "a daughter. But she is a darling."
And then they parted, the stranger getting into a street-car for the park. After a block or two a group of five girls entered the car. They all evidently belonged to families of wealth. They conversed well. Each carried a very elaborately decorated lunch basket. Each was well dressed. They, too, were going to the park for a picnic. They seemed happy and amiable until the car again stopped, this time letting in a pale-faced girl of about eleven, and a sick boy of four. These children were shabbily dressed, and on their faces were looks of distress. They, too, were on the way to the park. The gentlemen thought so; so did the group of girls; for he heard one of them say, with a look of disdain:—
"I suppose those ragamuffins are on an excursion, too."
"I shouldn't want to leave home if I had to look like that, would you?"
"No, indeed; but there is no accounting for taste. I think there ought to be special lines of cars for the lower classes."
All this was spoken in a low tone, but the gentleman heard it. Had the child, too? He glanced at the pale face and saw tears. He was angry. Just then the exclamation, "Why, there is Nettie; wonder where she is going!" caused him to look out upon the corner, where a sweet-faced young girl stood beckoning to the car driver. When she entered the car, she was warmly greeted by the five; they made room for her beside them. They were profuse in exclamations and questions.
"Where are you going?" asked one.
"O, what lovely flowers! Whom are they for?" asked another.
"I'm on my way to Belle Clarke's. She is sick, you know, and the flowers are for her."
She answered both questions at once, and then glanced toward the door of the car, and saw the pale girl looking wistfully at her. She smiled at the child, a tender look beaming from her beautiful eyes, and then, forgetting that she wore a handsome velvet skirt and costly jacket, and that her shapely hands were covered with well-fitted gloves, she left her seat and crossed to the little one. She laid her hand on the boy's thin cheeks as she asked his sister:—
"This little boy is sick, is he not? He is your brother, I am sure."
It seemed hard for the girl to answer, but finally she said:—
"Yes, miss, he is sick. Freddie never has been well. Yes, miss, he is my brother. We're going to the park to see if it won't make Freddie better."
"I am glad you are going," the young girl replied in a low voice, meant for no one's ears except those of the child. "I think it will do him good; it's lovely there, with the flowers all in bloom. But where is your lunch? You ought to have some lunch after so long a ride."
Over the little girl's face came a flush.
"Yes, miss, we ought to, for Freddie's sake; but, you see, we didn't have any lunch to bring. Tim—he's our brother—he saved these pennies so as Freddie could ride to the park and back. I guess mebbe Freddie'll forget about being hungry when he gets to the park."
There were tears in the lovely girl's eyes as she listened, and very soon she asked the girl where she lived, and wrote the address down in a tablet, which she took from a bag on her arm.
After riding a few blocks she left the car, but she had not left the little ones comfortless. Half the bouquets of violets and hyacinths were clasped in the sister's hand, while the sick boy, with radiant face, held in his hand a package, from which he helped himself now and then, saying to his sister in a jubilant whisper:—
"She said we could eat 'em all, every one, when we got to the park. What made her so good and sweet to us?"
And the little girl whispered back:—
"It's 'cause she's beautiful as well as her clothes."
When the park was reached the five girls hurried out. Then the gentleman lifted the little boy in his arms and carried him out of the car across the road into the park, the sister, with a heart full of gratitude, following. He paid for a nice ride for them in the goat carriage, and treated them to oyster soup at the park restaurant.
At two o'clock sharp the next day, the two gentlemen, as agreed, met again.
"This is my wife," the host said, proudly introducing the comely lady. "and this," as a young lady of fifteen entered the parlor, "is my daughter."
"Ah!" said the guest, as he extended his hand in cordial greeting, "this is the dear girl whom I saw yesterday in the street-car. I don't wonder you call her a darling. She is a darling, no mistake. God bless her."
And then he told his friends what he had seen and heard in the horse-car.
