p. 10 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 49. (12/10/1896)

Sowing the Seeds of Revolution

By Prof. Charles Morris

CHAPTERS IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. NO. 8.

Sowing the Seeds of Revolution.

Loyalty of the Colonies—Repression of Their Industries—Prevalence of Smuggling—Attempts to Stop It—Plans to Tax the Colonies—The Stamp Tax—Resistance of the Americans—Its Repeal—The Tax on Tea—Troops Sent to Boston—The "Boston Massacre"—The "Boston Tea Party"—Boston Punished—Sentiment of Rebellion—Preparation for War—The Verge of Revolution.

IN 1763 the war between the French and English colonies in America ended, leaving the English lords of the continent and the colonists loyal subjects of Great Britain. In 1775, twelve years afterwards, this loyalty had disappeared, the colonies were in open rebellion, and the first shots in the war for independence had been heard. What had caused so great a change? How had these hosts of loyal subjects been converted so quickly into rebels? This is one of the most important problems in American history, and the one with which we are now concerned.

Tho the colonists had been loyal, they had not been satisfied. England had dealt with her sons beyond the seas in the medieval method of dealing with colonies. It was held to be the first duty of colonists to feed the mother country, their second to feed themselves. They were children, and must show the obedience of the child. Politically they had much freedom, but industrially they were held in close subjection. It was their mission to till the ground, to cut timber from their forests, to lift ore from their mines, and send all material not needed at home to British ports. To deal with any other nation was a crime. On the other hand, they must buy the products of British forges and factories, and not venture to make anything beyond the simplest necessaries for themselves. Such was the theory of colonial duty held in Great Britain. It worked fairly well while the colonies were infants. It failed to fit the case when they became lusty youths.

As the Americans grew strong in number, they found themselves encumbered by a suit of medieval garments much too small for their swelling limbs. It was felt to be oppressive that they could not convert their own raw material into useful goods, and that they could not send their ships to what ports they pleased. In truth, they were not held by laws made for them in England. The shipping interests of New England grew large, and these colonies openly violated the regulations made for them beyond the seas. Smuggling became common. Colonial ships made their way to European ports, and an active trade sprang up with the Spanish and French West Indies. The lumber and fish of New England were conveyed to these islands, and sugar, rum, molasses, and other products were brought back, in daring disregard of the edicts of Parliament and the Crown.

Such was the state of affairs in 1760, in which year George II. died, and George III. came to the throne. Smuggling was then openly practiced, and little effort was made to stop it. But with the new king came a new policy. This monarch decided to make the colonies bend to his will. As a result, in twenty years of rule he succeeded in losing the fairest jewel in the English crown, the great American domain.

In 1761 the trouble began. The decree went out that smuggling must be stopped. Ships of war were sent to American waters to watch for vessels engaged in this illicit trade. The custom-house officers of American ports were instructed to take severe measures in the performance of their duty. To aid them a stringent excise law was passed. They were given the power to issue "writs of assistance," under which they had the right to enter any house they chose, and ransack it from garret to cellar in search of smuggled goods. These writs differed materially from a regular search warrant, issued by a magistrate on information lodged before him, and limited to well-defined purposes. They were blanks which the custom-house officer might fill in with any name he pleased, and with which he was free to gratify private malice as well as to perform public service.

Under such a law no liberty could exist. The theory that "every man's house is his castle" was set aside. The edict was looked upon as an act of tyranny, and as such its execution was resisted and defied. Disputes and hot feeling became common. Warehouses and dwellings were entered by force, and goods were seized which the officers claimed to be smuggled. The "writs of assistance" failed to bring smuggling to an end, but they served as the first wedge in the work of separating the colonies from the motherland.

But this measure produced its effect only in the ports of the country, and particularly in Boston, where smuggling was most active. To produce a general feeling of disloyalty, a measure that affected all the people was needed. It soon came. The war with the French which had just closed, was an expensive one. It had added considerably to the public debt of Great Britain, and there arose a feeling that the colonies ought to pay the expense of their defense. The individual action of the colonies was felt to be a poor dependence in times of need. Some kind of general government was required. Taxes must be raised, soldiers enlisted, and other necessary steps taken. But the colonies resisted union. Franklin's plan of confederacy, offered at the Albany Convention, had been rejected. Each colony had a jealous fear of giving up any of its privileges, and yielding to any central authority. In this emergency the British Government undertook to supply the want. It was decided to furnish the colonies with a small army of British regulars, not less than 10,000 men, for their defense. But Parliament held it to be only proper that the colonies should pay for the support of this army, and it was decided to raise the money for this purpose by a tax on the people.

This was very well in its way. Had the colonies been asked to tax themselves for their own defense little or no objection would have been made. But the British Government decided that the right of taxing its distant subjects lay in its own hands, and to this very serious objection was made. The colonists had governed themselves too long to be thus dealt with. They were not represented in the British Parliament. For centuries the subjects of Great Britain had refused to be taxed except by their own representatives. The colonists claimed the same right. On this the whole edifice of British liberty rested, and, as free-born Britons, they sternly refused to be robbed of their birthright. If Parliament could tax America for colonial aid, it could do so for colonial oppression. If soldiers could be sent for defense, they could be sent for the purposes of tyranny. The very wind of what was afoot sent a strong wave of adverse feeling throughout the colonies. Parliament was well aware that the measure would be opposed. But the king and his ministers had decided that the colonists must be taxed, and the bill was carried through. Benjamin Franklin, who was in London at the time sought earnestly to stop it, but, as he said, he might as well have tried to stop the sun from setting.

To save trouble, it was decided that the simplest and easiest way of raising the money required would be by a stamp tax. Stamps of various cost, ranging in value from a halfpenny to ten pounds, were to be placed on all legal documents, commercial papers, etc. In this way it was felt that paying of the money would hardly be felt by the people at large, and the government would quietly gain its end. The advocates of this neat plan did not know what a hornet's nest they were meddling with. The news of the passage of the bill sent a flame of excitement from New Hampshire to Georgia. The cry of "No taxation without representation" arose in all directions. Spoken by such leaders as Samuel Adams and James Otis, it was taken up by the people and became the slogan of all liberty-loving colonies. Delegates from nine of the colonies met in New York to protest against a tax not of their own making, and sent a remonstrance to England denying the right of Parliament to tax Americans. The same denial was made by Patrick Henry, an eminent Virginian, in ringing tones. He asserted in the plainest language that George III. was playing the tyrant, and warned him not to go too far.

"Cæsar had his Brutus," he thundered to the frightened legislators of Virginia; "Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third"—

"Treason, treason," cried some king-fearing members.

"May profit by their example," continued the daring orator. "If this be treason, make the most of it."

"This law will be resisted to blood and to death," said John Aske, speaker of the Assembly of North Carolina.

The feeling thus strongly expressed was everywhere entertained, and displayed itself in many places by acts instead of words. Associations, calling themselves "Sons of Liberty," were formed, their purpose being to resist the law. Prominent British officials were hung in effigy, and in some places their houses were rifled or pulled down. Violent mobs forced the stamp officers to resign. When the stamps arrived, all that the people could lay their hands on were destroyed. The first of November, 1765, the day on which the law was to go into effect, was kept as a day of mourning, the bells being tolled, the flags hung at half-mast, and all business suspended. The law was from the start a dead letter. Not a stamp was used. No one dared offer for sale a piece of stamped paper. Lawyers agreed to accept unstamped documents as legal. Newspaper editors printed on their sheets a skull and cross-bones in place of the hated stamps. The excitement went further than this, and seriously affected all British trade. Merchants pledged themselves to import no English goods until the stamp act was repealed. The people ceased to wear black at funerals, since all black goods came from England. Homespun began generally to replace imported cloth. The colonists even resolved to eat no more mutton, that they might raise more wool for weaving.

Here was a storm on which the lawmakers of England had not counted. Loyalty in America was verging toward rebellion. In 1766, as no one would buy the stamps, the law was repealed by Parliament, after a long and stormy debate. But the principle on which it had been based was retained. The right of British Government to tax America when and how it chose was still asserted, and in the next year a new scheme of taxation was devised. A law was passed to levy duty on tea, glass, paper, and some other articles entering American ports. The money raised was to be used to keep up a small army in America, to pay British officials who had before been paid by the assemblies, and for some other purposes.

(Concluded next week.)

Sunday Morning Sabbath Singing

The laziest man, the man who never did a stroke of work, who is quietly and uncomplainingly supported by his wife, is always the man who sits on the piazza of a Sunday morning and sings in vociferous tones, "Welcome, sweet day of rest."—The Examiner.

Circulation

By E. H. Matthewson, M. D.

STEPS TO HEALTH. NO. 4.

BY E. H. MATTHEWSON, M. D.

Circulation.

THE circulation is carried on by the heart, assisted by muscles in the arteries, as well as by exercise of the larger muscles. Some one has said that, "winter or summer, we should perform sufficient bodily labor to cause free perspiration," and it is certainly an excellent rule to follow. Exercise increases the force of the blood flow, thus forcing along the pent-up impurities which should be removed by the excretory organs. And, besides, it not only removes these poisons, but forces into the parts exercised a new supply of oxygen and food which has been received into the blood from the lungs and digestive organs. If the exercise is in some useful direction, that brings the mind into exercise, an enjoyment follows which can be had in no other way. The poor man who is willing and able to work, will, under the same circumstances, recover health quicker than one who does not feel his need, or lacks the desire. The best exercise should require the use of the mind, and be of an interesting nature. As the muscles work, the call for more oxygen stimulates the lungs to greater activity, and produces the result already indicated. It is a wise provision that man should earn his bread by "the sweat of his face." If we cease to work for a few days, the muscles become weak, and will contain less blood, while the blood that remains flows but slowly. But little fresh blood comes to the muscles in an idle state, and this is weak for the same reason that we are weak without food. Any part of our body not exercised becomes not only feeble, but to that degree diseased. If from poor food or insufficient exercise, a man suffers from rheumatism, it means an accumulation in the system of a certain poison; and this is the case in all parts of the body not used or in which the circulation is not free. Every contraction of the muscles generates a poison. It requires, first, oxygen to enable the muscle to contract and also to burn up or dissolve this poison, that it may be carried away by the blood as lymph.

When the muscles contract, they assist the heart in forcing the blood along the veins and arteries, which either flow through them or between them and the bones. The veins are supplied with valves, which prevent the blood from returning after having been forced past them by the muscles. By vigorous exercise the blood is carried through the brain in good volume; all its parts of the same are well supplied, and we feel a clearness of mind that is impossible to one who takes but little exercise.

Certain exercises, as splitting wood, bring into play the abdominal muscles, which, by contracting vigorously, cause a massage of the bowels, stimulating digestion and tending to relieve constipation. Deep breathing may also have the same effect, as the diaphragm is forcibly pressed against the stomach and intestines.

We thus see that exercise increases the blood flow, and sends the oxygen and food to all parts, and at the same time it brings back the poisons which should be thrown out of the body by the lungs, kidneys, bowels and skin. As the exercise is increased, all these organs are stimulated and set to work at once to get rid of the poison.

Those who have not been used to exercise and now commence, may have an experience similar to the farmer’s horse, brought out in the spring after a winter’s rest. They will have profuse perspiration, which at first is thick and soapy from the accumulated discharge when idle, but which in a short time becomes thin and loses its strong odor, altho it requires some time before the secretion is poured out as fast as it is formed. One-third of the moisture of the body should be thrown out through the skin, some of which passes into the clothing as vapor, or collects upon us so gradually that it is scarcely noticed. But by continued healthful exercise the pores and glands become cleansed thoroughly, and the circulation and health thereby improved.

AN ARTFUL MOTHER.

WE notice a wild movement amongst the sedge in front. Something is beating its way before us. It is not a dozen yards off now, and the bulrushes and long reeds are violently agitated as it moves along. It can not be a dog, it is not an otter, and no fish would cause such a disturbance. Nor is there any bird which would exactly suggest such a movement. We press forward, and the distance is lessened; it travels slowly. Now we catch sight of something brown moving. Another stride, and the cause of the agitation is revealed. It is a wild duck—a mother bird—pressing her way through the sedge; not alone, however, but closely followed by eight or nine recently hatched little ones, the latter so closely packed together as they swim that they seem to move through the water like a solid bank of dark brown fur. We are seen.

Now you witness one of the most curious sights in nature. The mother at once abandons the efforts she has been so far making to glide away with her charges without being seen. She jumps clean out of the water—

not, however, to fly away, for, alas! she falls back again heavily and apparently helplessly a yard away, painfully flapping a broken wing. You are conscious that her brood scattered chirping in all directions as she rose from the water, but your eye is back again in an instant, and lo! there is not one to be seen, and the chirping has ceased almost as soon as it began. There is, no longer, you notice, the least telltale tremor in the sedge to show where they have gone. The old bird continues her antics with the broken wing. You have seen the sportsman's victim acted in real life, and you know that even a professional medium could not more thoroughly abandon herself to her part. You may watch her at leisure, for she does not in her sad plight seem able to get under cover quickly. Her callow offspring you will see no more.

As we continue to move through the sedge you notice that the unusual exertion is having a wonderfully curative effect on the broken wing of the mother. She is already taking short flights with it, altho still occasionally flopping back heavily into the water. As you look she sits up and flaps both wings airily enough. Now she springs into the air, and, wheeling several times nimbly overhead, actually takes her departure altogether, with a series of wild quacks as a parting salute. We feel somehow as if we had not got the best of the encounter, and that we have been treated throughout as a creature of inferior intelligence.—Pall Mall Gazette.

CURRENT RELIGIOUS TEACHING.

By Editor

HERE is a brief pen picture, drawn by that able Congregational preacher, Dr. R. S. Storrs, of Brooklyn, N. Y.:—

“Those days of plainer living and higher thinking are not as familiar to us now. The church feels the change as well as the world. ‘Culture’ is now the prevailing word, rather than the greater word ‘regeneration.’ Services tend to become more complex and more ornamental. Preaching is more ethical, literary, pictorial, or sometimes sensational. Institutional churches are more frequent, with their multiplying appliances for pleasant entertainment; and social questions occupy more largely the intent attention of pastors and people than do the deep things of spiritual experience. Enthusiasm for the distinctive truths of what is still recognized as the Divine Religion is less wide, energetic, inspiring, than it was. The conduct of Christ is more dwelt upon than his cross; and missions, both at home and abroad, are often honored and sustained rather for the secular benefits which they promise than with the single subordinating aim in which they started—‘to seek and to save that which was lost.’”

And says the Advance, in commenting upon it: “This picture will be vividly acknowledged as accurate, by both those who regard the change as an improvement, and by those who, like Dr. Storrs, deplore it.” But is it an improvement? Take the power of regeneration out of Christianity and there is nothing left but a moral system, empty and powerless as men. It is time to preach the Gospel of Christ. See Rev. 14: 6, 7.

Congress of Religions.—November 18 the Congress of Religions held a meeting at Indianapolis, Ind. The object is to work for greater union among all religious bodies. At the close of the meeting the Rev. Lloyd Jones remarked (we quote from the Denver Republican of the 19th ult.):—

“This afternoon witnessed a finer demonstration than the expression of the synthesis that we believe it. It has been an object lesson showing that we have wrought better than we have spoken. Here on this platform expression has been made by Buddhists, Brahmans, Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians, Universalists, Presbyterians, Jews and by representatives of the great unclassed. It is showing that every year there is more of a sympathy being expressed among those of different religious beliefs, and the fraternity of sects is growing closer.”

But this is not Christianity. Christ has no concord with Belial, nor has the temple of God with idols. Those who are looking for such a union as the above either do not understand Christianity or do not believe it. It has all the good of all religions with none of the evil. It is not a theory to be harmonized, but a life to be lived. And yet the above is an indication of a decidedly popular drift.

Why.—The reason why the proposed amendment for woman suffrage was defeated in California, the Pacific Ensign (organ of the W. C. T. U.) tells us, was that the liquor men defeated it by trading with the Republican Party. The Ensign says:—

“The liquor men claimed to have 65,000 votes at their control. With the blandishment of the serpent that tempted Eve, they went to the leaders of the Republican Party, and with this proposition, ‘We will carry the state for McKinley if you will use your influence against Amendment No. 6.’ McKinley and the Sixth Amendment were weighed in the balance; and the result was the women were sacrificed to the saloon.”

More still, it is said that the Catholics worked with the liquor men. And this is politics. If the women desire this sort of thing, it is about the sort of thing they will get.

FACTS FOR THE TIMES.—Containing historical extract, tracts, candid admissions from authors, ancient and modern. A Book for the Times. Revised 1893. A compilation of facts that are astounding, by students of biblical and historical research. 340 pages, wine-colored cloth binding. Price, 75 cts., postpaid. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, California.

Sons and Daughters

"That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace."

A WORD ABOUT WORDS.

Ah me! these terrible tongues of ours, Are we half aware of their mighty powers? Do we ever trouble our heads at all Where the jest may strike, or the hint may fall? The latest chirp of that “little bird,” The spicy story “you must have heard”— We jerk them away in our gossip rash, And somebody’s glass, of course, goes smash. What fames have been blasted and broken, What pestilent sinks been stirred, By a word in lightness spoken, By only an idle word!

A sneer, a shrug, a whisper low— They are poisoned shafts from an ambush bowl! Shot by the coward, the fool, the knave, They pierce the mail of the great and brave; Vain is the buckler of wisdom and pride To turn the pitiless point aside; The lip may curl with careless smile, But the heart drips blood—drips blood the while. Ah me! what hearts have been broken, What rivers of blood been stirred, By a word in malice spoken, By only a bitter word!

A kindly word and a tender tone— To only God is their virtue known. They can lift from the dust the abject head, They can turn a foe to a friend instead; The heart close-barred with passion and pride Will fling at their knock its portals wide, And the hate that blights and the scorn that sears Will melt in the fountain of childlike tears. What ice-bound griefs have been broken, What rivers of love been stirred, By a word in kindness spoken, By only a gentle word!

—Selected.

YOUR CHILD'S ASSOCIATES.

By Eliza Renan

BY ELIZA RENAN.

THERE is nothing more foreign to the maternal nature than the distrust of one's own child; so when enlightenment comes, it descends as an arrow from an unerring bow which hurls its dart straight at the unsuspecting victim.

When Earl is so very careful in language and deportment in mother's presence, it is natural that she regard him as a model. When Grace speaks so mildly and behaves so decorously, can mother find it in her heart to distrust her? To the loving mother, her child is exactly as it appears. And so long as it loves its home, and wants to bring its friends to that home, no mother need feel uneasy regarding the moral condition of her child. If she is discerning and wise, she will do all in her power to foster that love of home, and she will encourage her child to bring its playmates to its home; she will, without appearing to do so, scrutinize those playmates most carefully, and those whom she considers unfit companions for her child she will certainly not encourage to repeat their visits. If she thinks proper she may tell her son why Jim is no fit playfellow for him, or she may tell her daughter why Belle is not the right girl for her to play with. . . .

That mother may well grow distrustful whose children love the street better than the home, and whose children never bring their associates to their homes so that she may become acquainted with them.

I remember a sad case of a mother who realized when it was too late that a parent cannot too strictly guard the child. When her children were properly fed and clothed, her duty she thought ended. Good and true herself, she never thought to look for deceit in her children. She never troubled herself as to whom her sons and daughter associated with. Had those associates come from homes like hers she need have had no fear, but their homes were not like hers, and their influences for evil over her children were as is usually the case, stronger than hers for good. The awakening came to her when she learned that a marriage ceremony was necessary to save, as much as it could be saved, her daughter's reputation. Weeping and wailing were of no avail then, but a little motherly interest exerted years before might have averted the trouble.

The other day a boy of seventeen, together with several other men, was arrested and lodged in jail for gambling and drinking. The mother of the boy was loud in her denunciation of the officer who caused the arrest of her son. She declared that it was preposterous to think of her boy drinking, and that he knew absolutely nothing about cards. It was not preposterous to other people, who were not so blinded to the boy's habits as was his mother, who was in complete ignorance of the characters with whom her son associated and of the resorts where he passed his evenings.

Two of my friends, both noble women, live next door to each other; they have each one child, a son. One of the young men is a gentleman in everything that makes a true man; the other is a perfect rake, familiar with nearly every sin in the catalogue, yet he was one of the noblest little boys I have ever known. One allowed her son to associate only with those boys she knew to be honorable; the other allowed her son the privilege of choosing his own associates. She believed he chose only the best. Alas, for misplaced confidence!

This subject of associates for our children is one that should concern every mother. Sooner or later it confronts us in a realistic manner, because it will become a reality in our own homes and our children will be the ones to receive either censure or praise, and the mother will be the one on whom the sorrow or gladness will descend as the outcome of her child's associations.—Housekeeper.

PROBLEMS OF CITY LIFE.

By Christian Work

Facts and Figures Gathered by the Federation of Churches.

THE Federation of Churches and Christian Workers in New York City has published a pamphlet giving the results of a sociological canvass made by it in the Fifteenth Assembly District, one of the most densely populated and churchless regions in the metropolis. These results are given in the form of carefully drawn charts and elaborate tables of statistics accompanied with many practical suggestions and recommendations for carrying into effect the lessons to be drawn from the mass of facts and figures thus presented relative to the social and religious needs of the city. From this pamphlet the following facts of special interest from a sociological point of view have been collated:—

Yonkers is to-day ahead of New York City in its public baths.

Tokyo is cleaner in its bathing customs than New York.

The percentage of people owning their own homes in New York City is smaller than in any other city of the New World.

There are at least seven individual blocks in New York City containing over three thousand people each. Each of these has a population equivalent to the entire population of Tarrytown.

The percentage of children at work during school hours throughout the city of New York is a little above 5; in the Fifteenth Assembly District, a little above 6; and in each age subdivision, the number of girls at work is larger than the number of boys.

Of 3,453 families whose thrift was estimated by the canvassers of the Federation, only 1,039 were reported as conspicuously thrifty.

Of 33,891 people in the blocks canvassed by the Federation, 10,657 were wage earners; and of these 2,017, or 18.9 per cent., were employed on Sunday. The percentage of wage earners to population was 31.4 per cent., and, of these wage earners, 18.9 per cent. were working seven days a week.

The canvass of the Federation shows that there are only 1,037 bath tubs for 8,176 families, or 1 bath tub to 7.9 families, in the Fifteenth Assembly District.

Counting the side entrance, corner lot frontage also, the saloons and liquor stores occupy 5,173 feet on the sidewalks of the Fifteenth Assembly District—almost a mile. Their street area is equivalent to the four sides of more than two and a half blocks; while the churches, clubs, and public schools combined, would not cover one long side of a single block.

The number of families in a dwelling is more than three times as great in New York as in Philadelphia, and is 83.6 per cent. greater than in Brooklyn, the city in the United States which most nearly approaches New York in the number of families per dwelling.

The Greater New York, estimating its population at three million people, will start with a larger density per acre than Greater London had in 1896. The acreage upon which the three million people of Greater New York will be housed, is not half as large as that of Greater London.

One million, seven hundred and forty-two thousand, nine hundred and eighty-five people live on Manhattan Island. This population is housed on 13,487.2 acres, an area less than some farms in the west. The density per acre of the population of the city south of the Harlem is yet the greatest of all cities in the world. It is 129.2 per acre.

New York is seventh among the cities of the United States in the percentage of its population who are foreign born. Six hundred and thirty-nine thousand, nine hundred and forty-three of the population of New York, or 42.23 per cent., in 1890, were foreign born. The white persons of foreign parentage in New York City, in 1890, exceeded the entire population of the city of Chicago, or the State of California. They were 1,215,463. The number having both parents foreign born was 1,101,543.—Christian Work.

ALL IS WELL.

THERE'S a hand on the rudder that will not flinch, There's no fear in the Pilot's face As he guides the worlds like boats in a storm, Through the rocking seas of space; And whether they make the harbor at last Beyond the shoals and the swell, Or sail forever a shoreless sea, I know that all is well.

—Selected.

HOW COLUMBUS REACHED LAND.

A Flight of Birds Changed the History of America.

WHEN Columbus sailed westward over the unknown Atlantic, he expected to reach Zipangu (Japan). After several days' sail from Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, he became uneasy at not discovering Zipangu, which, according to his reckoning, should have been 216 nautical miles more to the east. After a long discussion he yielded to the opinion of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the commander of the Pinta, and steered to the southwest. Pinzon was guided in his opinion by a flight of parrots toward the southwest. The effect of this change in his course curiously exemplifies the influence of small and apparently trivial events in the world's history. If Columbus, resisting the counsel of Pinzon, had kept his original route, he would have entered the warm current of the Gulf Stream, have reached Florida, and then probably have been carried to Cape Hatteras and Virginia. The result would probably have been to give the present United States a Roman Catholic Spanish population instead of a Protestant English one, a circumstance of immeasurable importance. "Never," wrote Humboldt, "had the flight of birds more important consequences. It may be said to have determined the first settlements on the new continent and its distribution between the Latin and Germanic races."—Selected.

"SOME people talk so fast they haven't time to think."

Those Who Teach Shall Shine

"AND those who have wisely taught shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and those who have turned many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever." Dan. 12:3, Boothroyd.

FEAR NOT; FOR I AM WITH THEE.

By Mrs. Caroline R. Allen

BY MRS. CAROLINE R. ALLEN, HARPOOT, TURKEY.

[Composed a few weeks after the destruction and massacre at Harpooot (January, 1896), and while suffering from severe and protracted illness.]

O, THE blessedness of dwelling Far away from earth's alarms! O, the sweetness of abiding Underneath God's shelt'ring arms! Deadly foes their darts are hurling, But my heart shall never fear, For I am on him relying Who my faintest call will hear. Fierce the storms around are raging; Hastening on the shades of night; In his covert safely hiding, Rest my soul shall find, and light. Earthly treasures all are fading; Never let me for them pine While his wonderful uplifting Fills this emptied soul of mine. Then farewell to joys so fleeting, To the pleasant home laid low; Since our God, his grace revealing, Makes me all his fulness know. Many mansions are awaiting In my Father's house above; Thitherward my feet are tending, There to dwell in heavenly love.

—Missionary Herald.

POWER OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

SIR BARTLE FRERE has recently written for an English periodical an article in which he says: "I speak simply as to matters of observation, and not of opinion, and assure you that the teaching of Christianity among one

hundred million of civilized and industrious Hindus and Mohammedans is effecting changes—moral, social, and political—which for extent and rapidity of effects are far more extraordinary than anything you or your fathers have witnessed in modern Europe. Presented for the first time to most of the teeming Indian communities within the memory of men yet alive—preached only by a few score of Europeans, who had little of worldly power or sagacity, and none of the worldly motives which usually carry men onward to success—Christianity has nevertheless in the course of fifty years made its way to every part of the vast mass of Indian civilized humanity, and is now an active, operative, aggressive power in every branch of social and political life on that continent."

THE MAHDI, OF THE SOUDAN.

DR. T. P. HUGHES, writing in the Independent of the Mahdis of Islam, says: "The original Mahdi of the Soudan was Mohammed Ahmad, who was born at Dongola in 1843, and died June 22, 1885, appointing Khalifa Abdullah as his successor. This Khalifa Abdullah is the present Mahdi, against whom the armies of England and Egypt are directed. He claims descent from Fatima, the prophet's daughter, by Ali. At the present time he must be about fifty years of age. Slatin Pasha describes him as a man of rash and quick temper and of tyrannous and unscrupulous resolutions. His position as a lineal descendant of the prophet, engaged in the prosecution of a religious war with unbelievers, first for the overthrow of the Christian power, is undoubtedly a dangerous influence in the world. It is, therefore, not surprising that Great Britain, possessing, as it does, a large number of Mohammedans under her rule, should be determined to destroy the power of the Mahdi in the Soudan."

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