Decatur Democrat, Volume 36, Number 27, Decatur, Adams County, 23 September 1892 — Page 7

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CHAPTER Vll—Continued. “We will not dispute the point. I be- , Heve you love me in your way, not a Very unselfish or disinterested way. You found me there In S’conset. The place was dull and lonely to you. For i some unexplained reason you enjoyed my society. You thought,lt an excellent opportunity to try your arts of fascination on a girl who, so far as you knew, would place implicit trust in your honesty of purpose. Please let me finish. I am speaking truth, nothing more. The pastime amused you and gratified your vanity at the same time. You knew that she m'ght learn to like you. There was no reason why she might not give her heart and her future happiness in I your keeping. You realized this, Jet you staid on, still knowing you had no intention of marrying her. And when you had tired of the diversion, you insulted her with a declaration of love and no proposal of marriage. You allowed a sordid motive to cheat your heart of its noblest instincts. You Oh, I wonder I can say so much! There are times when I positively despise you, and others when—l believe lam losI Ing my self-respect. I wish you had I never gone to S’conset." She started from her chair and walked I to the opposite window. Her hands I trembled nervously, though her words I had not been uttered with passion, but I with a slow, deliberate emphasis that I gave them accusing force. I Brian had listened with bowed head. I Only once he had tried to interrupt-her, I then she had silenced him with a inoI tion. Even after she hal paused ho I did not speak for some seconds. I “You are hard upon me," he said, at I last. “I acted contemptibly, but won’t I you try to think there was some little I excuse? I don't know why I am such a I worthless fellow. Perhaps because no I one cares whether I ever amount to I anything or not. I have not been so I fortunate as you. You have been loved I and praised all your life. I have had I discouragement and condemnation on I all sides. Perhaps I deserved so much, I' but it disheartens a man to be forever I running him down." I Her face softened as she answered in I a gentler tone: “They are wrong to dis|j courage and condemn you. No one I knows their possibilities for good or I evil until they have been tried. There I are redeeming traits even in the worst, I and you are not one of the worst. Your I chance Is before you. I want to forget I all that has happened. For your sane, I and for nnne, I wish to feel " She I hesitated and her face grew crimson. I Not so much from his glance as from I the drift of her own thoughts. I “Why won’t you understand!” she I cried, in helpless embarrassment, after I a silence that was almost felt. * Why I can’t you comprehend that I want you I to have what belongs to you?” 1 “I don’t want it," answered Brian, ■ with dogged resistance. “The thought I of that money is always between us. ” I 'You don’t want it because you can't ■ have it without an incumbrance, I sup- ■ pose?” I “If the incumbrance means you, Mar- ■ garet, there is nothing I desire so much ■ as the incumbrance." I “Then take it, please, Brian. The in- ■ cumbrance finds you so slow of compre- ■ tension.” ■ Brian was slow no longer. Margaret’s ■ meaning flashed upon him, and with a ■ joyful face and glad cry he started to- ■ ward her. I But she stopped him rather precipiI tately with the words: I “Don’t be foolish, Brian, please. I ■ want you to understand that this is I merely a business arrangement. We ■ shan’t be very affectionate, but neither ■ need we quarrel. ” ■ “Then you wish simply to satisfy your ■ sense of obligation,” he said, rather rue- ■ fqlly. “You don’t care for me the least I bit, Margaret?” ■ “If caring for you moans giving you my ■ heart, I can only say I haven’t jt to give. ■ I think you need not complain. Mar- ■ rlage will not make a great difference in ■ our love. We shall always be good I friends, I hope. Are you satisfied?’’ ■ “I am happy to get you on any terms,” ■be responded. “For no other man can ■ ever claim you. And maybe some day ■ you will learn to love me, if only a ■ little." ■ “Don’t delude yourself with any such ■ idea. That is all, I believe. Please I leave me now.” I “How cold and indifferent you are,” Ihe said, turning to obey her request. ■“You make it very hard for me.” ■ Her eyes drooped beneath the inten- ■ city of his gaze, but she made no re- ■ mark, and the next second he had left ■ her to her own thoughts. ■ In a somewhat jubilant but rather peBculiar frame of mind he sought Miss ■ Hitton, and confided to her sympathetic ■ ear his late go d fortune. ■ Two hours later, as Margaret sat ■ alone in one corner of the veranda, ■ Brian stole up behind her chair, and ■ dropped in her lap a ring of old-fashioned ■ design and < xquisite workmanship. ■ “Here is something I prize very high- ■ iy,” he said. “It belonged to my mother. ■ [ should like to see it on your finger. ■ ■Pearls for the pearl of pearls!” B His sudden appearance and uncx- ■ footed action made her blush warmly. ■ “Put it on for me,” she replied, rather ■ jervously, and holding her hand toward Bkim. “I am not sure that I know the ■ proper finger.” ■ “A sad confession," he rejoined, ox- ■ perienclng a keen thrill of pleasure as Bile hand touched hers. “Why, it fits ■ Moely and makes quite a show. ” B “It is very beautiful, ” added Margaret, B jxamlning the magnificent pearls with Stlcal Interest. “How can I thank you ’it?" H She raised her eyes to his, but dropped ■ them immediately. Something in his ■glance sent the warm blood to her face. B'l tkink I must show it to Miss Hilton,” Behe said, starting up and leaving him ■without another word. ■ CHAPTEHIX. ■ A DOMESTIC ENCOUNTER. B The news of Margaret’s engagement ■traveled rapidly, for 8 was one of Bthose limited oommu iities in which one ■knows every one else, if not personally B»t least by sight or hearsay, and where ■a lively interest in the affairs of others Bseems to be the congenial occupation of Ba l&rge portion of the inhabitants. BT Opinions wore somewhat divided in ■the matter. The unprejudiced regarded Ba marriage between th? cousins as a ■happy solution of the unpleasant state ■of affairs, while the more interested, ■notably the mothers of sons whose ■matrimonial designs had thus been frus■trated, shook their heads rather doubt»uiiy, and prophesied all manner of dire

catastrophes, from what they considered a loveless union. They hoped it would turn out well; so they assured each other. Indeed, they were Inclined to pity Margaret, and, with admiring glances at Tim or John, they wondered what she had seen in Brian to like. Margaret well knew that she was an I object of unusual o&mment. “There were people in 8 ," to use her own words, “who would sit at h«r table and | break her bread and her character at the same time.” Yet, notwithstanding, ‘ the knowledge that she afforded gratlfl- | cation to their curiosity tilled her with a feeling akin to Indignation. “Notoriety is the fate of greatness," the Colonel told her, byway of consolation. “You and Brian are the most prominent figures In the neighborhood just now. Think of the distinction. But seriously, my dear, I’m glad you two have reached such a sensible settle- j ment. Expected it all the time. Not I quite so soon, though. You've made the quickest time on record.” The old gen- ! tieman's eyes twinkled at this evidence of his own humor. About this time he was deep in some cherished plans intended to affect the future of his son and niece. He gave no hint of his desires to either party concerned, for he could be politic on occasion, and he realized that this was a matter to be bandied with much caution. I “A fine pair, a fine pair," he would chuckle, when privacy permitted him to give such expression to his feelings. “Plenty of spirit in the girl, and that young scamp, confound him, he’ll bo something yet." The scamp In question had enjoyed all the advantages a young man in his position could expect or hope for. “I want you to make a good showing," his father had said to him, when he started out on his college career. “You must look to your future and take up Something practical. I prefer | though it is a scoundrelly profession. ! Still, as good as most, I dare say. If you do start in it, stick to it. And for heaven’s sake don’t come out a firstclass idiot, fit only for a show piece. And don’t break your neck, or get In debtp” Bertie had managed to go through college without falling a victim to tk<& latter evils. He had followed his father’s counsel as to adopting law, though he had not yet passed the bax. Under pretext of reading for this end, he spent much of his time in New York, from which point he paid frequent visits to The Cedars. Sitting in his office one day, and, poring over a law dictionary, he was rather surprised to receive from his father a letter setting forth the good points of a certain nameless young lady, and urging upon him the advisability of marrying her, and finally settling in life. “Well, in the name of all that’s holy,” he ejaculated, “that must be answered." And so it was. To such purpose that it sent his easily moved father into a towering passion. Alice was summoned. And that young lady, looking quite cool and composed, came tripping into the room prepared for a scene, and wondering what had occurred to disturb the equilibrium of her uncle’s temper. “Well, uncle?” she said, with a conciliatory inquiry. “Well, uncle," he mimicked. “You come in smiling and mincing, just as theugh there were no impudent young scamp in the world.” “I dare say there are a great many,” she rejoined agreeably; “and old ones, too, for that matter.” “What do you mean?” he broke in, quick to take exception to her words. “But, Lord!" what’s the use of arguing with a girl? Here! read this letter and tell me if you consider it the proper thing for an Impertinent puppy to write to his father?" He thrust the letter in her hand, and her eyes glanced over the somewhat aggressive ohirography, while Its meandawned upon bee,- » “Deab Respected Pateb—Yours of the 15th inst. duly to hand. Contents noted. Would say in answer that lam very well satisfied with my present state of single blessedness, and while appreciating your interest in my behalf, I prefer to choose my own partner, when I elect to assume the cares of domestic life. “Though the Bible says it is not good for man to be alone, It is far more risky, to my mind, to jog along in double harness, unless the old mare is to one’s liking. “I’ve been doing finely; winning golden opinions on all sides. lam fearful of becoming too great; and Blackstone has a tendency to monotony; so I have very serious intentions of putting the old boy aside and gaining laurels with my pen. Visions of future greatness pass before my eyes, and — pardon this blot; it is the outcome of my perturbed feelings—who knows but that in the dim and misty future you may be known not as Col. Barton merely, but os Col. Barton, the father of Cuthbert Barton. Does your heart swell with pride at the thought? “Now, to descend from the heights of ambition to ordinary reality. The city grows warmer every day. Nothing of any moment transpiring. The last hot wave knocked the bottom out of the market, and everybody is now busy propounding the question of the day, ‘ls it hot enough for your’ “I’m thinking you have the best of it down there, and I have serious intentions of dropping on your rural fold and enjoying some argumentative tete-a-tetes with you. Meantime I can’t write any more. I hear Thompson outside, hopping up the steps after his usual fashion. In a second I’ll see his classic countenance, with his grinning mouth within an unimportant distance of his flap-like ears, stuck through the door, and then farewell thought. “Once more assuring you of my thorough contentment with my present state in this world of sin and sorrow, and decling the wife with thanks, I am, yours . most dutifully, “Cuthbert Barton;” “So you’re been offering him a wife," remarked Allee, when she had finished the letter and returned it to her uncle. “I told him it was time for him to get married," was the short reply. “This is his answer, the rascal. Prefers to choose his own partner. Wants an old mare to his liking. Let* him get one. Confound him! Thinks of ‘giving up Blackstone and winning laurels with ' his pen.’ Winning fiddlesticks. He hasn’t sense enough to know he’s an idiot. ‘Has serious intentions of descending on my rural fold!’ I'd like to know what else he’s been doing for the last six months? ‘Wants to enjoy some argumentative tete-a-tetes with me.’ , Confound his assurance! What are you ’ laughing at? Perhaps you consider it amusing? Maybe you agree with him?” “About the wife part, I certainly do. i I know I shouldn’t let any one select my i husband." I “Indeed, Miss! And do you think any one would take that trouble? Have some sense, for heaven’s sake. I've I enough to drive a saint Otazy. Come, , sit here, and I’ll tell you what I’ll do ” Alice took a chair, beside her uncle, and he began in a confidential tone: “That independent monkey, who calls himself my son, sha'n’t have a cent of my money. I’ll cut him off, that’s what i I'lldj,sad I’ll leave it alTw you."

I - All what, uncle?” "All my money. You don’t seem to bo smart, Alice.” “Oh! I understand perfectly, now. I | am much obliged, but you may save | yourself any trouble in the matter, as, of course, I wouldn’t take it.” “You’ll not bo able to help yourself,” chuckled the old men. “If I choose to make my will to that effect you'll have to take it.” “Indeed I wouldn’t," was the determined answer, us Alice rose from her chair. “It belongs to Bertie, and 1 I wouldn’t touch a cent of it." “How dare you defy me to my fuco,” cried the old gentleman, rising in his j turn. “I say you shall have It.” “And I say I sha’n’t.” “For mercy’s sake, what is all this ' about?" j “Oh, Bertie!" cried Alice, turning at the sound of the-laughing voice. “You Impudent scamp," added the Colonel, “have you dared to show your brazen face here." . “I protest at brazen, father. My classic countenance Is strikingly like ’my father's. Among my frli nds It is . said to be both modest and retiring," “Another word of your Impudence, i sir, and you will retire with your modest ; countenance. What are you grinning like an ape for, and Alice with no better sense than to laugh at you! I want to know how you dared to send me that trash." The Colonel threw the letter on the desk as he spoke. “My letter," eald Bertie In assumed surprise. “I am sorry your opinion of its merits Is so poor. I' considered It I quite excellent of its kind. You remember I spoke of my desire to be with you, and 10, I arrive with the wings of speed ! on the scene of b <ttle. Pray tell me what caused the interchange of polite I invective." | “I’ll tell you, sir.” remarked his j father, with some warmth, “I’ll tell you, j when I got that trash of yours I deI elded to let you go to the devil and j leave my money to this headstrong young woman, but the forward minx, with the most unheard-of Impudence, declared she wouldn’t touch a penny of it. ; But we’ll see about that; and let me ! tell you, sir, you’ve got to walk a pretty straight line or ” “Oh, I don’t mind the straight line,” returned Bertie. <eomfortably, “provided there isn’t a wife at the end of it. Unless it is the one I shall choose.” “Fudge!” was the contemptuous comment, but the old gentleman manifested no further anger. Probably flie had gathered some new ideas in the last few moments and found them diverting. “What are you glaring at Alice for?” he said, presently. “Do you want to stare her out of countenance?” “Oh, no; I was only thinking how charmingly well she is looking. The air of The Cedars is no doubt responsible. You, too, look wonderfully well preserved. No one would take you for a day over forty-five, if that.” “Humph!” was the old gentleman’s comment. “As big a fool as ever. Your talking has given me a confounded headache. Go out of the room, for heaven’s sake. Alice, take him out in the grounds and try to keep him quiet for a while. I must have a little sleep.” “Certajnly, I’ll depart, by all means,” said Bertie, with alacrity. “Delighted, I’m sure. Come, Alice, you must take care of me, you know.” The Colonel chuckled quietly as they left the room together. . [to be continued.] Dust Test for Firearms. One little known process to which small arms manufactured for the United States are subjected is the dust test, intended to subject the piece to the same dusting it would receive if carried by the soldier In a march across the alkali deserts of Arizona or Utah, or the sagebrush prairies of Montana or Wyoming. Troops are frequently compelled to tramp for hours through such clouds of dust that the heads of the leaders of a six-mule team can be but vaguely seen from the wagon, and the dust is so fine and penetrating that the soldiers’ guns and every garment soon become coated with it. The artificial production ot a similar experience for an arm that might be adopted for military service is manifestly a very pertinent trial. This is accomplished by placing the rifle on a shelf within a closed box, so that the breach mechanism, which is closed, shall be opposite the mouth of the bellows; fine sand is then permitted to fall slowly across the blast of air. which thereby, in two minutes, the time of the test, drives the sand into any open joints, or into the depths of the mechanism, if it Is much exposed. The gun is then removed and wiped carefully with the bare hand, also blown into and cleaned, just as a soldier who suddenly goes into action would do with a gun he has carried on a dusty march. The piece is then fired twenty shots. This test is then repeated, the magazine being charged before exposing the gun to the dust; the cartridge and the gun are then wiped as before, and the gun again fired twenty rounds.—Boston Transcript. -Traffic on the Lttkes. The arrivals and clearances of vessels at Chicago for the year 1890 numbered 21,541, while the corresponding aggregate for-New York was but 15,283. The entrances and clearances for the entire seaboard of the United States in that year were 37,756 in number, while for the United States ports in the great lakes the arrivals and clearances numbered 88,280. The traffic of the great lakes in 1891 was 27 per cent, of the total traffic of all the railroads of the United States for the same year. The average cost of transportation per ton of freight per mile on the railroads of the United States for the year ending June 30, 1891, was a little more than nine-tenths of a cent, and if the tonnage carried on the lakes had been carried by rail instead it would have cost for its transportation at the above rate $150,000,000 more than it cost by water, a gain of five' times the money that has yet been expended under the various river and harbor bills upon the great lakes above Niagara Falls. Through the “Soo” Canal, at the outlet of Lake Superior, there were over three times as many vessels and nearly two millions of tons more freight than through the Suez Canal during the 1 same time. This lake business is in its infancy, but such facts as these exhibit the possibilities of a traffic within the next century, the volume of which will be as difficult for the mind to grasp as it is now to com prehend the magnitude ot the solar system.—Pullman Journal. To clean willow furniture use salt and water. Apply it with a nailbrush. To wash silk handkerchiefs soak them first in cold soft water for ten minutes or longer.' Then wash out in same | wu uvu jHfcWvuiaißiy*

TALMAGE IY LONDON. HE DELIVERS HIS FAREWELL SERMON. The Clone of a Reinarkablo Campaign— Nothing Like It Hlnoo the Days ..q Whitefield—A Hermon on the MarVel» ot Nature aud the Glories el Heaven. Talmage Sermon. The closing week of Rev. Dr. Talmage’s preaching tour was marked by several gatherings which In magnitude and enthusiasms eclipsed all that had preceded them at the last service In London, after addressing three great meetings during the daytime, ho spoke to an Immense multitude in Hyde. Park In the evening. Home estimates place the number at 30.000. The crowd was so douse that many women fainted and had to be removed. During the services the auditors were raised to the highest pitch of religious fervor, and scones were enacted such as have not been witnessed since the days of Whitefield. On the following Wednesday evening Dr. Talmage addressed a great audience at the Cry-tai Palace, Sydenham, the largest building in the suburbs of London. Prayer meetings Invoking the divine blessing on the services were held In various churches the preceding Monday and Tuesday evenings. Before the sermon Dr. Talmage was entertained ata banquet In the large banqueting hall of the Crystal Palace by a hundred distinguished clergymen and laymen of every denomination and from every continent, even Including Australia. A vote cf thanks was moved rehearsing Dr. Talmage’s eminent services to God and humanity; also that ho had traveled over 12,000 miles and preached In every prominent city In Great Britain to hundreds of thousands of eager auditors, collected vast sums for various English benevolences, and throughout the entire tour paid his own expenses, not retaining one farthing, Rev. Dr. Thain Davidson seconded the motion, and declared that Dr. Talmage commanded the admiration of the entire Christian world for faithfully preaching the orthodox Gospel in times of fierce religious dissension. The motion was unanimously carried amid great applause. . Dr. Talmage was then presented, in behalf of his English admirers, with a beautiful and costly gold watch .of unique design, inscribed "‘Presented to Rev. Dr. Talmage atCrystai Palace, London, in commemoration of his preaching tour through England in the summer of 1892.” Dr. Talmage was then escorted to the great hall, where the vote of thanks was unanimously indorsed and ratified by the entire audience. He then preached his farewell sermon, and shook hands with hundreds at the close. This was the second sermon ever preached in the Crystal Palace, the first having been (delivered by Pastor Spurgeon thirty-five years ago on the Crimean war. The text selected for to-day Is from Proverbs xxx. 28: “The spider taketh hold with her hands and is in king’s palaces.” Permitted as I was a few days ago to attend the meeting of the British Scientific Association at Edinburgh, I found that no paper read had excited more interest than that by Rev. Dr. McCook of Ameriea, on the subject of spiders. It seems that my talented countryman banished from his pulpit fora short time by ill health, had in the fields and forests given himself to the study of insects. And surely if it Is not beneath the dignity of God to create spiders it Is not beneath the dignity of man to study them. We are al) watching for phenomena. A sky full of stars shining from January to January calls out not so many remarks as the blazing of one meteor. A w -ole flock of robins take not so much of our attention as one blundering bat darting Into the window on a summer eve. Things of ordinary sound and sight and occurrence fail to reach us, and yet no grasshopper ever springs up in our path, no moth ever dashes into the evening candle, no mote ever floats in the sunbeam that-pours through the crack of the window shutter, no barnacle on snip's hull, no burr on a chestnut, no limpet clinging to a rock, no rind of an artichoke but would teach us a lesson if we were not so stupid. God in His Bible sets forth for our consideration the lily, aud the snowflake, and the locust, and the stork’s nest, and the hind’s foot, and the aurora borealis, and the ant hills. One of the sacred writers sitting amid the mountains sees a hind skipping over the rocks. The hind has such a peculiar shaped foot that it can go over the steepest places without falling, aud as the prophet looks upon that marking of the hind's foot on the rocks and thinks ot the divine card over him he says, “Thou makest my feet like hinds’ feet that I may walk on high places.” And another sacred writer sees the ostrich leaving its egg in the sand of the desert, ana without any care of Incubation walk off, and the Scripture says that is like some parents leaving their children without any wing of protection or care. In my text inspiration ’opens before us the gate of a palace,and we are inducted amid the pomp ot the throne and the courtier, and while we are looking around upon the magnificence inspiration points us to a spider plying its shuttle and weaving Its net on the wall. It does not call us to regard the grand surroundings of the palace, but to a solemn and earnest contemplation of the fact that “The spider taketh hold with her hands and is In kings' palaces.” It is not very certain what was the particular species of insect spoken of in the text, but I shall proceed to learn from it the exquisiteness of the divine mechanism. The king's chamberlain comes into the palace and looks around and sees the spider on the wall and says, “Awav with that intruder,” and the servant of Solomon’s palace comes with his broom and dairies down the insect, saying, a loathsome dfhing it is.” But under a microscopic inspection find it more wondrous of construction than tne embroideries on the palace wall and the upholstery about th<- windows. All the machinery of the earth could not make anything so delicate and beautiful as the prehensile with which that spider clutches its prey, or as any ot its eight-eyes. We do not have to go so far up to see the power of Ged in the tapestry hanging around the windows of heaven, or in the horses of chariots of fire with which the dyins day departs, or to look at the mountain swinging but its sword arm from under the mantle ot darkness until it can strike with its scimeter of the lightning. I love better to study God in the shape of a flv’s wing, in the formation of a fish’s scale, in the snowy whlteneds of a pond lily. I love to track His footsteps in the mountain moss, and to hear His voice In the hum of the rye fields, and discover the rustle of His robe of light in the south wind. Oh, this wonder of divine power that can build a habitation for God in an apple blossom, and tune a bee’s voice until it is fit for the eternal orchestra, and can say to a firefly, “Let there be light;” and from holding an ocean In the hollow of His hand, goes forth to find heights and depths and length and breadth of omnipotency in a dewdrop, and dismounts from the chariot of midnight hurricane to cross over on the suspension oL A wpldvr's we‘a You take your telescope and

sweep It across tho heavens In order to : behold the glory of God, but I shall take I tho loaf holding the spider and the 1 spider's wob, and I shall bring the ml-1 croseope to mv eye. and while I gaze and look and study and am confounded I will kneel down In the grass and cry, "Groat and maryelous are thy works. Lord God | Almlghtv!” Again, my text teaches me that Insignificance is no excuse for inaction. This spider that Solomon saw on tho wall might have said: "I can’t weave a web worthy cf this groat palace; what can I do amid all this gold embroidery’? lam ! not able to make anything lit for so grand a place, and so I will not work my spinning jenny.” Not so, said the spider. "The spider taketh hold with her hands.” Oh, what a lesson that is for you and me! You say that if you bad some great sermon to preach, If you only had a great audience to talk to. If you had a groat army to marshal, if you only had a constitution to write, if there was some tremendous thing in the world for you to do —then you would show us. Yes, you would show us! What if the Levlte In the ancient temple had declined to snuff tho candle because he could not be a high priest? What It the humming bird should refuse to sing its song into the carot the honeysuckle because it cannot, like the eagle, dash Its wing Into the sun? What if the raindrop should refuse to descend because it is not a Niagara? What if the spider of the text should refuse to move its shuttle because it cannot weave a Solomon’s robe? Awav with such folly! If you are lazy with the one talent, you would be lazy with the ten talents. If Milocannot lift tho calf he never will have strength to lift tbs ox. In tho Lord’s army there is order for promotion, but you cannot be a general until you have been a captain, a lieutenant and a colonel. It is step by step, it is Inch by inch, it is stroke by stroke that our Christian character is builded. Therefore be content to do what God commands you to do. Gcd Is not ashamed to do small things. He is not ashamed to be found chiseling a grain of sand, or helping a honeybee to construct its cell with mathematical accuracy, or tingeing a shell in the surf, or shaping the bill of a chaffinch. What God does, he ddes well. What you do, do well, be .it a great work or a small work. If ten talents, employ all the ten. If five talents, employ all the five. If one talent, employ the one. If only the thousandth part of a talent, employ that “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.” Iteil you if you are not faithful to God in a small sphere, you would be indolent and insignificant in a large sphere. Again, mv text teaches me that perseverance will mount; into the king’s palace. It must have seemed a long distance for that spider to climb in Solomon’s splendid residence, but it started at the very foot of the wall and went up over, the panels of Lebanon cedar, higher and higher, until it stood higher than the highest throne in all the nations — the throne ot Solomon. And so God has decreed it that many of those who are down in the dust of sin and dishonor shall gradually attain to the King’s palace. We see it In worldly things. Who is that banker in Philadelphia? Why, he used to be the boy that held the horses of Stephen Girard while the millionaire went in to collect his dividends. Arkwright toils on up from a barber’s shop until he gets into the palace of invention. Sextus V toils on up from the office of a swineherd until he gets into the palace of Rome. Fletcher toils on up from the most insignificant family position until he gets into the palace of Christian eloquence. Hogarth, engraving pewter pots for a living, toils on up until he reaches the palace of world renowned art. And God hath decided that though you may be weak of arm and slow of tongue, and be struck through with a great many mental and moral deficits, by his almighty grace you shall yet arrive in the King's Palace—not such an one as is spoken of in the text—not one of marble —not one adorned with pillars of alabaster and thrones of Ivory and flagons of burnished gold—but [a palace in which God is the King and the angels of Heaven are the cupbearers. The spider crawling up the wall of Solomon’s paiace was not worth looking after or considering as compared with the fact that we, who are worms of the dust, may at last ascend into the palace of the King Immortal By the grace of God may we all reach it Oh, heaven is not a dull place. It is not a worn-out mansion, with faded curtains and outlandish chairs and cracked ware. No: it is as fresh and fair and beautiful as though it were completed but yesterday. The kings of the earth shall bring their honor and glory into it A palace means splendor of apartments. Now, I do not know wheje heaven is, and 1 do not know how it looks, but if our bodies are to be resurrected in the last day I think heaven must have a material splendor as well as a spiritual grandeur. Oh, what grandeur of apartments when that divine hand which plunges the sea into blue, and the foliage into green, and sets the sunset on fire, shall gather all the beautiful colors of earth around His throne, and when that arm which lifted the pillars of Alpine rock, and bent the arch of the sky. shall raise before our soul the eternal architecture, and that band which hung with loops of fire the curtains of morning shall prepare the upholstery of our kingly residence. A palace also means splendor of associations. The poor man, the outcast cannot get into Windsor castle. The sentinel of tho Queen stands there and cries "Halt!” as he trios to enter. But in the palace of which I speak we may all become residents, and we shall all be princes and kings. Wo may have been beggars, we may have been outcasts, we may have been wandering and lost as wo all have been, but there we shall take our regal power. What companionship in Heaven' To walk side by side with John and James and Peter and Paul and Moses and Joshua and Caleb and Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Micali and Zechariah and Wilberforce and Oliver Cromwell and Philip Doddridge and Edward Payson and John Milton and Elizabeth Fry and Hannah More and Charlotte Elizabeth, and all tho other kings and Queens of Heaven. Oh, my soul, what a companionship! A palaeo means splendor of banquet. There will bo no common ware on that table. There will be rib unskilled musicians at that entertainment. There will be no scanty supply of fruit or beverage. There have been banquets spread that cost a million of dollars each; but who can tell the untold wealth of that banquet? Ido not know whether John’s description of it is literal or figurative. A great many wise people tell me it is figurative; but prov?? it! Ido not know but tljat it may be know- but that there may- be real fruits plucked from the tree of life I do not know but that Christ referred to the real juice of the grape when he t said that we should drink new wine in our Father’s Kingdom, but not the intoxicating stuff of this world s brewing. I do not say it is so; but I have as mudh right tor thinking it Is so as yort have for thinking tho other wav. At any rate, it will boa glorious banquet Hark! the chariots rumbling in the distance, I really believe the guests are coming now. The gates, swing open, the guests dismount, the palace, is filling, and all the chalices, Hashing with pearl and amethyst and earLunele, are lifted to the lips of the myriad banqueters, while ‘standing tn robes of snowy white they

drink to tho honor of our glorious King. ■ ' "Oli.” you shy. "that is too grand a place for you and me.” No, ft Is not. If a spider, according to the text, could craw) upon the wall of Solomon's palace, shall not our poor souls, through tho blood of Christ, mount up from the depths of their sin and shame, and finally roacli tho palace of tlie eternal King? “Whore sin a<ounded, grace shall much more abound, that whereas sin reigned unto death, ovou so may grace reign through righteousness Into eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Ono flash of that coming glory obliterates tho sepulchor. Years ago, with lanterns and torches and a guide, wo went down in tho Mammoth cave of KontucKy. Y'ou may walk fourteen miles and see no sunlight. It is a stupendous place. Some places tho roof of the cavo is a hundred feet high. Tho grottoes filled with wierd echoes; cascades falling from invisible height to Invisible depth. Stalagmites rising up from the floor of the cave; salactltes descending from the roof of tho cavo, joining each other and making pillars of the Almighty sculpturing. There are rosettes of amethyst in halls of gypsum. As tho guide carries his lantern ahead of you, the shadows have an appearance supernatural and spectral,. The darkness is fearful, Two people, getting lost from their guide only for a few hours, years ago, were demented, and for years sat in their insanity. You feel like holding your breatli as you walk across the bridges that seem to span the bottomless abyss. The guide throws his calcium light down into the cavers, and the light rolls and tosses from rocx to rock and from depth to depth, making at every plunge a new revelation of the awful power that could have made such a olace as that. A sense of suffocation comes upon you as you think that you are 250 feet in a straight line from the summit surface of the earth. The guide after awhile takes you into what is called the "star chamber;” and then he says to you, "Sit here;” and then he takes the lantern and goes down under the rocks, and it gets darker and darker until the night is so thick that the hand an inch from the eye is unobservable, And then, by kindling one of the lanterns and placing it in a cleft of the rock there, there is a reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and there are stars coming out in constellations —a brilliant night heavens —and you involuntarily exclaim, "Beautiful! beautiful!” Then he takes the lantern down in other depths of tho cavern and wanders on and wanders off until he comes up from behind the rocks gradually, and it seems like the dawn of morning and it gets brighter and brighter. The guide is a skilled ventriloqnest, and he imitates the voices of the morning, and soon the gloom is all gone and you stand congratulating yourself over the wonderful spectacle. Well, there are a great many people who look down into the grave as a great cavern. They think it is a thousand miles subterraneous, and all the echoes seem to be the voices of despair, and the cascades seem to be the falling tears that ajways fall, and the gloom of earth seems coming up in stalagmite, and the gloom of the eternal world seems descending in the stalactite, making pillars of indescribable horror.? The grave is no such place as that to me, thank God! Our divine guide takes us down into the great caverns, and we have the lamp to our feet and the light to our path, and ail the echoes in the rifts of the rock are anthems, and all the falling waters are fountains of salvation, and after awhile we look up, and behold! the cavern of the tomb has become a King’s star chamber. And while we are looking at the pomp of it an everlasting morning begins to, rise, and all the tears of earth crystallize into stalagmite, rising up in a pillar on the one side, and all the glories of heaven seem to be descending in a stalactite, making a pillar on the other side, and you push against the gate that swings between the two pillars, and as that gate flashes open you find it as one of the twelve gates which are twelve pearls. Blessed be God that through this Gospel the mammoth cave of the sepulcher has become the illumined star chamber of the King! Ob, the palaces! the palaces! the King’s palaces! How to Make Cheese Digestible Cheese is among our most nutritious foods. It contains many elements for sustaining life, and people who can eat it find it nourishing and healthful; but everybody cannot eat cheese. Men who live in the open air and work hard can digest it; but the great bulk of people, who live and work indoors, can only partake of it as a relish at the end of a dinner, or as an accompaniment to their dessert of pie; yet twenty pounds of cheese contains as much nutritious material as a sheep of sixty pounds in weight, and it has the same value as practical nutriment if it could be easily digested. A distinguished English chemist suggests a remedy for the indigestibility of cheese. It is to add the bicarbonate of potash to cheese. He prepares the dish as follows: Cut the cheese into shreds, grate or chop it up fine, like suet To every pound of cheese add a quarter of an ounce of bi-carbon-ate of potash. Put the resulting mixture into a sauce-pan with three times its bulk of water, or four times its bulk of milk, and mix well. Put the sauce-pan on the fire and let the mixture simmer, stirring all the time until the cheese is melted, which does not take long. Turn out into a dish, and the result is a nutritious mixture, which thickens like a custard in Cooling. This cheese custard may be eaten with impunity by persons whom a small piece of ordinary cheese would sicken. Cheese treated in this way is recommended for sea voyages to be used instead of salt junk. It prevents scurvy, and is a great saving in bulk compared with other food. It is the absence of the potash from the ordinary cheese as well as salt junk which makes them unwholesome.— Demorests’ Monthly. Old People in Louisiana. The New Orleans Picayune, says that much has been said in relation to longevity in Louisiana, but there is a Uiultitude of old.people in this State, like some old manuscripts, that have never been in print. Charles Triche was born in St. James parish, and has lived in the Assumption, near Napoleonville, over seventy years. He is now over 97 years old, is 6 feet 1 inch high, weighs 165 pounds, straight as an. Indian, is active and intelligent, has a good memory, intellect unclouded, health good, chews tobacco and smokes, was in the war of 1812, was acquitted . with Lafitte, cannot speak English, goes rabbit hunting and kills rabbits and other game. He never was out of tho State of 'Louisiana, and has never been in New Orleans but once, and has never been on'a railrord car. There are a great many old Creoles in Southern Louisiana far advanced in life and in good-health, many of them women. Ono oi l Creole lady, now 81 years old, hits l.ad seven teen children, and is now in flue health. Some people seem to have been born without a conscience. You can no more teach them to do right than you can teach a crab to crawl straight ahead.

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