Indiana State Sentinel, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 January 1892 — Page 11

THE INDIANA ST!TTE SENTINEL, WEDNESDAY MORNING, JANUAHY -20, 181)2 T AVEL YE PAGES. II

THE FLIGHT OF TIME.

DR. TALMAGE PREACHES CA THE SUNDIAL OF AHAZ. Tl Shadow Are Controlled by the Hand of Omnipoteuce Time's Flight Marked by the Sunrises Daybreak on the Mountain Top. Brooklyn, Jan. 10. Dr. Talmage'a scrcaon this morning was full of brightness and Rootl cheer. lie might have called it a recipe for hHppinev. The buoyancy and elasticity of temperament which characterize him were conspicuous throughout, and must have been imparted to his hearer. His text was II Kirr,- xx, 11, "And Isaiah the prophet cried ito the Lord: tnd he brought the shadow ten decrees backward by which it L;id fODe dovn iu the dial of Ahaz." Here is the first clock or watch or chronometer or timepiece of which the world has any knowledge. But it was a watch that did not tick and a clock that did not strike. It was a sundial. Ahaz, the kin, invented it. Between the hours given to statecraft and the cares of cilice he invented something by which he could tell the time of day. This sundial may have been a great column, and when the shadow of that column reached one point it was nine o'clock a. ra., and when it reached another point it was three o'clock p. in., and all the hours and half hours were so measured. Or it may have been a flight of stairs such as may now be found in Ilindostan and other old countries, and when the shadow reached one step it was ten o'clock a. m., or another .tep it was four o'clock p. m.f and likewise other hours may have been indicted. THE Wul:LI"S noKOLOGES. The clepsydra or water clock followed the sundial, and the sand ylass followed the clepsydra. Then came the candle clock of Alfred the Great and the candle was marked into three parts, and while the first part was burning he gave himself to relUion, and while the second part was burning he cave himself to politics, and while the third part was burning he gave himself To rest. After awhile came the wheel and weight clock, and Pope Sylvester the Second was its most important inventor. And the skill of centuriesof exquisite mechanism toiled at the timepieces until the world h.ul the Vick's clock of the Fourteenth century and lluyghens, the inventor, kvuds' the first i-mlulum and Dr. Hooke contrived the recoil escapement. And Die "endless chain" followed and the "ratchet and pinion lever" took its place, and the compensation balance and the stemwinder followed, and now we have the buzz and clang of the great clock und watch factories of Switzerland and Germany and England and Americ.i turning out what seems to 1ms the perfection of timepieces. It took the world six thousand years to make the present chronometer. So with the measurement of longer spaces than minutes and hours. Time was calculated from new moon to new moon; then from harvest to harvest. Then the year was pronounced to he three hundred and fifty-four days and then three hundred and .sixty days, and not uutil a long while after three hundred anil sixty-five days. Then events were calculated from the foundation of Home, afterward from the Olympic games. Then the Babylonians had their measurement of the year and the Hornaus theirs and the Armenians theirs and the Hindoos theirs. Chronology was busy for centuries studying monuments, 'jiscriptions, coins, mummies and astronjniy, trying to lay a plan by which all question of dates niigltt be settled and vents put in their right place ia the pro-tes-Mon of the ages. But the chronologists mly heaped up a mountain of confusion iud bewilderment until in the Sixth cen;ury Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman abbot, laid. "Let everything date from the birth at Bethlehem of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world." The ablot proposed to have things dated backward and forward from that great event. What a splendid thought for the w'orldl What a mighty thing for Christianity! It would have been most natural to date everything from the creation of the world. But I am glad the chronologists could not too easily guess how old the world was in order to get the nations in the habit of dating from that occurrence in its documents and histories. Forever fixed is it that all history is to fe dated with reference to the birth of Christ, and, this matter settled. Hales, the chief chronologist, declared that the world was made five thousand four hundred and eleven years before Christ, and the deluge came three thousand one hundred and fifty-five years before Christ, and all the illustrious events of the List nineteen centuries and all the great events of all time to come have been or shall be dated from the birth of Christ. These things I say that you may know what a watch is, what a clock is, what an almanac is, and learn to appreciate through what toils and hardships and perplexities the world came to its present conveniences and comforts, and to help you to more respectful consideration of that sundial of Ahaz planted in my text. THE AFTLICTIOS3 OF HEZEKIAH. We are told that Hezekiah the ting was dying of a boiL It must have been one of the worst kind of carbuncles, a boil without any central core and sometimes deathfuL A fig was put upon it as a poultice, Hezekiah did not want to die then. Ilia son, who was to take the kingdom, had not yet been born, and Hezekiah's death would Lave been the death of the nation. So he prays for recovery and is told he will get welL But he wants some miraculous sign to make him sure of it. He has the choice of having the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz advance or retreat. He replied it would not be so wonderful to have the sun go down, for it always does go down sooner or later He asks that it go backward. In other words, let the day instead cf going on toward sundown, turn and to toward sunrise. I see the invalid king bolstered op and wrapped in blankets looking out of the window upon the sundial in the courtyard. Whilelie watches the shadow on the dial the shadow beifin-s to retreat. Instead of goiDg on toward six o'clock in the evennZ t gjes back toward six o'clock in the morning. The big poultice had been drawing for some time, and sure enough the boil b:oke and Hezekiah got welL Now I expect you will come on with your higher criticism and try to explain this away and say it was an optical delusion of Hezekiah, and the shadow only seemed to go back or cloud enme over and it was uncertain which way the shadow did go, and asllezekiah expected it to go thick he took the action of his own mind for the retrograd movement. No; the shadow went back on all the dials of that land and other la;.U. Turn to II Chronicles xxxii, 31, and find 'hat away off in Babylon the mighty men of the palace noticed the a me phenomenon. And If you tlo not like Bible authority turn over your copy of Herodotus and find that awaj off in Egypt the people noticed that there was something the matter with the sun. The fact is that the whole universe wait! tjpon God. and frans and moons and start are not very big things to im, and he can with his Little finger turn back an entire world as easily as you could set back the Lour hand or minute band of your clock or watch. IHK FLIGHT Of TIME. At the opening of the new year people re moralizing on the flight of time. You all feel that you are moving on toward ruoiown and many of you are ander a consement depression. I propose this morning jo set the hands on your watches and clock V going the other way. I propose to show Fou how you may make the shadow of your iial like the shadow on the dial of Ahaz to Atop going forward and make it go back-Ward-You think I have a big undertaking on hand, but it can be done if the same Lord, who reversed the shadow iu Hezo-

fclah's courtyard moves upon us. While looking at the sundial of Hezekiah and wo find the shadow retreating we ought to learn that God controls the shadows. We are all ready to acknowledge his management of the sunshine. We stand in the glow of a bright morning and we say in our feelings if not with so many words, "This life is from God, this warmth is from God." Or, we have a rush of prosperity and we say, "These successes are from God. What a providential thing it was I bought that lot just "efore the ruse of real estatel How grateful to God 1 am that I made that investment! Why. they have declared 10 per cent, dividendl What a mercy it was that I sold out my shares before that collapse!" Oh, yes; we acknowledge God in the sunshine of a bright day or the sunshine of a great prosperity. But suppose the day is darkf You have to light the gas at noon. The sun does not show himself all day long. . There is nothing but shadow. How slow we are to realize that the storm is from (Jod and the darkness from God and the chill from God. Or we buy the day before the market's retreat, or we make an investment that never pays, or we purchase goods that we cannot dispose of, or h crop of grain we sowed is ruined by drought or freshet, or when we took account of stock on the 1st of January we found o trselves thousands of dollars worse 011 than we expected. Who under such circ umstances shj s, "This loss is from God. I must have In-en allowed to go into that unfortunate enterprise for some good reasoa; God controls the east wind as well as the west wind?" GOD CONTHOI.S THE SHADOWS. My friends, I cannot look for one moment on that retrograde shadow on Ahaz's dial without learning that God controls the shadows and that lesson we need all to learn. That he controls the sunshine is not so necessary a lesson, for anybody can be happy when things go right. When you sleep eitcht hours a night and rise with an appetite that cannot easily wait for breakfast and you go over to the store and open your mail to re;ul more orders than you can fill, and in the next letter you find a dividend far larger than 30U have been promised, and your neigh lor comes iu to tell you some flattering thing he has just heard said about you, and you find that all the styles of goods in which you deal have advanced 15 per cent, in value, and on your way home you meet your children in full romp and there are roses on the center of the tea table an 1 roses of health in cheeks all around the table, what more do you want of consolation? I don't pity you a bit. You feel as if you could boss the world. But for those in just opposite circumstances my text comes in with an omnipotence of meaning. The shadow! Oh, the shadow! Shadow of bereavement! Shadow of sicknessl Shadow of bankruptcy! Shadow of mental depression! Shadow of persecution! Shadow of death! Speak out, oh, sun dial of Ahaz, and tell all the people that God manages the shadow! As Hezekiah sat in his palace window wrapped in invalidism and surrounded by anodynes and cataplasms and looked out upon the black hand of the only clock known at that time and saw it move back ten degrees, he learned a lesson that a majority of the human race need this hour to learn that the best friend a man ever had controls the shadow. The setbacks are sometime the best things that can happen. The great German author, Schiller, could not work unless he had in his ro'-in the scent of rotten apples, and the decay of the fruits of earthly prosperity may become an inspiration instead of a depression. Rotiert Chambers' lame feet shut him up from other work, and he lecame the world renowned publisher, and helped fashion the lest literature of the ages. The painful disorder like that of Hezekiah called a carbuncle is spelled exactly the same as the precious stone called the carbuncle, and the pang of suffering may lecome the jewel of immortal value. Your setback, like that of Ahaz's sundial, may be recovery and triumph. I never had a setback bi j it turned out to be a set forward. You never would have become a Christian if you had not had a setback. The highest thrones in heaven are for the setbac ks. In ls;i the shadow of the sundial of this nation was set back, and all things seemed going to ruin, and it was set back further in 1NI2, and further in lSttk ami still further in 1S5, but there is not an intelligent and well balanced man north or south, east or west but feels it was set back toward the sunrise. HOW 1 HEY" MAY BE Tl.'KXED HACK. But I promise to show you how the shadows might be turned back. First, by going much among the youug people. In most family circles there are grandchildren. By this divine arrangement most of the people who have passed the meridian of life can compass thems. Ives by juvenility. It is a bad thing for an old man or old woman to sit looking at the vivacity of their grandchildren shouting, "Stop that racket!" Better join in the fun. Let the eighty-year-old grandfather join the eight-year-young grandson or granddaughter. My father and mother lived to see over eighty children ami grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, and a more boisterous crew were never turned out on this sublunary sphere, and they all seemed to cry to the old folks, "Keep young," and they did keep young. Don't walk with a cane unless you have to or only as a defense in a city afflicted with too niany canines. Don't wear glasses stronger than necessary, putting on number tens when eighteen will do as welL Don't go into the company of those who are always talking about rheumatism and lumbago and shortness of breath and the brevity of human life. It is too much for my gravity to hear an octogenarian talking altout the shortness of human life. From all i can find out he has always been hero and from present prospects he is always going to stay, llemain young. Hang up your stockings in Christmas time. Help the boys fly the kite. Teach the girls how to dress their dolls. Better than arnica for your still joiuts and catnip tea for your sleepless nights will be a large dose of youthful companionship. SET BACK THE CLOCK. Set back the clock of human life. Make the shadow of the sundial of Ahaz retreat ten degrees. People make themselves old by always talking about being old and wishing for the good old days, which were never as good as these days. From all I can hear the grandchildren are not half as bad as the grandparents were. Matters have bee.i hnshed up. But if you have ever leen ir a room adjoining a room Where some very old people, a little ueaf, were talking over old times, you will find that this age does not monopolize all the young rascals. It may now be hard to get young people up early enough in the morning, but their grandparents always had to be pulled out of bed. It is wrong now to play mischevious tricks on the unsuspecting, but eighty yen.rs ago at school that now venerable man sat down on a crooked pin not accidentally placed there, and purposely drove the sleigh riding party too near the edge of the embankment that he might see how they would look when tumbled into the snow. A d that man who has so little patience with childish exuberance was in olden times up to pranks, one-half of which if practiced by the efght-year-old of to-day would set grandfather and grandmother crazy. Revive your remembrance of what you were between five and ten years of age, and with patience capable of everything Join with the young. Put back the shadow of the dial not ten degrees, but fifty and sixty and seventy degrees. Set back your clocks also by entering on new and absorbing Christian work. Iu out desire to inspire the young we have in out essays had much to say about what has been accomplished by the young; of Romulus, who founded itome when he was twenty years of age; of Cortes, who had conquered Mexico at thirty years; of Fitt, who was prime minister of England at twenty-four years; of Raphael, who died at thirty-seven years; of Calvin, who wrote Lis "Institut" at twenty-six; of Melanc

thon. who took a learned professor's chair at twenty-one years; of Luther, who had conquered Germany for the Reformation by the time he was thirty-five years. And it is all very well for us to show how early in life one can do very great things for God and the welfare of the world, but some of the mightiest work for God has been done by septuagenarians and octogenarians and nonagenarians. Indeed, there is work which none but such can da They preserve the equipoise of senates, of religious denominations, of reformatory movements. Young men for action, old men for counsel. Instead of any of you beginning to fold up your energies, arouse anew your energies. With the experience you have obtained and the opportunities of observation you have had during a long life, you ought to be able to do in one year now more than you did in ten years right after you had passed out of your teens. Physical power less, your spiritual power ought to be more. Up to the last hour of their live. what power for good old Dr. Archibald Alexander, old Dr. Wood old Dr. 1 1 awes, old Dr. Milnor, old Dr. Mclivaine, old Dr. Tyr.g, old Dr. Candlish, old Dr. Chalmers! What have been Bismarck to Germany, and Gladstone to England, and Oliver Wendell Holmes to America in the time of an advanced age? Let me say to those in the afternoon of life: Don't be putting oil the harness; when God wants it oil he will take it olT. Don't be frightened out of life by the grip as many are. At the first sneeze of an inlluenza many give up all as lost. No new terror has come on the earth. The microlK's as the cause of disease were described in the Talmud seventeen hundred years ago as "invisible legions of dangerous ones." Don't be scared out of life by all this talk about heart failure. That trouble has always been in the world. Thar, is what all the people that ever passed out of this life have died of heart failure. Adam had it and all of his descendants have had it or will have it. Do not be watching for symptoms, or you will have symptoms of everything. Some of you will yet die of symptoms. Symptoms are often only what we sometimes see in the country a dead owl nailed on a barn door to scare living owls. Put your trust in God go to bed at ten o'clock, have the window oprn vix inches to let in the fresh air. sleep on jour right side, and fear nothing. The old maxim was right, "Get thy spindle and distaff ready, and God will send the ilax." "I SEE TnE SHADOW MOVE." But while looking at this sundial of Ahaz and 1 see the shadow of it move, I notice that it went back toward the sunrise instead of forward toward the sunset toward the morning instead of toward the nighv That thing the world is willing nor to do, and in many cases has done. There have a great many things been written and spoken about the sunset of life. I have said some of them myself. But my text suggests a better idea. The Ixird who turned laek that day from going toward sundown and started it toward sunrise is willing to do the same thing for all of us. The theologians who stick to old religious technicalities until they become soporifics would not call it anything but conversion. I call it a change from going toward sundown to going toward sunrise. That man who never tries to unbuckle the clasp of evil habit and who keeps all the sins of the past and the present freighting him and who ignores the oue redemption made by the only one wl.ocould redeem, if that man will examine the sundial he will find that the shallow is going forward and he is on the way to sundown. His clay is on the road to night. All the watches that tick, all the clocks that strike, all the sand glasses that empty themselves, all the shadows that move on all the sundials indicate the approach of darkness. But new, in answer to prayer, as in my text the change was ic answer to prayer, the pardoning Lord reverses things and the man starts toward sunrise instead of sunset. He turns the other way. The captain of salvation gives him the military command, "Attention! Right about facel" He was marching toward indifference, marching toward hardness of heart, marching toward prayerlessriess, marching toward sin, marel.iug toward gloom, marching toward death. Now he turns and marches toward peace, marches toward light and marches toward comfort ami marches toward high hope and marches toward a triumph stupendous anil everlasting, toward hosaunas that ever hoist and hallelujahs that ever roll. Now if that is not the turning of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz from going toward sundown to going toward sunrise, what is it? DATIU'.EAK OX THE MOUNTAINS. I have seen day break over Mount Blanc and the Matterhorn, over the heights of Lebanon, over Mount Washington, over the Sierra Nevadas, and mid-Atlantic, the morning after a departed storm when the billows were liquid Alps and liquid Sierra Nevadas, but the sunrise of the soul is more effulgent and more transporting. It bathes all the heights of the soul, and illumines all thedepthsof the soul, and whelm3 all the faculties, all the aspirations, all the ambitions, all the hopes with a light that sickness cannot eclipse, or death extinguish, or eternity do anything but augment and magnify. I preach the sunrise. As I look at that retrograde movement of the shallow on Ahaz's dial, I remember that it was a sign that Hezekiah wus going to get well and he got welL So I have to tell all you who are by the grace of God having your day turned from decline toward night to assent toward morning, that you are going to get well, w ell of all your sins, well of all your sorrows, well of all your earthly distresses. Sunrise! But, says some one. all that you say may be true but that dues tot hinderthe horrors cf dissolution. Why, you who are the lxrd's are not going to die. All that the I'rave gets of you as compared with your chief, your Immortal nature, is as the clippings of your finger nails as compared with your whole body. As you run the scissors along the edge of your thumb nail end cut off that which is of no use but rather a hindrance, you do not inourn over the departure of that fragment which flies away. Death will be only the scissoring off of that which could be of no use, and the soul has m funeral over that which would le an awful nuisance if we could not get rid of it. This body as it now is, what a failure it would make of heaven il our departing soul had to be burdened with it in the next world. While others there go ten thousand miles a minute we would take about an hour to walk foui miles, and while our neighbor immortals could see a hundred miles we could set only ten mile., and the fleetest and tht healthiest of our bodies if seen thert would make it necessary to open in heaven an asylum for cripples. No, no; one of tht best possible things that will happen tout will be the sloughing off of this body when we have no more use for it in its present state. When it shall come up in its resur rected form we will be very glad to get it back again, but not as it is now with it limitations and bedwarfments innumerable. Sunrise! There shall I bathe my weary soul in seas of heavenly rest. And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast. SUNRISE! Sunrisel But not like one of those mornings after you had gone to bed late or did cot sleep well, and you get up chilled and yawning and the morning bath is a repulsiot and you feel like saying to the morning sun shining into your window, "I do not set what you find to smile about; your brightness is tc me a mockery." But the inrush of the next world will be a morning aftei a sound sleep, a sleep that nothing can disturb, and you will rise, the sunshine in your faces; and in your first morning in heaven you will wade down into the sea ol glass mingled with fire, the foam on fire with a splendor you never saw on earth, and the rolling waves are doxologles, and the rocks of that shore are golden and the pebbles of thrtt beach are pearl, and the skict

that arcn the Rcene are a commingling ol all the colors that St. John saw on the wall of heaven the crimson, and the blue, and the saffron, and the orange, and the purple, and the gold, and the green wrought on those skies in shape of garlands, of banners, cf ladders, of chariots, of crowns, ol thrones. What a sunrise! Do you not feel its warmth on your faces? Scoville McCollum, the dying boy of our Sunday school, uttered what shall be the peroration of this sermon, "Throw back the shutters and let the sun in!" And so the shadow of Ahaz's sundial turns from sunset to sunrise.

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. pcrotestio Iir. Which l'receded the En or PcMit Grandeur. Sc great bar. bea the destruction in Rome of many palaces and public monument?, even wit! in the first three centuries of our era and of course much more to since, iht it is very difficult even to trace the plans of some of the more important which were known to have existed, though it ir impossible to make excavations anywhere iu the sacred city without coming upon strata after strata of houses erected, at various periods. To study her domestic architecture, therefore, we have to go to Pompeii, a second, or even a third rate city, perhaps, but which, by a provision of nature, has been preserved in great part down to our own day. It is true that all the roofs and vaults are gone, and of the walls only from ten to twelve feet remain, but with these and the description of various authors it is possible to reconstruct in our imagination the general appearance of the city lefore it was overwhelmed by the hist fatal eruption of Vesuvius in the year A. D. 71, which buried the city in a shower of ashes, pumice and stone iu a layer twelve to fourteen feet deep. Of the temple and other public buildings it is not worth speaking, as they are of far less importance than those in Rome and elsewhere, but of the private houses and villas of the upper and lower, classes there exists an inexhaustible supply, from which the following general arrangements can be summarized. The more important houses were divided Into two parts, the public and the private portion. Of the former an entrance vestibule led to the trium, a large hall open in the center to the sky, the covered portion having a roof sometimes supported by columns surrounding the impluvium (a marble ban under the compluvium, or open space in the roof.) Round the atrium, and lighted from it were a series of chambers, sleeping rooms for the male guests, recesses for conversation and the tablinum or sitting room. The private portion consisted of a peristyle around an open court, in which there was a small garden; the triclinium or dining room; the pinacotheca or picture room; the bibliotheca cr library, and suites of small chambers used as bedrooms. Beside these there was generally a court surrounded by the offices, the kitchen, bakekouse and storerooms. All these rooms derived their light from the internal courts, the exterior of the block forming the house being invariably occupied by shops, in which sometimes the lord of the mansion kept retainers, who sold the produce of his farms and lands. From the walls which still remain erect, we find that they were all richly decorated in color, painted in nralcsque and occasionally with landscapes, figure subjects and wreaths of l'.owers; the columns were of marble or painted in imitation, and the floors inlaid with mosaic or with small pieces of marble set in cement. The roofs, Ixing all in wood have jH-rished, but their coverings in tiles, with the various ornaments on the ridges of the roofs, are still found in the excavations. Such portions of Hercu'aneum a town close by as it has been found possible to excavate (the lava which overwhelmed it Wing cf great hardness) shows even liner work than at Pompeii, sind those remains which occasionally are found iu Rome show a far higher quality of work than that found in either of these cities. Casseli's New Popular Educator. No Flirting at Prayer Meetings. One Lewiston girl believes that prayei meetings are not the place for flirtatious and pairing oU. She has known what it is to expect one or two men waiting at the church door every Sunday night with the question whether or no he may go home with her. She has determined to rid herself of both, and probably has.. She went to the cake walk in Lyceum hall Saturday night, and during the evening both asked permission to escort her home. She said yes to both. They both waited for her on the landing, and when she came down stairs she smiled and took one of each young man's arms. At first they hesitated a little, but then went down the lat flight of stairs at a jerky gait. At the foot of the stairs they both let go her arm and walked up Lisbon street, looking ugly at each other. She entertained them both with lively stories of the evening's entertainment. Each thought that the other would drop off at the head of the street and he would go home with the pretty girl; but no, they both went on up Main street, wishing in their inmost hearts that they were out of it. What a fool the other fellow wasl Why didn't he leave? In the meantime they went past corner after corner where each thought surely the other would say good night, for had not the girl said he might go home with her? So on they went until the gate was reached, and with a pretty thought about the effect of the moon on dried leaves in the gutter she asked them both in. They both said it was late and looked nervous. "Can't 3 0U both come np and see me Thursday evening?" she asked. "Mamma would be pleased to meet you." One said he had an engagement at the Store that night and the other said he was going out of town Thursday. After a moment) during which each thought it was time for the of her to move on, the young lady said grxxl night ami went up the steps. No one annoyed her Sunday night when she came out of prayer meeting. Lewiston Journal. Mme. Harri. New York society is again busy talking of the reported engagement of Mme, Barrios to Senor Martinez de Roda, a member of the Spanish Cortes from Grenada. Such an event would add to the deep interest taken in the beautiful widow's romantic history. Mme. de Barrios was the .daughter of Francisco Aparicia, a wealthy coffee planter of Quezaltenango, the second city of importance in the republic of Guatemala. When she was fourteen years old General de Barrios espied her one day and fell violently in love with the beautiful young girl. The common story is that the girl rebelled. And then, too, her parents objected to the match. She was whisked off to a mountain convent by the general. The next move that the dictator made was to clap the father into jaiL The prisoner was informed that he could remain there until his pretty daughter became Mme. de Barrios. However that may be, she certainly did become the dictator's wife at a tender age and some of her friends say the story of abduction and marriage by force was all romance. At any rate she was devoted to the general and ever since his death has been devoted to his numerous children, only four of whom are her own. When the trouble arose between Gautemala and her neighbors Mme. de Barrios escaped to San Francisco. The general fell on the field of battle. His widow rventually settled in New York. Philadelphia Press. $foi II art ty Ago. Brimcoe There are some mighty fine points in yonr article, Smytbe Ah, what struck you the most? Brimcoe The Bible quotations. Kate Field's Washington. . . .

EEZEKLVH DELIVERED.

IESSON IV, FIRST QUARTER, INTERNATIONAL SERIES, JAN. 24. fext of the Lesson, It a. xsxtII, 14-21, 33-38 Memory Verses. 15-17 Golden Text. Pa. xxxiv. 17 Commentary by the Rev. Ii. M. Steams. 14. "And Hezekiah received the letter, and spread it before the Lord." Just the right thing to do with all difficulties if you would have peace (Ps. Iv, 22; I Pet, v, 7; Phih ir, 6. 7; Mark vi. 30). The king of Assyria was besieging Jerusalem; blasphemous letters vrere sent from one of his generals to Hezekiah, and this is what Hezekiah did under these circumstances. The first part of the lesson gives Hezekiah's prayer and the last, the Lord's answer in word and deed. To understand fully read from chapter xxxvi, 1, and alio the parallel accounts ia II Kings xviii, xix; II Chron. xxxii. 15. "And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying:" In II Chron. xxxii, 20, it is written that Isaiah, the prophet, joined him in this prayer. They did not know Math, xviii, 10, but they acted as if they did. IC "Ö I-iord of hosts. God of Israel, that dwellest letween the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alono of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth." The hosts of Assyria are against him, so he appeals to the Lord of all hosts, for he controlleth all in heaven and on earth. 17. "Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyvs, O Lord, and see; and hear all the word;; of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God." The first part of this ver.se is very like a partof Daniel's prayer (Dan. ix, IS) aud reminds us of ci t repeated petitions in Solomon's prayer (I Kings viii, "Jy, 00, etc.). The last part makes us think of David's words concerning Goliah (I Sam. xvii, l-43), and teaches us how to look upon all enemies for Christ's sake and how to deal with them. IS. "Of a Until, Lord, the kings of Assyria have la :d waste all the nations and their countries." Hezekiah calls attentioa to a part of the letter (verse 11) which ha acknowledges to be true, and confesses that the Assyrians had much power over some nations, but that was no reason why Israel should fall before them, for Isratl had protection which no other nation had, though the Assyrians were ignorant of it. There is no occasion for any child of God ever to be afraid of anything or any one, 13. "And have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods." Idols of wood and stone which their own hands had mada could never help them. We think it Btrangeto see people put any reliance upoa such vanities, but how much better aid those who rely upon silver or gold or the power or wisdom of man instead of upon the Creator of all things? 20. "Now, therefore, O Lord our God, save us from bis hand, that all the kir.,;dotns of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord, even Thou only." Deliverance is asked forthat God may be glorified, and sucli prayer for such an end is sure of an answer (John xiv, 13), God redeemed Lsraol and led them by his hand to make his name known in the earth among all uarionslll Sam. vii,23; Isa. lxiii, 12, 14). The great business of every believer is to manifest Jesus ia these mortal bodies (II Cor. iv, 11). 2L "Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent unto Hezekiah, saying. Thus saith tho Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me," etc. Immediately the answer comes by the mouth of God's servant Isaiah, for this prayer needed an immediate answer. S3. "Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, He shall nut come into this city." Great is Jehovah. He djeth according to His will in tha armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and none can stay His baud (Dan. iv, 35). When He speaks, it is done. When He says, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther," that settles it (Ps. xxxiii, 1; Job xxxvüi, 11). 24. "By tLe way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this ciry, saith the Lord." All his labor would be for nothing and great would be his loss. How much time and strength and money is wasted iu fighting against Güd. 35. "For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake " Not for His people's sake, nor for the sake of the kiugor the prophet, but for His own sake and because of the covenant made with David (II Sam. vii, 0, 21; Ezek. xxxvi, 22). See what He does for every believer for His own and His Son's s;ike (Isa. xliii, 23; I John ii, 12), and let "For Jesus' sake" be a great motto iu our lives. 6. "Then the angtl of the Lord went forth and smote iu the camp of the Assyrians 185,000." Angels are ministering spirits who dtlight to do nis wilL Two of them, led Lot and his family out of Sodom; one ministered to Elijah in the wilderness; one led Peter out of prison, while another smote Herod; one found Paul on the ship in the storm out on the Mediterranean and comforted him; many ministered unto Christ-in the wilderness, one strengthened Him in Gethsemane, and legions were ready to do His bidding. Be comforted, oh, believer, by the fact that holy angels continually minister to you (Heb. i, 14). 37. "So Sennacherib, King of Assyria, departed and went and returned, and dwelt at Niueveh." Justus God had said (verse 34). A little space for repentance was granted unto him, if perchance the mighty power of the True God which he had seen might lead him to seek the God cf Israel. 33. "And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons smote him with the sword." Back to his idols, utterly indifferent to the God of Israel, blind and deaf to the claims of his Creator, dead in sins, space for repentance not improved, he goes out su idenly to meet the God whose power he had felt but whom he knew not. What a fearful meeting! To know God is Lifa Eternal; not to know Him is Eternal Death. The long suffering of God is one of the most wonderful things in the whole Bible; how slow He is to let His wrath fall, and how in every possible way He pleads with men to repentl Read in Job xxxiii, 14-30, how He seeks to deliver the sinner from the wrath to come; and notice especially verses 29, 30, "So all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back the soul from the pit to be enlightened with the light of the living." Notice also that the awful judgments recorded in Revelations as yet to coine upoa men have for their end that men may lepent. In one we read of men on earth being given a taste of the torments of hell if perchance they may turn to God and escape eternal torment (Rev. ix, 20, 21; xvi, 9, 11). We love to contemplate the love and long suffering of God, but we must also remember that "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" Why Epllrpties Are Danjerons. Many epileptics, though perfectly sane at other times, show a destructive impulse during that form of the disease in which the patient does not fall in convulsions. They may attack and kill a stranger toward whom they have not even a cause of annoyance, and a few moments afterward be wholly unaware of the act. Exchange. Ursst Kettles Cleansed. A brass kettle can be cleansed, if discolored by cooking in it, by scouring it well with soap and ashes first, then put in half a pint of vinegar and a handful of salt and let them boil on the stove a short time; then wash and rinse it out in hot water. New York Journal.

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