Pike County Democrat, Volume 26, Number 4, Petersburg, Pike County, 7 June 1895 — Page 3

®kf fib dtoimtg frmarat M. KoO. 8TOOP8, Editor and Proprietor. PETERSBURG. - - - INDIANA. AN EDITORIAL VENTURE. BT HERBERT A. JUMP. Gol. Jared Quiller’s private office was unoccupied. From the mantel Horace Greeley carved in marble looked stern-* ly down at the bronze statuette of Atlas upon the colonel’s writing desk; while Atlas tended strictly to business as was his wont, and sustained upon his sturdy shoulders a little bronze earth filled with black writing fluid. In front of his metal feet on the blotter covering the top of CoL* Quiller *s desk a dark spot could be seen, which, as the seconds rolled by, gradually grew in extent, widening in all directions from the point of Col. Quiller’s pen, an ever-enlarging ink-island in an immense sea of white blotting paper. This new isle, however, was not alone in its glory; the whole surface of the desk is one grand archipelago, and all because Col. Jared Quiller, proprietor, editor and manager of the Welham Gazette, was exceedingly careless and forgot always after he had finished vising his pen Q> stick it into the small cup of shot that stood by Atlas’ side. Less than five minutes ago there had been a knock at the door, and Editor Quiller, after substituting for the choice twenty-five cent cigars in his vest pocket several of a cheaper brand, bad stepped out to meet his visitor. • If Col. Quiller is anything, he is sagacious; and perhaps his sagacity was never so well illustrated- as in the way in which he succeeded in making bis Uazette the mirror of Welham publiq.seutimenl. A diligent reader of its pages was sure to know the pro and con, the “says he” and “says 1” of every story current in the miniature city. When the woman’s suffrage question was agitating the commonwealth several years ago he devoted several pages through a number Of weeks to an open discussion of the all-absorbing theme; a net in more than one way he bas reason to congratulate himself *upon the result of his policy. In the first place he had been fair to both sides, which was very satisfying to his

conscience; and secondly, his paper s circulation had increased by several hundred subscribers, which was equally gratifying to his pocketbook. And so as Col. Quiller was sitting in his library one evening, after spending his afternoon in figuring up the gains from his woman’s suffrage venture, he said to his daughter llose as he entered the room: , ‘‘Rose, here’s the account of the best piece of business I ever did: Debit side nothing; credit side, the adoring esteem of two hundred and twenty women, six hundred new subscribers to the Gazette.” Rose was evidently pledged by the information, but said: “Well, father, you’d better let well enough alone. Don’t tempt the devil too often by these experiments. ’Tisn't his habit to smile twice on the same person.” But Col. Quiller had nevertheless undertaken another venture, and that was the subject upon which he and George Fanchard were talking so earnestly while the ink island on Col. Quiller’s desk was slowly advancing its shore line. About a month ago there had appeared in the Gazettg a paragraph inviting all who would be interested in the formation of a bachelors’ •club to meet at the home, of Robert ■Grant on Friday evening.4* Insomuch as this Mr. Grant was a young man of .most attractive presence, and quite a lion among the Welham young ladies through virtue of possessing a head of remarkably thick curly hair, this announcement caused considerable flutter and curiosity. The Young Woman’s Mission band, the Sacred Six sewing circle, the Ladies’ Browning club and all the other organizations among the .younger members of the meeker and weaker sex discussed the startling news in all its phases. Would there be •enough bachelors to join? W'ould they remain true to their principles, or was it merely »a mutual benefit league planned to ghre the girls a scare so that they would be anxious to snap up the first offer of matrimony that presented itself? But after being the ever-recurring suject of conversation for a week the matter was at lengthy definitely settled by the appearance of the ne$t Gazette, which contained this notice: . ■ \ -

“A Bachelors’ club was organized on Friday evening last at the home of Mr. Robert Grant. The platform of principles declares that ‘we are solemnly of the conviction that the supreme Bliss of living can be enjoyed only in •the bachelor state, and we therefore agree not only ourselves to live lives consistent with this belief, but also to strive in every way possible to make converts to our way of thinking from among our unenlightened and deluded “brethren.’ ” Had a meteor struck the. public square of Welham it could hardly have aroused more excitement than did this announcement among the feminine portion of the community. “The Lexington of our matrimonial liberties has come,’’ is the way one war-loving dame expressed it. The Young Ladies’ Mission band held several special meetings, though the annual report a few months later failed to indicate that any work was accomplished at them, at least, in missionary lines. Everybody talked and conjectured about the new organization. The story even went the rounds that Ethel Davis, who was nothing more anyway than a bundle of affec tions tied together with sentiment, . when she heard that Rob Grant had been chosen president of the club, gasped out: “What! such beautiful hair on a bachelor!” and fell in a dead faint. Indignation, however, rose to white hgat only when it leaked out that on the front wall of the room in which the uew club held its meetings there was

hang1 an Immense banner picturing « man prostrate upon the ground, while above him, with her foot upon hin neck, stood a woman, and nnderneath the picture the legend in great red letters: “t»3ve me liberty or give me death.’* “It’s an insult to our sex,” cried Mrs. Scc tt, president of the Woman’s Sorority of Progress, and all the other married women who comprised that estimable organization, with the exception of Ann Hathaway, who measures six feet in her stockings, while her husband can’t stretch more than five feet two, ■ were of the opinion of Mrs. Scott. Accordingly the Sorority of Progress invited the Married Woman’s Bloomer brigade to an indignation meeting, though hitherto these two associations had been about as friendly as two rival fish women. At this conference it was decided that the husbands should be- enlisted in the struggle, as the most effectual means to bring the recreant bachelors to see the error of their ways. It was, as a result, then, of this combination of female Spartan with female Athenian against male Persian, that the announcement appeared in the Gazette a Week later that a Married Man’s league had been formed for the purpose of promoting and disseminating a true knowledge concerning the God-given and God-honored institution of matrimony, and to offset, if possible, the deplorable tendency that had recently manifested itself among the young men of Welham. Mrs. Hathaway, to be sure, sneeringly pointed out in the article several peculiar uses of prepositions which proved it indisputably to be of Mrs* Scott's composition; but who ever listens to Cassandra when there is a free show with a big wooden horse as chief attraction? The Bachelors’ club, with weekly meetings, and the Married Man’s league, with semi-weekly meetings, were now in full blast, several satiric ones implying that in the case of the latter organisation it was a sort of forced blast, when an idea popped simultaneously into the heads of the editor, proprietor and manager of the Gazette. The evolution of the idea would be suggested by the following headings: Woman’s suffrage, popularity, circulation, nq outlay, marriage question, and when the three individuals took counsel together, and the idea had seemed decidedly advantageous, Col. Quillerhad requested Mr.

r aucJiii&ru, &ecrtr utry ui uic wmucu Man’s league, to call round at his office. And now the secretary of the Married Man’s league was talking with Col. Quilled in the general waiting room, but bjy*this tirpe all the ink had dried off the colonel's pen, and the island's dimensions were fixed. , “Will you do it, then?” the colonel asked in closing. “Of course all articles will be under an assumed name, so ho one need fear too much publicity.” “Yes,” answered Fanchard, rising. “Scott and I will write for the first week, and get some of the other boys to keep it up afterward.” “Thank you, I feel certain the whole city will rise up and call you blessed when our articles appear,” and Quiller bowed Fanchard out of the room. • After th& secretary’s departure Col. Quiller wrote to Rob Grant, asking him if his club would be willing to take part in an open discussion through the columns of the Gazette upon the question of all-absorbing interest, and when a few days later he received an answer in the1 affirmative his venture was well on foot. Up to date his account .was debit one postage stamp on letter to Rob Grant; credit, nothing actual, but much probable. It would be wearisome to narrate in detail the story of the memorable controversy that began in the Gazette columns a week after the colonel’s receipt of Rob Grant’s letter. Now, though in this discussion all f uluiinations appeared over a pen name, it was an open secret who the real writers of the several articles were.

“ratnck Henry was better known to Welham as Mr. Robert Grant; “Justitia” as Mrs. Scott; “Xanthippe” as a Mr. Andrew Harris, who had himself been cast off by his wife, and “Cupid” as Mr.; Fanchard. In successive issues of the Gazette there were other articles by other men over other signatures, but somehow, when eight or nine gossips gathered to discuss the latest installment of the controversy.it always turned out that some one recognised some peculiarity of phrasing, or knew of some particular motive that fixed Jhe authorship of the article in question within reasonable certainty. At the end of three weeks Col. Quiller's venture stood: Debit, one postage stamp; Credit, two hundred new subscribers to the Gazette, twentyseven letters of thanks from prominent citizens for having originated the public discussion, and the colonel smiled as he saw the balance in his favor. Though it is true tljat most of the bachelors took part in the newspaper debate, and thus demonstrated the sta bility of their single condition, still there was one who had not aired his views through the Gazette. “Oh, I can’t handle a pen,” he apologized to his fellow bachelors, when taken to. task, for his lukewarmness, But “Hedsy” Hoyt (who wopld recognize in this uneuphonious nickname the good Biblical Hezekiah?) was not lukewarm. Se was as thoroughly imbued with bachelority as Robert Grant himself, with this difference, perhaps, that Hedsy had but one strong reason for the faith in him, while Rob could reel off a couple of dozen as valid and incoherent as Luther’s Theses. Hedsy hated a mannish woman. He was not a bachelor because he believed woman to be quarrelsome, as did Harris, nor expensive, as did Adams, nor because she was inclined to be autocratic. No, merely because she tried to be what she had no business to be, he joined the Bachelors’ club. He once heard a couple of definitions of the modern style of woman, and he never tired of repeating them. One was: “Madam become Adam;” but according to his idea this definition gave her the credit of having succeeded in her mbnward as

piration, and so be much preferred t# think of her as “mannishness rninaa manliness. ** Bachelor as he was, Hedsy did not hold aloof entirely from the companionship of those who were theoreti cally his sworn enemies Every Saturday evening’ he carefully brushed his hat, and taking his gloves walked out to call upon Miss Bose Qniller. , It is unnecessary to state that Miss Qailler was pretty, and to expatiate upon her loveliness by the use of conventional adjectives and time-worn . botanical comparisons. Suffice to say, she was as keen mentally as she waa beautiful physically. Between her and Hedsy , Hoyt there had existed for years a sort of family friendship. She knew him almost as well as she knew herself, for he was always very frank with her, and besides, she possessed a most keenly intuitive mind, which performed frequently feats more wonderful than solving a single equation containing two uukndnfn quantities. She was acquainted with Hedsy’s aversion to mannish manlessness. and joked him upon it more than once. “Don’t you really believe there is one, even one lone woman without ambitions upon your sex?” she would ask with a plaintive drooping of her eyes; and 1 wonder that Hedsy’s bachelor principles didn’t forsake him for thp time being until he had punished her for looking so charming. But he would slowly answer: “No,” not even conceding the customary “present company always excepted.” The discussion in the Gazette had continued through four months. CoL Qniller was growing happier each week, as his subscribers grew more numerous, and yet the war of words showed but faint signs of abatement. The secretary of the Ypung Ladies’ Mission band, who kept tne records of the matrimonial debate as a duty equally important with keeping the records of mission work accomplished, announced that all pseudonyms had been solved, and all but Hedsy, of the Bachelors’ club, and all but two of the M. M. L. had appeared in print in defense of their avowed principles. . And yet, though Hedsy was confessedly the most wavering bachelor, he had thus far shown not the least sign that he intended ever to capitulate or change camps. AsTie explained to MissQuiller one evening, there was no possibility of his being converted until some one in the ranks of the M. M. L. by example

tion against women; and insomuch as no writer on either side had yet touched upon the mannishness of the weaker sex, either directly or indirectly, he was apparently safe for all time to come. Regarding.the two married men who had not written there was considerable conjecture. One was a lawyer who had recently moved into Welham and whose abilities as a disputant were still among the unknown quantities; the other was a young newspaper man lately-married to a Wellesley graduate who wore starched linen collars and four-in-hand neckties all the year round. While concerning these two surmisings had as yet reached no solid ground, and while the M. M. L. were hoping and the bachelors were afraid that Hedsy would ehange sides in the struggle, a new nom de plume appeared among the defendants of matrimony. “Peter Pen” was the insignificant name signed to the most virile and convincing article that had been printed during the whole course of the discussion. In it every rule of logic and every canon of taste was most exactly observed; argument followed upon argudtent, each apparently more convincing than its predecessor, and yet all articulated with marvelous nicety, decked out with every grace of style, brightened by touches of the gentlest Satire or richest humor. It was, in short, a masterpiece, and most, strangely of all, its central theme, the idea from which every argument derived its greatest strength, was the eternal femininity of woman, the Etcig weibtiche as Gfoethe would call it.

If sadden death had overtaken all the people of Welham that night, on every heart except one, and that “Peter Pen’s” own heart, would probably have been written the question: “Who is Peter Pen?” Some said that the logic of the article, its concise and vigorous treatment of a hackneyed theme, pointed indubitabl y to a lawyer as it writer. Others looking at the graceful wording and fine literary workmanship denied that anyone but a journalist could be capable of such composition. And between these two factions, each striving to lead the other unto the truth, and yet each unwilling to yield one jot of its own convictions, Welham almost forgot to think of Hedsy Hoy t, the doubtful bachelor. He received his Gazette from his newsboy, went upstairs, and entering his room carefully locked the door behind him. How the article impressed him,' whether he was hardened or convinced, whether he was mad or glad, I shall never know, for I was on the outside of the door. But 1 can certify to these facts: An hour or so later Hedsy called upon the young lawyer who had recently come to town, and asked him a question. Having received an answer, he next hunted up the journalist, propounded to him a question and was given a reply. As he left the journalist’s house I fancied he looked perplexed, but only for a minute. A light as of a revelation broke over his face, and, directing his steps toward Col. Quiller's house, he rang the bell and was ushered into the parlor. Several evenings later, Col. Jared Qniller, editor, manager and proprietor of the Welham Gazette, balanced his account for the last time in the matter of the Bachelor vs. MarriedMan venture. The items were something as follows: Credit, twenty-nine letters from prominent citizens, one thousand one hundred and fifty new subscribers to Gazette; Debit, one postage stamp, one hundred and twenty pounds of the most valuable matter on the face of the globe, bes ^described by the name Rose. And it was some one other than the colonel who did the smiling.—Aruherst Literary Monthly.

TALMAGE'S SERMON. Lesson of the Slaying: of the Philistines by Shamgar. la tth* War for God Ar*!a*t Sin Sw Should I'm the Boat Weapon*—Groat Thins* Accomplished by the Hunibleat Instrumentalities. ■ Rer. T. DeWi^t Talmage took for tli e subject of a recent sermon in the Academy of Music, New York city, “Shamgar's Ox-goad,” basing it upon the text: After him was Shamgar, which slew of tha Philistine* six hundred men with an ox-gaud. —Judges iii. 31. One day while Shamgar, the farmer was plowing with a yoke of oxen, his command of whoa-1 taw-gee was changed to the shout of battle. Philistines, always ready to make trouble, march up with sword and spear. Shamgar, the plowman, had no sword, and would not probably hare known how to wield it if he bad possessed one. Bfit fight he must, or go down under the stroke of the Philistines. He bad an ox-goad—a weapon nsed to urge on the lazy team; a weapon about eight feet long, 'with a sharp iron at one end to puncture the beast, and a wide iron chisel or shovel at the other end with which to sc rape the clumps of soil from the plow share. Yet, with the iron prong at one end of the oxgoad, and the iron scraper at the other, it was not such a weapon as one would desire to use in battle with armed Philistines. But God helped the farmer, and leaving the oxen to look after themselves, he charged upon the invaders of his homestead. Some of the commentaries, to make it easier for Shamgar, suggest that perhaps he led a regiment of farmers into the combat, his ox-goad only one of many ox-goads. But the Lord does not need any of you to help in making the Scriptures, and Shamgar, with the Lord on his side, was mightier than six hundred Philistines with the Lord against them. The battle opened. Shamgar, with muscle strengtened by opet. air, and plowman’s, and reaper’s, and thresher's toil, uses the only weapon at hand, add he swings the ox-goad up and down, and this way and tlnnt; now stabbing with the iron prong at one end of it. and now thrusting with the

iron scraper at tlie other,, trad now bringing down the whole weight of the instrument upon the heads of the enemjT. The Philistines are in a panic, and the supernatural forces come in, and a blow that would not under other circumstances have prostrated or slain, left its victim lifeless; until when Shamgar walked over the field, he counted one hundred dead, two hundred dead, three hundred dead, four hundred dead, five hundred dead, six hundred dead—all the work done by an ox-goad with iron prong at one end and an iron shovel at the other. The fame of this achievement by this farmer with an awkward weapon of War, spread abroad, and lionized him, until he was hoisted into the highest place of power, and became the third of the mighty judges of Israel. So you see thatCincinuatus was not the only man lifted from plow to throne> For what reason was this unprecedented and unparalleled victory of a farmer’s ox-goad put into this Bible, where tl^pre was no spare room for the unimportant and the trivial? It was, first of all, to teach you, and to teach me, and to teach all past ages since then, and to teach ail ages to come, that in the war for God, and against sin, we ought to put to the best use the weapon we happen to have on hand. Why did not Shamgar wait until he could get a war charger, with neck arched and back caparisoned, and nostrils sniffing the battle afar off, or until he could get war equipment, or could drill a regiment, and wheeling them into line, command them forward to the charge? To wait for that would have been defeat and annihilation. * So he takes the best weapon he could lay hold of, and that is an ox-goad. We are called into the battle for the right, and against wrong, and many* of us have not just the kind of

weapon we would preier. it maj not be a sword of argument. It may not be the spear of sharp, thrusting wit It may not be the battering ram of denunciation. But there is something we can do, and some forces we can wield. Do not wait for what you have not, but use ,what you have. Perhaps you have not eloquence, but you have a smile. Well a smile of encouragement has changed the behavior of tens of thousands of waflderers, and brought them back to (Jod, and enthroned them in Heaven. You can set an examble, and a good example lias saved more so$tls than you could count in a year, if you counted all the time. You can not give ten thousand dollars, but you can give as much as the widow of the Gospel, whose two mites, the smallest coins of the Hebrews, were bestowed in such a spirit as to make her more famous than all the contributions that ever endowed all the hospitals and universities of all CuristendoniPof all time. You have a very limited vocabulary, but you can say “yes” or “no.” and a firm “yes” or an emphatic “no” has traversed the centuries, and will traverse all eternity, with good influence. You may not have the courage to confront a large assemblage, but you can tell a Snnday-school class of two—a boy and a girl—how to find Christ, and one of them may become a William Carey, to start influences that will redeem India, and the other a Ilorence Nightingale, who will illumine battle-fields covered with the dying and the dead. That was a tough case in a town In England, where a young lady, applying for a Sabbath-school class was told by the superintendent that she would have to pick up one cut of the street. The worst of the class brought from the street was one Bob. He was fitted out with respectable clothing by the superintendent. But after two or three Sabl»atha he disappeared He was found with his clothes in tatters,

for he had been fighting. The seeond time Bob was will clad for school. After coming' once or twice be again disappeared, and was found in rags, consequent upon fighting. The teacher was disposed to give him up, but the superintendent said: “Let us try him | again,-’ and the third suit of clothes was provided him. Thereafter he came until he was converted, and joined the church, and started for the Gospel ministry, and became a foreign missionary, preaching and translating scriptures? Who was the boy called Iiob? The illustrious Dr. Robert Morrison, great on earth, and greater in Heaven. Who his teacher was 1 know not, but she used the opportunity I opened.and great has been her reward. | You may not be able to load an Armstrong gun; you may not be able to hurl a Hotchkiss shell; you may not be able to shoulder a glittering musket,but use anything you can lay your hands I on. Try a blacksmith’s hammer, or a 1 merchant’s yardstick, or a mason’s | trowel, or a carpenter’s plane, or a i housewife’s broom, or a farmer’s oxI goad. One of the surprises of Heaven j will be what grand results came from | how simple means. Matthias Joyce, i the vile man, became a great apostle j of lighteousness, not from hearing John Wesley preach, but ffom seeing Sim kiss a little child on the pulpit stairs. Again, my subject springs upon us the thought that in calculating the J prospects oif religious attempt, we must take omnipotence, and omniscience, and omnipresence, and all the other attributes of God into the calcuI lation. Whom do you see on that plowed field of my text? One hearer says, “I see Shamgar.” Another hearer says. “I see six hundred Philistines.’’ My hearer, you have missed the chiefs personage on that battle-field of plowed ground. I also see Shamgar a nd six hundred Philistines, but more than all, and mightier than all, and more overwhelming than all, I see God. Shamgar with his unaided arm, however muscular, and with that humble instrument made for agricultural purposes, and never constructed for combat, could*ndt have wrought such victory. It was omnipotence above, and beneath, and back of, and at the point of the ox-goad. Before that battle was over, the plowman realized this, and all the six hundred Philistines realized it, and all who visited the battlefield afterward appreciated

iu x uaub lu iicuvcu iu neat tuc avvi j , for it can never be fully told on earth —perhaps some day may be set apart for the rehearsal, while all heaven listens—the story of how God blessed awkward and humble instrumentalities. Manys^n evangelist has come into a town given up to worldliness. The pastors say to the evangelist: “We are glad you have come, but it is a hard field, and we feel sorry for you. The members of our churches play progressive euchre, and go the .theater, and bet at the horse races, and gayety and fashion have taken possession of the town. We have advertised your meetings, but are not very hopefuk God bless you.” This evangelist takes his place on platform or pulpit. He never graduated at college, and there are before him twenty graduates of. the best universities. He never took one lesson in elocution, and there are before him twenty trained orators. Many of the ladies present are graduates of the highest female seminaries, and one slip in grammar or one mispronunciatioh, will result in suppressed giggle. And the general chill that pervades the house, the unpretending Evangelist opens his Bible and takes for his tejU: “Lord, that my eyes may be opened.” Opera glasses in the gallery curiously scrutinizing the speaker. He tells in plain way the story of the blintf man, tells two or three touching anecdotes, and the general chill gives .way before the strange warmth. A classical hearer who took the first honor at Yale, and who is the prince of proprieties, finds his spectacles becoming dim with a moisture suggestive of tears. A worldly mother who has been bringing up her^ sons and daughters in utter godlessness puts her handkerchief to her eyes and begins to weep. Highly-educated men who came to criticise and pick to pieces, and find fault, bow on their gold-headed canes. What is that

sound from under tne gallery/ it is a sob, and sobs are catching; and all along the wall, and all up and down the audience, there is deep emotion, so that when at the close of the service anxious souls are invited to special seats, or the inquiry room, they come up by scores, and kneel and repent, and rise up pardoned; the whole town is shaken, and places of evil amusement are sparsely attended, and rum holes lose their patrons, and the?, churches are thronged, and the whole community is cleansed, and elevated and rejoiced. What power did the evangelist bring to bear to capture that town for righteousness? Notone brilliant epigram did he utter. Not one graceful gesture did he make. Notone rhetorical climax did he pile up. But there was something about him that people had not taken in the estimate when they prophesied the failure of that work. They had not taken into the calculation the omnipotence of the Holy Ghost. It was not the flash of a Damascus blade. It was God before, and behindhand all around the oxgoad. When the people say that crime will triumph, and the world will never become converted because of the seeming insufficiency of the means employed, they count the six hundred armed Philistines on one side, an<j Shamgar, the farmer, awkwardly equipped, on the other side; not realizing that the chariots of God are twenty thousand strong, and that all Heaven, cherubic, seraphic, archangelic, deifie, is on what otherwise would be the weak side. Napoleon, the author of the saying “God is on the side of the heaviest artillery,” lived to find out his mistake; for at Waterloo, the one hundred and sixty guns of the English overcame the two hundred and fifty guns of the French. God is on the side of the right, and

n in the right will eventually* stronger than six hundred! men ia the wrong. la all estimate* of any kind of Christian work, do nob mistake every day made of leaving the Head of the universe. Again, rdy subject springs upon us the thought that in God’s service it is> that are particuShamgar had, like »n brought up on a nothing about javeand helmets, and greaves of brass, ballistae, and iron the axles of familiar with ling floor, and that; and knew how the oxknew how and I that, weapons, most exrice will' the best to use lariy suited many of us, farm. He ki lins, and buck! breastplates, a ml-catapults, a scythes fastened chariots. But he the flail of the tl knew how to pound the ax of the woods, to hew with that; goad of the plowman, to thrust with tha$. will do best to use those' we can best handle; th< with which we can make ecution. Some in God’s do best with the pen; spate voice; some by extemporaneous for they have the whole voea the English language half tween their brain and ton others will do best with man spread ont before them. Some serve God by the plow, raising wh and corn, and giving liberally of ml they sell to churches and some as merchants, and out of their profits will dedicate a tenth of the Lord; some as physicians, prescribing; for the world's ailments, and some \ attorneys, defending innocence, V. obtaining rights that otherwise wouK not be recognized; and some as sailors, \ helping bridge the seas; and some as teachers and pastors. The ^kingdom of God is dreadfully retarded by so many of us attempting to do that which we can not do; reaching up for broadsword, or falchion, or bayonet, or scimeter, or Enfield rifle, or Paixhan’s gun, while we ought to be content with an ox-goad. I thank God that there are tens of thousands qf Christians whom you never heard of, and never will hear of until you see them in the high places of Heaven, who are now in a quiet way at homes, and school houses, and in praying circles, and by sick beds, and up dark alleys, saying the saving word, and doing the' saving deed; the aggregation of their work overpowering the most ambitious statistics. Iu

the gramt review on tieaven, wnen me regiments pass the Lord of Hosts, there will be whole regiments of nurses, and Sabbath-school teachers,* and tract distributors, and unpretead-* ing workers, before whom, as they pass, the kings and queens of God and the Lamb will lift flashing coronet, and bow down in recognition and reverence. The most of the Christian work for the world’s reclamation and salvation will be done by people pf one talent, and two talents, while the ten-talent people are up in the astronomical observatories studying other worlds, though they do little or nothing for the redemption of this world; or are up in the rarified realms of “higher criticism” trying to find out that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, or to prove | that the throat of the whale was not large enough to swallow the minister who declined the call to Ninevah, and apologizing for the Almighty for certain inexplicable things tbey^have found in the Scriptures. It will be found but at the last that the Krupp guns have not done so much to capture this world for God as the ox-goad. Go out, then, I charge you, against the Philistines. We must admit the odds are agaiust us—six hundred tp one. In the matter of dollars, those devoted to worldliness, and sin, and dissipation, when compared with the dollars devoted to holiness and virtue-— six hundred to one. The bouses set ? apart for vice, and despoliation, and ruin, as compared with those dedicated to good, six hundred to one. Of printed; newspaper sheets scattered abroad from day to day, those depraving as compared with those elevating, are six hundred to one. The agencies for making the world worse, compared with the agencies for making the world better, six hundred to one. But Moses, in his song, chants- “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight,” and in my text one ox

goad conquers sis hundred uplifted battle-axes; and the day of universal victory is coining, unless the Bible be a fabrication, and eternity a myth, and the chariots of God are unwheeled on the golden streets, and the last regiment of the celestial hosts lies dead on the plains of Heaven. With us, or without us, the work will be dome. Oh. get into the ranks somewhere, armed somehow; you with a needle; you with a pen; yon with a good book; you with a loaf of bread for the hu»r gry; you with a vial of medicine for the sick; you with a pair of shoes for the barefooted; you with word of encouragement for the young man trying to get back from evil ways; you with some story of the Christ who came , to heal the worst wounds and pardon the blackest guilt, and call the farthest wanderer home. I say to you as the watchman of London used to say at night to the householders, before the time of street lamps came: “Hang out your light!” “Hang out your light t" Timely Caution. ^ A London journal gives this vouchedfor instance at the expense of a Lancashire clergyman: “The reverend gentleman, on entering the pulpit, announced that the bishop of Manchester was making a tour of his diocese, and might shortly be expected to visit this church. He then proceeded, without a pause, to deliver the text: ‘Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walkefih Jk about, seeking whom he may devour.”* ■ —No knowledge, no matter how I good, can take the place of the grace I of God in the heart. We want larger H hearts, filled with a consciousness df > ■ love to God and mac, rather than more brains or educated heads. Enlarge- * w ment of the heart is not a diseas** the spiritual if it is in the oaturmL