Pike County Democrat, Volume 28, Number 16, Petersburg, Pike County, 27 August 1897 — Page 6

THAN SIBERIAHave No License to Oritkdse Ipoa Oar Civilisation— 6»f. AlklMw WIU Taka Action la tka Matter. r. Loom. Aug. SI.—A special to the Republic from Atlanta, Ga, The ape cial com mission which Gov. Atkinson appointed last spring to in* ▼eatigaie the condition of the convict cam pa in Georgia made a report Friday which astounded not only the governor. but even those members of the legislature who thought that such an investigation was needed. It declares that the convict camps of thostate are worse than Siberia, and its findings show a condition so horrible, revolting and inhuman as to be -aitnoat beyond belief. t It deliberately charges that the convicts in the misdemeanor camps, most of whom are leased by the state to private contractors, have been handled without mercy by their keepers. The report accuses the contractors of robbing the convicts of the time the state allows to them for good behavior; of forcing them to work from 14 to 80 hours a day; of failing to provide them with clothes, shoes and beds; of giving them no heat in winter; of forcing •aoorea of them to sleep shackled in •ingle, boarded-up rooms; of giving them rotted food,and of failing to care fte the oick. iqqtqqeqq ore quoted showing the horrible treatment of women and exact times and places are affixed tc a charge that men were actually beaten to death by the brutal guards for failing to comply with insignificant reguThe report says that in most of the the men are provided with but one suit of convict clothes, which they sure compelled to wear the year round. In the matter of food, it says that on the return of 'the convicts from 16 hours’ continuous work they are gfveu chunks of raw beef and horse, which they have to cook on little fires while •hackled together on the ground.

In the matter of building*, the report is no leas severe. In the Glynn county camp the commission found 61 men sU-eping m a room IS feet square and sev. ii feet from floor to ceiling, with no window In it, and absolutely no means of means of ventilating. Moat of the campi> had neither bunks nor mattresses. . The convicts were compelled to sleep on the ground. The death rate in oue camp was one in four. In the others it averaged about one in seven. Men and women of both colors were forced to sleep together in outhouses, nod women were compelled to don men's clothes and work in the ditches with the men. The report's description of the treatment of women is unprintable. In one camp the commission found 16 colored men and a white woman quartered in • barn with cows, and with a guano atore-rooiu above them. In the Pulaski county camp the guards had beaten a convict to death nnd buried him with his stripes and shackles on. In another case the commission tells of an 18-year-old negres# named Lirrie ltoatwright, with another young woman, being stripped naked in the presence of the men and subjected to treatment that is indescribable. The exact language of the report in auother case is as follows: **The facts in the murder ease aga inst Guard Cannon as sworn to before the commission are these: * ‘•Cannon whipped the aged negro a number of times, and so unmercifully that, almost unconscious and helpless, the old man looked up from the ground, sphere he lay. and asked: ‘Buss, is you gwine to kill mtf Cannon angrily replied: ‘Ves.-. I am.' The negro then begged to be shot and spared further tortures. After the last whipping Gannon dragged him to a tree and chained him up so that he could not lie down. 11a.f an hour later, when the gang got back, he was dead." The report quotes in full the statement of Dr. John Hill, of Washington, Who performed an autopsy ou the oid negro. it is a detailed statement, ahowiug that the mau was beaten literally to a pulp before his tortured •out left his torn and bleeding bod,#. In conclusion, the report says: “God only knows just how badly the convict camps need reform."

Got. Atkiuson will report the matter to the legislature at once with a red-hot nmuge. and there is no doubt that prosecutions will follow. The report says that the contractors teasing eonricti hare grown rich during their 30year lease, and have built up a trt-m ndou» Influence, but it is doubtful if this will stand in the way of aroused public sentiment , REWARD INCREASED. fir* Bu4r*d DolUn for tk* ('spior* of lb* Xsttewil l‘»rk HU(* Kubbrra. CusnuiMt. Wya. Aug. SI. -United ■‘status Marshal McDermott was advised by the attorney general to-day to double the amount of the reward offered yesterday by the department of fnstlce for the capture of the stage robbers in the National park. Firs hundred dollars will now be paid for the arrest aud conviction of the hold* »p* THE SANTA F*E> HOLDUP. gebhtm Located aad Arrears Hooa to Follow. Kansas Cut, Mo., Aug. SL—A special to the Star from liuthric. Ok la., •ays: "United States Marshal Nagle said yeatsnlaj that the bandits who 'held tip* and attempted to rob the Santa Ft jtasaeugvr train near Edmond, hare been located and that arrests will follow os soon aa certain additional evidence is secured. The robbers are said ho he Oklohomiana, and regular desperate character*

PELAGIC SEALING KapMU| Tending to K»>—l-ttto eff Om 8tolHM4>-K«ntt of the Utort (BUM* bj tb« Joint CwmbMob ApCmumUm OmMMMMto-Cratt Halibut. Portland, Ore., Aug. 33.—I>r. David Starr Jordan, commissioner-in-chief of the fur seal investigations, with George A- Clark, secretary of the commission, arrived in Seattle 00 the revenue cutter Rush, and passed through Portland yesterday en route for San Francisco. The party left Unaiaska on the morning of August A Dr. Jordan reports the satisfactory completion of the summers investigation by the two eommis- | sioners. Mr. Macoan, the Canadian eommis- ! sioner, had already left the Pribyloff | islands, and the British commissioner, I Prof. Thompson, was about to leave on H. M. & Amphion. Mr. Lucas, of the American eomrnis- ! siou., remained for a week or ten days, and will go direct to San Francisco on the Del Norte. Dr. Jordan said, speaking directly regarding the result of his i latest investigations: | The breeding grounds show a shrinkage of about IS per cent, over tbe conditions of last season; the hunting grounds a shrinkage of 33 per cent. This is about what was predicted by I the American commission last year, and tbe conclusions are fully vindicated in all important regards. Tbe primary cause of shrinkage of females on the (weeding grounds is tbe pelagic catch of last fall and this spring To this Is added tbe loss due to starvation of orphaned pups in WIM. which should this year have lived to give birth to their first pups. This starvation In lgW, affecting, as it did. in like measure the male herd, is the oause of the diminution of j triable seals on the hunting grounds. The decane of the herd is everywhere more j distinctly marked than it was last year, owing { to the effect* of the resumption of pelagic killing in Behring sea after the modus viveadi of 1 MB. For MM tbe shrinkage will be still greater, through the destruction. In MM, of unborn pups with impregnated females killed. Thus the evil effects of pelagic seating in any j year ate still more clearly felt three and four ! years after. Event! pelagic sealing should be j stopped at once tbe deedne of the herd must j go onuhtil after 1AJ0 because of tbe after effect, 1 due to the destruction of nursing and unborn 1 offspring. The pelagic fleet in Behring sea numbers 1 about IV vessels, against 66 last year. The re- j ported catches are uaprohtable. No seizures have been made. The only new fact discovered this year has j been that a parasitic worm infesting the sandy ; rookery areas is the cause of a large part of the early mortality am >ng pups, which was ascribed in a general way last year to tram- ,

ItilOg. i Tb* early mortality, as a whole, shows a decrease relative to the decreased number of animals Branding of young female seals, which will be begun after September I. wilt be carried on by (JoL Murray, cuiof agent oo the islands, and Mr. K- E. Farmer, eiec t ric t an*' - The shins ot | the branded cows returned this year to the is- j lands show thirty the permnueu. y of the marh j and its efficiency to reader the skin unsaleable wituout injury to the animal or to the herd. Branding has the same eflecc on the fur seal herd that branding calves or shearing sheep has on those classes of animals. The tuea that the seals might be driven away by branding is | »heer u msenstv The catch of Ihe schooner from the Japanese coast, reported to have taken branded skins there, was examined in I'naiasaa by t'apt. Hi>s<er and no such skins were foun t, nor were any branded skins ka *wn to huve heo i taken on the Asiatic coast. The seals frequenting this coast are a distinct speciesThe salt lagooa on St. Paul island has been fenced, and the mates too young to be killed 1 tula year wiil be herded there until the close of pelagic sealing. A NEW INNOVATION. To I'ae Petroleum for Fuel for Torpedo Boats WasminosoX, Aug. as.-The secre.ary of the navy has ordered Lieut. Nathan Sargent to proceed at once to the oil tields of IVunsy ivauta. where he will wake a careful investigation of the various grades of petroleum produced iu that region with a view to its use as fuel for marine engines. Upon the conclusion of this work he will report to the authorities in charge of Ihe Newport torpedo station, aud plaus will he drawn up for an oil eugine which will be placed iu one of the new torpedo boats now beius built by the llereshoffs. This will be the first attempt to use petroleum as fuel for the torpedo fleet, but from the success that has been attained with this motive force in swift steam launches owned by private parties, both here aud abroad, the navy depart- j men! looks very favorably ou the ex- i perimeuL Some of the advantagesex- j peefed from the new fuel are economy of wachiue space. and consequently great fuel carrying capacity; ; iu the cost of fuel aud the ability to develop extremely high steam pressure under forced draught. The plaus for the new engine are pot vet laid, aud will depend largely on the report on the various grades of petroleum at command. It is possible that with this innovation in fuel will be combined the use of the steam turbine engine whose success in the English torpedo boat Turbina has been a decided epoch in the development of these fleet destroyers abroad.

LAST FOR THE SEASON. Tht Lul Boat Fro an Calllonla for l&t Ataaka Gold Fields This Year. San Francisco, Aug. Si.—The last expedition this year from California for the Alaska gold fields will leave here on August 35. The steamer Navarro has been .charted by the California Alaska Navigation & Commercial Co., acd will tow the river steamer Thomas Dwyer to the mouth of the Yukon river. The.Navarro will have accommodations for 75 passengers, and the managers of the expedition calculate on reaching Dawson I City in about S3 days. Two physicians will accompany the expedition to look after the health of the prospectors. THE SPANISH PREMIER. Ur rrorUlaa Hin«rtf the UphI of Iht Uvttraarat, Jim a Farty L»*d»r. Sax Sxbastiax. Aug. 23.—Gen. Azear | rags, the premier, and minister of war, i has decided to convoke the cortes iu November. The premier announces that he is in accord with Gen. Weyler, but he reserves the right to make a farther examination of the Caban question. In conclusion the premier proclaims himself 4s being the head of the goo* eminent, and not the lender of nay party. *.

PUT OFF AT BUFFALO. Thousands of Grand Army Hen Arrived and Arriving T* Attend the National Eoraupmwt* Ctaelaaatl the One Choice of the Veterans tar the Next Encampment - Klehniottd Not la It. BrrrAXO, N. Y., Aug. ax—Buffalo is all ready for the army of veterans who are on their jsvay here to attend the thirty-first annual encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic. During the night hundreds of veterans and their friends arrived, and to-day they are coming in by thousands. It is estimated that nearly 8.000 strangers were in town yesterday, and that from 15,000 to 20.000 came in today. The various railroads entering Buffalo report that io addition to the hundreds of regular trains, schedules bave been prepared for 245 specials to arrive here by Tuesday noon. Among the prominent arrivals are J. Cory Winans. of Commauder-in-Chief Clarkson's staff; J. S. Lewis, past junior vice-commander, and Denial Ross, of Wilmington, Del., a candidate for junior vice-commander-in-chief. Camp Jewett, as the city of tenta is known, is all ready for its inhabitants, and while it will not be formally opened until four o'clock this afternoon, a number of posts are already installed. Ample arrangements have been made st the camp and* elsewhere for the care of the sick. Three hospital tents have been eiected ut Camp Jewett, each in charge of a competent staff of physicians. The honor of flying the first pennent from any tent at Camp Jewett belongs to Reno post. No. 64, of Williamsport, Pa. A detachment of II members arrived yesterday, who were assigned to tents 2729. Clayton P. White, of Williamsport, was the first veterau to arrive, aud he is quartered on the steamer Idaho, which has been assigned to the naval posts.

Among the later announcements ox candidates to succeed Commauder-in-Chief Clarkson. are the names of John C. Linehan. /of New Hampshire, George II. Inn is. of Massachusetts, J. li. iSexton. of Chicago, aud James P. Gubin, of Pennsylvania. Col. Winans, of Commander-in-chief Clarkson's staff, estimates the number of visitors to Buffalo during the week at 2JO.two. making the largest encamp* au nt ever held. In speaking of the choice of the veterans for the n xt encampment, Col. Winans said that so far as his information went there was but one choice among the delegates and that was Cincinnati. There seems to be a feeling, he said, among some of the eastern people that !>au Francisco wants the encampment, but this is a mistake. San Francisco is preparing to make a bid in 1SSK*. With regard to the encampment being held iu Richmond, Ya.. he asserted that there is nothing iu it. The people down there do not want it. aud the veterans do not care to go there. The ehief objection, he said, was the certainty of unpleasant complications over the color line. Col. Winans says Pennsylvania will send the most people to the encampment, with New York secoud and Ohio third in attendance. FATE OF THE BERMUDA. Will be Held by the ltrltish Authorities ol Jamaica. Pun.AUKi.rHia, Aug. 23. —The British steamship Ethel Wild, Capt. List, arrived at this port from Port Antonio, Jamaica, last night, having on board as passenger, iu addition .to Commissioner of Navigation Eugene Tyler Chamberlain aud L»r. Parker, of Washington. 13 of the crew of the alleged filibustering steamship Bermuda, which had been sensed out there by the British government. It was learned from Mr. Chamberlain that Capt. Murray of the steamer Bermuda had been adjudged guilty of violation of the quarantine laws and sentenced to pay a hue of JJ10O or to uudergo 30 days' imprisonment. He chose the latter aud is now serriug his time. The Bermuda will be sold bj the British auth^mies. \_

FIVE CHILDREN DROWNED By theCapdiini of an Overloaded float— Many Other* Reamed by I tout* Toronto. Out., Aug. 23.—Five ehildren were drowaed in the harIk r yesterday afternoon by the capsizirg of a float. The bodies of three were recovered. The float was 13 feet long and six feet wide, and was made of rough timber and used for conveying workmen from the mainland at'the foot of Cherry street to the breakwates. a distance of about 100 yards. The float is worked by chains attached to the bank on one side and the breakwater on the ather side. Yesterday afternoon 31 children, boys and girls, rangiug from » to 13 years of age, crowded on the raft intending to go bathing at the breakwater. Half way across the Channel, where the water is very deep, »he raft capsized, and all the children were thrown into the water. Thbre w-re many boats in the neighborhood and these were quickly at the scene of the accident- Ail of the children were rescued except five. IMPORT DUTY ON WHEAT. rbe French Government Will Not Suppress It to Meet Popular UrawhO. 1*XK1S. Aug. 23.—Tbs Eclair and sther papers say that official circles regard it as useless to suppress the import duty on wheat, and assert that y. Meline, the premier, has made no special declaration on the subject. The Temps says he has given the matter close study, bat at the ministry of agriculture, which does not appear to share the excitement of the ncwitpane rm, there is no disposition ei has to suppress or to lower the duties.

■' TALMAGES SEBMON. ▲ Discourse Full of Encouragement \ tor the Downcast. Mil) Um An Saved Like Job “With the Skin of Tboftr Tooth H-Happl«N« In ChriUlu Faith-God Not Responsible far Troubles. Rev. T. DeWitt Talma^e, in the following sermon, presents words of encouragement for those who consider themselves in a hopeless condition. The text is: I am escaped with the skis of my teeth.—Job ! six., 2ft Job had it ^ard. What with boils, j and bereavements, and bankruptcy, j and a fool of a wife, he wished he was j desd; and I do not blame him. His. flesh was gone, and his bones were dry. | His teeth wasted away until nothing j but the enamel seemed left, lie cried \ out: *‘I am escaped with the skin of j my teeth.” There has been some difference of j opinion about this passage. St. Jerome * and Schultens, and Doctors Good, and j j Poole, and Barnes, have all triad their j forceps on Job's teeth. You deny my j | interpretation, and say: “What did t j Job know about the enau 1 of the I teeth?" He knew every thing about it. f Dental surgery is almost as old as the j ■ earth. The mummies of Egypt, thou- j sands of years old, are found to-day with gold filling in their teeth. Ovid, and Horace, and Solomon, and Moses wrote about these important factors of the body. To other provoking complaints, Job. I think, has added an exasperating toothache, and putting his hand against the inflamed face, he says: *T am escaped with the skin of my teeth.”

A very narrow escape, you say, for Job's body and soul; but there are thousands of men who make just as narrow escape for their soul. There was a time whei^ the partition between them and rain was no thicker than a tooth’s enamel; but, as Job finally escaped, so hare they. Thank God! thank God! Paul expresses the same idea by a different figure when he says that some people are “saved as by lire.” A vessel at sea is in flames. The boats have shoved off. The flames advance; you can endure the heat no longer on your face. You slide down on the side of the vessel, and ho d on with your lingers uutil the forked tongue of fire begins to lick the back of your hands, and you feel that you must fall, wheu one of the lifeboats comes back, and the passengers say they think they ha\e room for one more. The boat swings under you—you drop iuto it— you are saved. >o some m u are pursued by temptation uulil they are partially cousumed, but after all get off— “saved as by fire.” But 1 like the figure of Job a little better than that of Paul, because the pulpit has not worn it out; aud i waut to show you, if God will help, that some men make narrow escape of their souls, and are saved as “with the skin of their teeth.” It is easy for some people to look to the cross as for you to look to this pulp'V Mild, gentle, tractable, loving, you expect them to beeome Chri>tiaus. You go over to the store aud say: “Grandou joined the church yesterday.” Your business comrades say: “That is just what might have been expected; he was always of that turu of mind.” In youth this person whom I describe was always good. He never broke things. He never laughed when it was improper to laugh. At seven, he could sit au hour in church, perfectly quiet, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left, but straight iuto the eyes of the minister, as though he understood the whole discussiou about the eternal decrees. He never upset things nor lost them. He floated iuto the kingdom of Go l so gradually that it is uncertain just when the matter w as decided. Herr is auother oue, who started in life with an uucoutroUable spirit. He kept the nursery in an uproar. His mother found him walkiug ou the edge of the house-roof to see if he coutd | balance himself. There was no horse 1 that l.e dared not ride—no tree that he could not climb. His boyhood was a long series of predicaments; his mailhood reekless; his midlife very wayward. But now he is converted, and | you go over to the store and say:; “Arkwright joined the ehurcu yester- :

day.” Your friends say: “It is not possible; you must be joking.*’ You j say: “No-; 1 tell you the truth. lie ‘ joined the church.” Then they reply: “There is hope for any of us if old Arkwright has become a Christian!” In other words, we will admit that it ismore difficult for some men to accept the Gospel than for others. I may be preaching to some who hare cut loose from churches, and Bibles, and Sundays, and who hare no Intention of becoming Christians themselves, and yet you may find yourself escaping, before you leare this house, as “with the akin of your teeth.” 1 do not expect to waste this hour. I hare seen boats go off from Cape May or Long Branch, and drop their nets, and after awhile come ashore, pulling in the nets without hariugcaughtasingle fish. It was not a good day, or they had not the right kind bf a net. lint | we expect no such excursion to-day. The water is full of fish, the wind is in the right direction, the Gospel net is strong. O, Thou who didst help Simon aud Andrew to fish, show us how to cast the net on the right side of the ship. Some of you. in coming to God. will have to run against skeptical notions. It is useless for people to say sharp j and cuttiug things to those who reject the Christian religion. 1 can not say such things. By wuat process of temp- ; tatiou, or trial, or betrayal, you have come to your present state. 1 know not. j There are two gates to your nature; the gate of the head and the gate of the heart. The gate of .your head is locked with bolts and bars that an archangel could not break, but the gate of your heart swings easily on its hiara. If 1 assaulted your | body with weapons yon would

Met me with weapons, and it would be sword-stroke for sword-stroke, • and wound for wound, and blood for blood; but if 1 come and knock at the door of your house, you open it, and give me the best seat in your parlor. If I should come at you now with an argument, you would answer me with an argument; if with sarcasm, you would answer me with sarcasm; blow for blow, stroke for stroke; but when I come and knock mt the door of your heart, you open it and say: ‘"Come in, my brother, aud tell me all you know about Cnrist and Heaven.” Listen to two or three questions Are you as happy as you used to be j when you believed in the truth of the | Christian religion? Would you like to | hare your children travel on in the j road in which you are now traveling? j You had a relative who professed to be a Christian, and was thoroughly con- j sistent. living and dying in the faith of | the Gospel. Would you not like to live the same quiet life and die the | same peaceful death? I hold, in my hand a letter, sent me by one who has j rejected the Christian religion. It says: “I am old enough to know that the joys aud pleasures of life ara evanescent, and to realize the fact that it must be comfortable in old age to believe in something relative to the future, and to have a faith in some system that proposes to save. 1 am free to confess! that I would be happier if I could exercise the simple and beautiful faith that is possessed by many whom 1 know. 1 ain not willingly out of the church or out of the faith. My state of uncertainty is one of unrest, Sometimes 1 doubt my immortality, and look upon the deathbed as the closing scene, after which there is nothing. What shall I do that 1 have net done?

Ah! skepticism is a dark ana doleful land. Let me say that this Bible is either true or false. If it be false we are as well off as you; if it be true, then which of us is safer? Let me also ask whether your trouble has not been that you confounded Christianity with the inconsistent character of some who profess it? You are a lawyer, In your profession there are mean and dishonest men. Is that anything against the law? You are a doctor. There are unskilled and contemptible men in your profession. Is that anythiug against nredieine? You are a merchant. There are thieves and defrauders in your business. Is that anything against merchandise? Behold, then, the unfairness of charging upon Christianity the wickedness of its disciples. We admit some of the charges against those who profess religion. Some of the most gigantic swindles of the present day have been carried on by members of the chureh. There are men standing in the front rank in the churches who would not be trusted for live dollars without good collateral security. They leave their business dishonesties in the vestibule of the church as they go in and sit at the cotumuuion. Having concluded the sacrament, they get up, wipe the wine from their lips, go out and take up their sins where they left off. To serve the devil is their regular work; to serve God a sort of play-spell. With a Sunday sponge they expect to wipe off from their business slate all the past week’s inconsistencies. Yon have uo more right to take such a man's life as a specimen of ^religion than you have t> take the twisted irons and split timbers that lie on the beach at Coney islaudasa specimen of an American ship. It is time that we draw a line between religion aud the frailties of those who profess it. Do you not feel that the Bible, take it all in all. is about the best book that the world has ever seen? Do you know any book that has as much in it? Do you not thiuk. upon the whole, that its influence has been beneficent? - I come to you with both hands extended toward you. In one ban I I have the Bible, and in the other hand I have nothing. This Bible in eue hand I will surrender forever just as soon as in my other hand you cau put a book that is better. 1 invite you back Into the good oldfashioned religiou of your fathers—to the God whom they worshiped, to the Bible they read, to the promises they learned, to the cross on which they hung their etc aal expectations. Yon have not been happy a day since you swung off; you will not be happy a

in mute until you swing back. There is a large class of persons in midlife who have still in them appetites that were aroused in early manhood, at a time when they prided themselves on being a “little fast,” “high Rivera,” “free and easy," “hail fellows well met.” They are now paying in compound interest for troubles they collected 30 years ago. Some of yon are trying to escape, and you will— yet very narrowly, “as with the akin of your teeth.” God and yonr own sonl only know what the struggle is. Omnipotent grace has pulled out many a soil that was deeper in the mire than you are. They line the beach of Heaven—the multitude whom God has rescued yon from the thrall of suicidal habits. If you this day tarn back on the wrong and start anew, God will help you. Oh. the weakness of human help! Men will sympathisefur awhile, anti then tarn yon off. if you adc for their pardon, they will give it and say they will try yoaagain; but falliug away again under the power of temptation, they cast you off forever. Bat God forgives saventyj times seven; yea. seven huudred times; yea, though this be the ten thousandth time. He is more earnest, more sympathetic. more helpful this last time than i when you took the first mistep. If, with all the influences favorable for a right life, men make so many j mistakes, how much harder it is when, for instance, some appetite thrusts its iron grapple iuto the roots of the tongue, and pulls a man down with hands of destruction! If, under snch circumstances, he break away, there ! will be no sport in the undertaking, no holiday enjoyment, bat a struggle in which the wrestlers move from side to side, and band, and twist, and watch

■ ■ ■ - 1for an opportunity to get in a heavier stroke, until with one final effort, ha which the muscles are distended, and the reins stand out, and the blood starts, the swarthy habit falls under the knee of the victor—escaped at last as “with the skin of his teeth.” There are others who, in attempting to come to God, must run between a great many business perplexities. If a man go over to business at 10 o’clock in the morning and come away at S o'clock in the afternoon, he has some time for religion; but how shall you find time for religious conte mplation when you are driven from sunrise to sunset, and have been for five years going behind in business, and are frequently dunned by creditors whom you can not pay, -= and when from Monday morning until Saturday night you are dodging bills that you can not meet? You walk day by day in uncertainties that have kept your brain on fire for the past three years. Some with less business troubles than yon havegone crazy. The clerk has. heard a noise in the back counting room, and gone in and found the chief man of the firm a raving maniac; or the wife has heard the bang of a pistol in the back parlor and gone in, stnufbling over the dead body of her husband—a suicide. There are men pursued, harassed, trodden down and scalped of business perplexities, and which way to turn next they do not know. Now, God will not be hard on you. He knows what obstacles are iu the way of you being a Christian, and your first effort in the right direction He will crown with success. Do not let Satan, with cotton bales, and kegs, and hogsheads, and counters, and stocks of unsalable goods, blhck up your way to Heaven. Gather up ail your energies. Tighten

the girdle about your loins. Take an agonizing look into the face of God, and then say, “Here goes one grahd effort for life eternal.” and then bound away for Heaven, escaping “as with the skin of your teeth.” In the last day it will be found chat Hugh Latimer, and John Knox, ahd Huss, and Ridley were not the great^t martyrs, but Christian men, who went up incorrupt 4rom the contaminations and perplexities of Pennsylvania avenue, Broad street. State street and Third street. On earth they were called brokers, or stock jobbers, or retailers, or importers; but iu Heaven, Christian heroes. No faggots were heaped about their feet; no iuquisition demanded from their recantation; no soldier aimed a pike at their heart; but they had mental tortures, campared with which all physical consuming is as the breath of a spring morning. 1 hud in the community a large class of men who have becu so cheated, so lied abou.. so outrageously wronged, that they have lost the.r faith in everything. lu a wprid wuere everythiug seems so topsy-tm vey, they do uot see how there can be any God. They are confounded, and frenzied, and misanthropic. Elaborate arguments to prove to them the truth of Christianity, or the truth of any thing else, touch them nowhere. Hear, me, all such men. I preach to you no rounded periods, no ornamental discourse; but put my hand on your shoulder, aud invite you into.tue peace of the Gospel. Here is a rock ou which you may stand firm, though the waves dash against it harder than the Atlantic, pitchiug its surf clear above Eddvstone lighthouse. Do not charge upou Go! all these troubles of the world. As ioug as the world stuek to Go!, God stuck to the world; but the ea id h seceded from His government, aud hence all these outrages aud alt these woes. God is good. For many him Ireds of years He has been coaxing the world to come back to Him; but the more He has coaxed, the more violent have been men in their resistance, and they have stepped back, and steppe! back until they have drop* ped iuto ruin. Try this Go!, ye who have hail the bloodhounds after you and who have thought that God had forgotten you. Try Him, aud see if He will not help. Try Him, and see if lie will not pardon. Try Him, aud see if lie will not save^ The dowers of spring have no bloom so sweet as the flowering of Christ’s affections. The sun has no warmth compared with the giow of His heart. The waters have no refreshment like the fountain that will slake the thirst of thy soul. At the moment the reindeer stands with his

lip and nostril thrust m the cool mountatn torrent, the hunter may be coining through the thicket. Without cracking a stick under his foot, he comes close to the stag, aims his gun, draws the trigger, and the poor thing rears in its death agony and falls backward, its antlers crashing on the rocks; but the panting hart that drinks from tha water-brooks of God’s promise shall never be fatally wounded, and shall never die. ' Oh. find your peace in God. Make one strong pull for Heaven. No halfway work will do it There sometimes comes a time on shipboard when everything must be sacntied to save the passengers. The cargo is nothing; the rigging is nothing. The captain puts the trumpet to his lip and shouts: "Cut away the mast” Some of you have been tossed aud driven, and you have, in your efforts to keep the world, well-nigh lost your soul. Until you have decided this matter let everything else go. Overboard with all those other auxieties' and burdens. You will have to drop the sails of your pride and cut away the mast. With one earnest cry for help, pat your cause into the hand at Him who helped Paul out of the breakers of Alelita, and who. above the shrill blast of the wrathiest tempest that evar blackened the sky or shook the ocaan, can hear the faintest imploration of mercy. 1 shall close this sermon feeling that some of you, who have considered your case as hopeless, will take heart a&ain, and that with a blood-red earnestness, such as you have never experienced before. you will start for the good land of the Gospel—at last to look back, saying: “What a great risk Iran! almost lost, but saved! Just got through, and no morel Escaped bj the akin at my teeth.” /