Pike County Democrat, Volume 30, Number 27, Petersburg, Pike County, 10 November 1899 — Page 7

OUB HOME IN HEAVEN ‘''r , _• Dr. Talmage Preaches on the Glories of Our Father’s Bouse. 'There Are la It Maay Rooms, aad There la a Plaee far Every J 4 „ One of Ciod’a Children.

(Copyright. 1S39, by Louis Klopsch.) Washington. Nov. & In a unique way the Heavenly world 4s discoursed upon by Dr. Talmage in this sermon under the figure of a home; text, John 14:2: “In my father’s .house are many rooms." Here is a bottle of medicine that is a ■cure all. The disciples were *ad, and •Christ offered Heaven as an alternative, a stimulant and a tonic. He shows . .them that their sorrows are onty* a dark Background of a bright picture of coming felicity. He lets them know that, though they live on the lowlands, they ■shall yet have a house on the uplands. Nearly all the Hible descriptions of Heaven may be figurative.. 1 am not positive that in £ll Heaven there is a literal crown ®r harp or pearly gate or throne or chariot. They may be only used to illustrate the glories of the place, but how well they do it! ■ The favorite symbol by which the Bible pre--■aents ^celestial happiness is a house. Paul, who never owned a house, although he hired one f6r two years in Italy, speaks of Heaven as a “house not made with hands,” and Christ in our text, the translation of which is a little changed, so as to give the more ac•curat^neaning, says: = “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” This Divinely authorized comparison of Heaven to u great homestead of large -accommodations I propose to carry out. In some healthy neighborhood a m«fn ’-builds a very commodious habitation. He must have room for all his children. The rooms come to be called after the ■different members of the family. That is mother’s room, that is George’s room, that is Henry’s room, that is Flora’s loom, that is Mary’s room, and the house is all occupied. But time goes by, •and the sons go out into the world and build their own homes, and the daughters are married or have talents enough «ingly to go out and do a good work in the world. AfteT awhile the father and mother are almost alone in the house, -and, sealed by the evening stand, they «ay: “Well, our family is no larger now than when we started together 40 , years ago.” But time goes still farther by, and some of the children are unfortunate, and return to the old homestead to,live, and the grandchildren come nvith them, and perhaps great-grand-•children, and again the house is full. Millennia ago God built on the hills of Heaven a great homestead for a family innumerable, yet to be. At first He lived jalqne in that great house, but after •awile it was occupied by a very large family, cherubic, seraphic, angelic. The eternities passed on, and mhny of the inhabitants became wayward and left, never to return, and many of the apartments were vacated. I refer tu the fallen^ angels. Now these apartments are filling up again. There are arrivals at the old homestead of God’s children •every day, and the day will come when there will be no unoccupied room in all the house. - ~

As you and I expect to enter it and make there eternal residence, 1 thought _you would like to get some more particulars about the many roomed home • stead* “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” You see the place is to be apportioned off into apartments. We shall Jove all who are in Hpaven, but there are some very good people whom we 'would not want to live with in the same room. They may be better than we are, ■but they arc of a divergent temperament. We would like to meet with them on the golden streets and worship with them in the temple and walk with them on the river banks, but I am glad to say that we shall live in different apartments. “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” You see, Heaven will be so large that if one wants an entire room to himself or herself it can be afforded. An ingenious statistician, taking the statement made an Revelation, twentyfirst chapter, that the Heavenly Jerusalem was measured and found to be 12,000 furlongs and that the length and height and breadth of it are equal, says sthat would make Heaven in size 94S sextillioja 988 quintillion cubic feet, and then, reserving a certain portion for the court of Heaven and the streets and estimating that the world may last a hundred thousand years, he ciphers out that there are over 5,000,000,000,000 rooms, each room 17 feet long, 16 feet w ide, 15 feet high. But I have no faith in the accuracy of that calculation. He makes the rooms too small. From call I can read, the rooms will be palatial, and those who have not mid enough • room in this world will have plenty of room at the last. The fact is that most people in this world are crowded, and, though out on a vast prairie or in u mountain district people may have more room than they want, in most •cases it is a house built close to house, and the streets are crowded, and the •cradle is crowded by other cradles, and the graves crowded in the cemetery by other graves, and \on© of the richest luxuries of many people in gettingout of this world will be the gaining of unhindered and uncramped room. And 1 should not wonder if, instead of tue room that the statistician ciphered out «s only 17 feet by 16, it should be larger than any of the rooms at Berlin, •St. James or Winter palace. “In my father’s house are many rooms.” Carrying out still further the symbolism of the text, let us join hands, and go op to this majestic homestead and see for ourselves. As we ascend the golden oteps an invisible guardsman swings •open the front door, and we are ushered to the right into the reception room of the old homestead. That is the first Since where we first meet the welcome

|'“'lV ... of Heaven. Ther# most be a place where the departed spirit enters, and a place in which it confronts the inhabitants celestial. The reception room of the newly arrived from this world— what scenes it must have witnessed since the first guest arrived, the victim of the first fraticide, pious Abel! In that room Christ lovingly greets all newcomers. He redeemed them, and He has the right to the first embrace on arrival. What a minute wheu the ascended spirit first sees the Lord 1 Better than all we ever l%ad about Him or talked about Him or sang about Him in all the churches and through all our earthly lifetime will it be, just for one second, to see Him. The most rapturous idea we ever had of Him on sacramental days or at the heigiht of some great revival or under the uplifted baton of an oratorio is a bankruptcy of thought compared with the first flash of His appearance in that reception room. At that moment when you confront each other. Christ looking upou you and you looking upon Chris;, there will be an ecstatic thrill ant! surging of emotion that beggar all description. Look! They ueeti no introduction; Long ago Christ chose that repentant sinner, and that repentant sinner chose Christ. Mightiest moment of an immortal history—the first kiss of Heavenl Jesus and the soul! The sou! and Jesus!

But now into that reception room pour the glorified kinsfolk, enough of earthly retention to let you know them, but without their wounds or sicknesses or their troubles—see what Heaven has done for them!—so radiant, so gleeful, so tronsportingly lonely! They call you by name. They greet you with an ardor proportioned to the anguish of your parting and the length of your separation. Father! Mother! There is your child. Sisters! Brothers! Friends! I wish you joy. For years apart, together again in the reception room of the old homestead. You see, they will know you are coming. There are So many immortals tilling all the spaces between here and Heaven that news like that flies like lightning. They will be there in an instant. 'Though they were in some other world on errand from God, a signal would be thrown out that would fetch them. Though»you might at first feel dazed and overawed at their supernal splendoy, all that feeling will be gone at their first touch of Heavenly salutation, and we will say: “Oh, my lost boy!” “Ohvmy lost companion!” “Oh, my lost friend! Are we here together?” What scenes in that reoeption room of the old homestead have been witnessed! There met Joseph and Jacob, finding it a brighter room than anything they saw in Pha- | raoh’s palace; David and the little child for whom he once fasted and wept; Mary and Lazarus after the heartbreak of Bethany; Timothy and grandmother Lois; Isabella Graham and her sailor son; Alfred and George Cookman, the mystery of the sea at last made manifest; Luther and Magdalene, the daughter he bemoaned; Johp Howard and the prisoners whom he gospelized, and multitudes without number who, once so weary and so sad, parted on earth, but gloriously met in Heaven. Among all the rooms of that house there is no one that more enraptures my soul than that reception room. “In my Father's house are many rooms.”

Another room in our Father’s house is the music room. St. John and other Bible writers talk so much about the music of Heaven that there must be music there, perhaps not so much as on earth was thrummed from trembling string or evoked by touch of ivory key, but if not that, then something better. There are so many Christian harpists and Christian composers and Christian organists and Christian choristers and Christian hymnologists that have gone up from earth, there must be for them some pla& of especial delectation. Shall we have music in this world of discords .and no music in the land of complete harmony? I cannot give you the notes of the first bar of the new song that is sung in Heaven. I cannot imagine either the solo or the doxology. But Heaven means music, and can mean nothing else. Occasionally that music has escaped the gate!, Dr. Fuller, dying at Beaufort, S. C., said: “Do you not hear?” “Hear what?” exclaimed the bystanders. “Tile music! Lift me up! Open the windows!” In that music room of our Father’s hou^e you will some day meet the old masters. Mozart and Handel and Mendelssohn and Beethoven and Doddridge, whose sacred poetry was as femarkablfe as his sacred prose, and James Montgomery, and William Cowper, at last got rid of his spiritual melancholy, and Bishop Heber, who sang of “Greenland’s icy mountains and India’s coral stjand,” and Dr. Raffles, who wrote of “High in yonder realms of light,” and Isaac Watts, who went to visit Sir Thomas Abaey and wife for a week, but proved himself so agreeable a guest that they made him stay 36 years, and side by side Augustus Toplady, who has got over his dislike for Methodists, and Charles Wesley, freed from his dislike for Calvinists, and George W. Bethune, as sweet as a song-maker as he was great as iTprencher and the author of .“The Village Hymns,” and many who wrote in verse or song, in church or by eventide cradle, and many who were passionately fond of music, but could make none themselves, the poorest singer there more than any earthly prima donna and the poorest players there more than any earthly GottschalkOh, that music room, the headquarters of cadence and hytbm, symphony and chant,%>salm and antiphon! May we be there some hour when Haydn sits at the keys of one of his own oratorios, and David the psalmist fingers the harp, and Miriam of the Red sea banks claps the cymbals, and Gabriel puts his lips to the trumpet and the four and twenty elders chant, and Lind and Parepa reader matchless duet in the music room of the old heavenly homestead! “In my Father’s house are many rooms.”

Another room in our Father’s bouse will be the family room. It may cor re- J spond somewhat with the family room on earth. At morning and evening, yon know, that is the place we now meet. Though every member of the household have a separate room, in the family room they ail gather, and joys and sorrows and experiences of all styles are there rehearsed. Sacred room in ail our dwellings, whether it be luxurious with ottomans and divans and books in I Russian lids standing in mahogany case or there be only a few plain chairs and a cradle. So the family room on high will be the place where the kinsfolk assemble and talk over the family experiences of earth, the weddings, the births, the burials, the festal days of Christmas and Thanksgiving reunion. Will the children departed remain children there? Will the aged remain aged there? Oh.no! Everything is perfect there. The child will go ahead to glorified maturity, and the aged will go back to glorified maturity. The ris

ing sun of the one will rise to meridian, nml the descending sun of the other will return to meridian. However much we love our children on earth, we would consider it a domestic disaster if they staid children, and so we rejoice at their, growth here. And when we meet itM the family room of our Father’s house we will be glad that they have grandly and gloriously matured, whtfe our parents, who were aged and infirm here, we shall be glad to find restored to the most agile and vigorous immortality there. If 40 or 45 or 50 years be the apex of physical and mental life on ' earth, then the Heavenly childhood will advance to that, and the Heavenly old age will retreat to that. When we join I them in that family room we shall have j much to tell them. We shall want to know of them, right away, such things | as these: Did you see us in this or that ' or the other struggle*? Did you know when we lost our propertv^and sympa- ! thize with us? Did you know we had that awful sickness? Were you hoVering anywhere around us when we : plunged Into that memorable accident? Did you know of our backsliding? Did j you know of that,moral victory? Were you pleased when we started for Heaven? Did you celebrate the hour of our conversion? And then, whether they know it or not, we will tell them all. But they will have more to tell us than we to tell them. Ten years on earth may be very eventful, but what must be the biography of ten years in Heaven ? They will have to tell jus the story of coronations, story of news from nil immensity, story of conquerors- and hierarchs, story of wrecked or ransomed planets, story of angelic victory over diabolic revolts, of extinguished suns, of obliterated constellations, of new galaxies kindled and ! swung, of stranded comets, of worlds on fire and story of Jehovah’s majestic reign. If in tjiat family room of our Father’s house we have so much to tell them of what we have passed through since we parted, how much more thrilling and arousing that which they have to tell us of what they have passed through since we parted! - Surely that family room will be one of the most fa

vored rooms in all our Father s house. What long lingering there, for we shall never again be in a hurry! “Let me open a window,” said a humble Christian servant to Lady Raffles, who, because of the death of her child, had shut herself up in a dark room and refused to see anyone. “You have been many days in this dark room. Are you not ashamed to grieve in this manner, wheu you ought to be thanking God for having given you the most beautiful child that ever was seen, and, instead of leaving him in this world till he should be worn with trouble, has not God taken him to Heaven in all his beauty? Leave off weeping and let me open a window.” So to-day i am trying to open upon the darkness of earthly separation the windows and doors and rooms of the Heavenly homestead. “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” ^How would it do for my sermon to leave you in that family room to-day ? I am sure there is no room in which you would rather stay than in the enraptured circle of your ascended and glorified kinsfolk. We might visit other rooms in our Father’s house. There may be picture galleries penciled not with earthly art, but by some process unknown in this world, preserving for the nest world the brightest and most stupendous scenes of human history, and there may be lines and forms of earthly beauty preserved whiter and chaster and richer than Venetian sculpture ever wrought — rooms beside rooms, rooms over rooms, large rooms, majestic rooms, opalescent rooms, amethystine rooms. “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” Lhope none of us will be disappointed about getting there. There is a room for us if we will go and take it, but in order to reach it it is absolutely necessary that we make the right way, and Christ is the way, and we must enter at the right door, and Christ is the door, and we must start in time, and the only hour you are sure of is the hour the clock now strikes, and the only second the one your watch is now ticking. 1 hold in my hand a roll of letters inviting you all to make that j’our home forever. The Mew Testament is only a roll of letters inviting you. as the spirit of them practically says: “My dying yet immortal child in earthly neighborhood, l have built for you a great residence. It is full of rooms. I have furnished them as no palace was ever furnished. Pearls are nothing, emeralds are nothing. chrysoprasua is nothing, illumined panels of sunrise and sunset nothing, the aurora of the northern heavens nothing, compared with the splendor with which 1 have garnitured them. But you must be clean before you can enter there, and so I have opened a fountain where you may wash all your sins away. Come now! Put your weary but cleansed feet on the upward pathway. Da you not see amid the thick foliage on the heavenly hilltops the old family homestead?” “In my Father's house are many rooms.”

DANGER nr EXPANSION. Coy. Schofield, ot Wlieraiia, Sax* America Should Not Keep the Philippines.

Oar. Scofield has written a letter to the Milwaukee Journalon the Philippine question in which he says it would be dangerous to the republic to keep the Philippines. The gtfrernor writes: “While the question of the disposition to be made of the Philippines is political In the highest sense It has not become a party issue, and. I believe, is a question which ts to be settled in the near future. I take it that the issue Is not really one of expansion or anti-expansion, so-called, and it Is only obscured by the talk of imperialism «r anti-imperialism. “It is essentially a public question and one which should be widely discussed. And let me say that the free discussion of it by a republican, whatever side he may take, in no sense Involves disloyalty to the administration. Every man of intelligence. In the country, I believe, is with the president In his efforts to suppress the insurrection; but what disposition is to be made of the new territory and the people who will become dependent upon us is a question to be settled by congress* and congress should express the will of the people. “The real issue presented Is this: Shall the government after It has suppressed the Insurrection plan to retain permanent posrssion of the Philippines and make that archipelago a portion cf our territory aftd its 8,000,000 or more people a part of our population? Is it expedient for this country to permanently add to its territory and its population those faivpff islands and their group of motley inhabitants? “If we maintain control in the Philippines they must be directly and completely subject to our authority; but we need not trouble ourselves as some do with the maxim that we must not attempt to govern without the consent of the governed. The consent of the governed in such cases may be predicated upon the inability to refuse to be governed. That maxim, therefore, if it is applicable at all to the case, may be used to strengthen rather than weaken the side of those who go in fora policy of acquisition. “Leaving aside the danger which would threaten us on the side of a vigorous cultivation of the military spirit and a stimulated desire for acquisition, I do not believe this country can afford tq assume so enormous a responsibility. “We may talk splendidly of the brotherhood of man, but before we extend that principle tv© must conserve the existence of men. Whatever is to be done by us in the Philippines or elsewhere earsonly be accomplished while the integrity or our own national existence is Intact. “In other words, we cannot deal justly with the Philippines when such dealing is an Injustice to,ourselves. “Possibly I may be taking a rather melancholy view of the situation, but it seems to me that the continued existence of. our present form of government is threatened by this Philippine problem. We are a great nation, but we have our limitations. Let us recogniie those limitations,’and not allow the spirit of speculation and gambling to enter into the solution of our goveVnmental problems. Let us be as a nation as upright as an ordinary business man, and not expand beyond the capacity of our capital. , “The people cannot, I believe, undertake with safety the assimilation of 8,000,000 or more of foreigners, alien to us in every characteristic. And it is folly to talk of maintaining permanently our supremacy over those people without working toward assimilation; it is worse than folly—it is criminal. Supremacy over those islands must mean either a control having in view the ultimate uplifting of the people to our level', or a control for the purpose of enriching ourselves materially at their expense.’*

ASSESSING OFFICEHOLDERS The Administration Scheme tor Railing Money for the Coming Campaign. The republican situation in Ohio is so grave that Senator Hanna has revived the Jay Hubbell system of levying campaign assessments upon all federal officeholders in Washington. A million dollars is needed, and needed at once, by the campaign committee in' that state, and government employes are expected to furnish it. Within a few days every federal officeholder, no matter how low, has received a circular from \Y. F. Burdell, treasurer of the finance committee of the Ohio republican executive committee, soliciting “liberal” contributions. These circulars are addressed to the houses <ff the employes, and the fact proves that,the administration not only approves of this money-raising scheme, but has compelled each cabinet officer to furnish to the republican campaign committee of Ohio the names and private addresses of the government employes. The circular explains that its aims are within the law, that no member of the finance committee is employed in the federal service, that ho effort to collect the money will be made in the departments, and because of the last fact contributions must be voluntary and made ns individuals and unofficially. The circular is marked “confidential” and is typewritten, the signature being made with pen. Many of the recipients of these letters are terrorised by the fear that they will lose their places if they fail to contribute, although they do not understand why they should be assessed to help out in Ohio when they have demands from other states made upon them at regular intervals. It is said that a “blacklist” will be made up showing all who fail to respond to the Hanna call for funds, and that the victims will be dealt with accordingly. Senator Hanna, when here recently, said ttf a republican representative of note: “John K. McLean is putting up an exceedingly strong fight in all the big cities of the state, and it will require every dollar the republican committee can raise to secure a republican victory."—Washington Special, in N. Y. Journal. -The prosperity of the country just now is based upon the important fact that our steel manufacturers are underselling everybody else in the markets of the world. And they are doing that because the ore and fuel can be assembled cheaper in this country than anywhere else in the world. The protective tariff of the republican party has nothing to do with it.—Toledo Blade. -Many of the phrases used by President McKinley on his latest stumping tour through the west will be found neatly dovetailed into his Thanksgiving proclamation.—St. Louis Republic.

THE POSITION OP BRTAR. HU ProfMlttoa ob the rUllfflM Qaeattoa Wise, Logteal Jait i '

Republican newspapers are busily en gaged misrepresenting the position taken by William J. Bryan on the Philippine question. They assert that Bryan advocates a cowardly course and the immediate withdrawal of the American troops. In order that the people may know just what Mr. Bryan thinks about this matter the following extract is made from a speech delivered by him at Des Moines recently. Among other things Mr. Bryan said: **I do not favor the withdrawal of our troops. What I do believe, and what I have repeatedly asserted as my belief, is that we should at once declare our purpose in unequivocal terms so positive that the Filipinos cannot doubt it —to grant them full and complete independence the very moment they have established a stable government. I believe that if we should make such an announcement right now the war would eease in a short time, and our troops could withdraw without laying down their arms in the face of the enemy.” This puts quite a different phase on the matter. The condition of affairs in Cuba proves that Bryan is right in his suggestion, and that instead oiadvocat♦hg a cowardly course he makes a proposition \\hich appeals entirely to logic, justice and wisdom. yd Senator Iloar agrees with Mr. Bryan and asserts that by pursuing the same course in the Philippines as th^t pursued in Cuba this country would have avoided war. In an interview Senator Hoar says: “By pursuing such a course, instead of lasting enmity we should have the undying gratitude of that people. We should have had everything we could ask or wish in the way of trade advantage there. They would have taken our advice in the framing of their institutions. We should have sent our scholars and teachers to instruct them in good government and the ways of civilization, as we did to Japan. We should have kept other nations from interfering with them. We should have aided them in keeping order, and there would have been a nation in the east differing from Japan in the fact that it would have been a republic, and we should have had the glory forever of having beqn their liberators and benefactors.” Isn’t it about time for the republic^ an press to show a little honesty in its treatment of Bryan? Let them quote him fairly. His friends are quite willing to have his statements given the widest publicity, but they object to lies and distortions.—Chicago Democrat. PROMISES TO BURN. Mow Republicans Propose to Deal with the Trust Question. .

Senator Hanna has discovered that there are some trusts after all, and that there are many more monopolistic combinations under .other forms and names that are extremely obnoxious to even republican voters. The World's correspondent at Cleveland has therefore been authorised to say that— ■ V ‘ “A bill will be introduced at the next session of congress covering the defects of the Sherman anti-trust law. It wilt be championed by the leaders of the repu Venn party, and as that party is in the majority its passage is assured.** It is hoped that in this way “the wind, will be taken out of the democratic sails" on the trust question. ° What is the proposed legislation but another promise. Haven’t the people^ been fed upon promises'on this question quite as long as their appetite will stand it? What is needed is not more law against monopolies, but. an honest and resolute purpose to enforce the laws we have. Two or three attorneys general have demonstrated that even under the common law “conspiracies in restraint of trade” can be driven out of a state. But when a president is elected through the aid of enormous campaign contributions .from the trusts and combines. and is himself the supporter of a tariff law that encourages and protects them, and he appoints as attorney general a corporation lawyer and trust counsel, what can you expect? ! If the issue can be fairly presented and squarely voted upon next year the politicians of Mr. Hanna’s school are pretty certain to find that the people will not elect a monopoly breeder to put down monopolies.—N. Y. World. ' POINTS AND OPINIONS. - -The republican managers are trying to get the federal officeholders and employes into a campaign trust.—Cincinnati Enquirer. -Mr. Hanna is sufficiently frank in his defence of the trusts. With the head of the republican party approving the great combinations, what will an antitrust plank in the next Republican national platform amount to?—St. Louis Post-Dispatch. ——Mr. Hanna is still covering himself with oratorical glory. His latest utterance is one in defense of .the trusts, which he says are organizations for the mutual benefit of their -■ proprietors, with which neither politics nor the public have anything to do. They are beneficent institutions. — Washington Times. -One of the frequent remarkvmade by Mr. McKinley on his late stumping tour was to the effect that the revenues of this country are now abundant. He did not go on to explain that this is because of the extra stamp tax which was levied to provide revenues to carry on the war. This tax is paid by the commoners, while the corporations in the main escape. In his “swing around the circle” Mr. McKinley omitted from his speeches many points of special interest to the people.—Buffalo Times.

A TfiUESW]

(I ND WE'LL have our own dear littl* home and ‘be happy ever after,* at the story books eay, won't w^ Phil?" There was such a ring of joy ia Ethel Elliot t’s voiee as she asked this qucw tion that her lover, Phil Harding, smiled fondly, as he replied: "Yes, indeed, dariiugj and you shall plan it exactly as you want it?* “But you must tell me how *.* ah* hesitated so long that he asked; “How much what, dear?” * “Well,” she said, blushing, ||of course 111 have to know how much money yoi$ have to put into a home, Phil. It would never do to have it so expensive as to roa you ihto deht, just as we are to begin life together^-5 Phil thought a moment. • w'jlp- ’3 “I have exactly fifteen hundred, Ethel,K he said, "not a great sum by any means to build on, but the architect has assured, me 4hat would pay for a very pretty cottage, including the two hundred for the lot; Tbea we would have to save out enough for the furnishing—” “On, no,” she interrupted, aafciwly, "that is to be my part and I have saved up $5oC which I want to use for that purpose No, don’t refuse mb that pleasure, Phil*for I’ve been saving all I could spare of my salary for thaVpurpose, ever since we’ve been engaged.” 4 ■ ' || “Well, you are the smartest little woman in the world,” he exclaimed, tldB£uringly, “I only wish I could do eve^ything to make you happy.” , 5pl|| “Just keep on being an hmw^ truehearted man and give me .all your love and I will be supremely happy without riches," she replied, fondly, gazing at him with eyes which told of the depth of affection which •ha treasured in her heart for her lover. How those words returned to him months later when temptation assailed hits and the thought of his future wife as she said those earnest words moved him so that the desire to yield to sin almost left him—almost, but, alas, not entirely. , How he had afterwards wished those words had helped him over that one great temptation; what a weight it would have been off his mind during the months before their marriage had he not committed the sin that her words had so fieajfy saved him from; so nearly, but not quite, .£■ • “ As the summer weeks passed the pretty cottage far out on Garfield avenue neared completion. But one day the work stoppwL There had been a miscalculation, SSljltthow, and $300 more was neededbefori|p could be finished. Philip’s first impulse was to go to Ethel and consult her as to what should be done. If the house was not completed by September their marriage would have to be delayed, for it would take more than h« could hope to raise tp pay for the additional expense on the house, and there would bead surplus left to begin housekeeping on. Philip worried over the subject all morning and had finally decided to talk to Ethel that night about it, when an unexpected event changed his mind. As bookkeeper of the firm he worked for he handled considerable mone^, besides having the Recounts entirely in his own hands. That afternoon a payment of exactly $300 was made, soma weeks ahead of time. * An evil spirit entered into his breast, whispering that beta was his opportunity, that he could use this money and return it when be couM and no one be the wiser? In the meantimehe might borrow the sum and replace it before it was missed. There were many weak luikain the chain of deceit Philip was weaving^ but ha shut his eyes to its fallacy. He closed hit ears, too, to the words Ethel had spoken, which returned with insistence: “§§pit keep on being an honest, true-hearted mar. and I will be supremely happy.” He knew this she would be supremely unhappy if he would commit this act of dishonesty, yet the dread of being laughed at as one who had undertaken something he could not* accomplish and the fear of postponing the wedding caused liinj to waver; and, like many othera who hesitate, he succumbed to the tempta

Philip had ceased i ly, unable to cont him to tell her if The work went on on the new house, but somehow Philip’s interest in it seemed dead. The intense delight he had felt before in watching the development of his future home was gone. Ethel could not help noticing hie depression, and the lack of enthusiasm he die played when they visited the cottage on its completion two weeks before the, day set foir their marriage, but, though it|fi*tressed her, she refrained from asking the cause after once inquiring and receiving the an* ewer, almost irritably spoken, that he was not feeling up to the notch. But when they visited the furniture store together to select the furnishings for theii home and he still lacked interest, she began to fear something serious had happened. They did not quite complete their purchases, and, as the goods were not to be delivered for some days, Ethel did not pay for them. On their return home her fears returned with added force. She began to suspect that r»uL J J 4o care for her, and, finalin herself longer, begged that were the truth. A tender, loving scene followed, which so softened Philip’s heart that almost without his volition he had confessed the truth, 1 He waited breathlessly to see wbntwould follow, half afraid that Ethel, knowing hi* sin. wbuld cast him off. For a moment it peerned to her that he had killed her love and trust, but pity soon filled her breast. She realized how he had suffered and how be had repented bitterly of yielding to his temptation, and, pitying, she loved him still* and determined, if she could prevent it, he should never again swerve from the path* of honesty. . , “Philip,” she said, “you must take $30C of my money and repay Mr. Wentworth.” “But you have spent your money for furniture, Ethel, and, besides, I could not take youy money,” he replied. “Would you not rather take ray* money than to keep Mr. Wentworth out of his dues, deer, Philip?” she asked. “Besides, 1 can and will countermand the order for the furniture and let something less expensive take its place. What do such things amount to, Philip, when placed against a load of guilt on qne’s conscience?” “You are too generous, my darling” he cried. “How can I ever repay you' j “By resisting temptation, no matter how alluring its guise, and helping others tojbe strong,” she replied, softly. Acting on Ethel’s advice, Philip the next day carried the money to Mr. Wentworth and made a full confession. His employer was shocked, yet, being a noble, greathearted Christian man, he not only forgave the offense, but kept him in the same responsible position he had held before. For he believed, with Ethel,, that- the bitter lesson would never be forgotten and that the remembrance of it would keep him from future dishonesty. , Philip proved that the kindness shown him was not misplaced, for he led thereafter * life q! integrity and helped many a poor fellow who had yielded to temptation back 1 the paths of rectitude.—Chicago Newe