Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1877 — Page 6

An Uncommon Beauty.

Wk frequently read of beautiful hands; we do not very frequently see them. From lime immemorial they have been held to be the badge of aristocracy; and a person with a slender, smooth, and shapely white hand, tot that petaon be M vulgar as possible, to seldom considered to be vulgar Voty likely the reason of thia association dr the fine hand with aristocratic origin to because the hands of the so-called well-bom have been idle hands for generations, ro far as any heavy work to to be taken into account, anything creating mus de, that to, straining jdnta swelling veins, or sending too much blood there for the requisite pallor; so that, there being nothing to increase its size or rednew, it has remained small and white, and the habit of whiteness and symmetry has become congenital, and has been handed down, like any other habit of the body, from parent to child, till, when we see such a hand, we read in it a long story of ancestral wealth and elegance. In this country there are few people whose ancestors, as far back as their greatgrandparents, have been always exempt from some sort of handiwork. And, Indeed, our general diffusion of comfort has depended in great measure upon every* one's doing something; and the women of the land, except for the small minority, are universally employed in sewing, housework, writing, handling goods, even those who teach doing some of the first; so that we do not very often inherit any peculiar whiteness or smallness of the hand, to begin with. And if we are ever so idle ourselves, that will not undo the work of past generations; while even if by idleness, should it begin early, we may succeed in keeping our hands tolerably white and shapely, we seldom have them small. Ana we presume there are few willing to purchase this white hand by a sacrifice of conscience and an indulgence in forbidden indolence. Although the American foot is famous for its small size, the American hand does not correspond, and the glove-makers abroad are obliged to make the fingers of our gloves larger than those for any other market. In the Southern States the hand to smaller than in the Northern, which, as a general thing, to owing to the fact that slaves have done all there was to do there. The glove, however, to not an exact criterion, as there are many people who really do not know how to glove themselves.

Still there are exceptions to all rules, and flaws in all theories. We have seen great beauties with very indifferent hands that it took all the gems and gold possible to disguise; we have seen a washerwoman with a hand that might be the lost one of some of the antique statues. There have been Queens with large bony red hands; and there are some American women with those that a sculptor could not improve. Sometimes individual traits are more than all inherited ones, and a tall and large person, out of a raw-boned family, will have a supple, small and snowy hand that it is • least for the eyes to look on. Although we can account for the aristocratic presage of a>beautiful hand, we do not know why it is that we always feel as if a beautiful hand were the herald of a beautiful nature, and that after our attention has once been drawn to it, it satisfies us for the absence of much beauty In the face; and we can only explain it by the supposition that beauty of outline, if not so pleasing at first, is really nobler and longer-lived than beauty of sparkle and color. Yet it is true that there is a great deal of one’s nature betrayed in the hand, something perhaps of the beauty of one’s soul, and with this all great painters have been acquainted; for although Vtadyck, in portraying the hands of Kings and Queens, found it necessary to copy one recurring model of a merely idle hand, yet Titian told the whole character of old Pope Paul IV. iu an eager, clutching, talon-like hand for all its well-modeled beauty—for the hand is full of expression, a quick and subtle interpreter. Of this, palmistry long since took note, as well as dactyliomancy, that read fate by the fln£ia, and onycbomancy, that read it by b nails, the whole shape of the hand being supposed anciently —by many even of to-day—to indicate a great deal of the owner’s temperament; the rounding palm, for instance, telling of generosity, it is said; the thick outer muscle of sensuality; the small thumb of constancy and persistency; the large thumb of intellectuality, a large thumb, in the northwestern portion of France, being still the certain sign of a sorcerer. Although the small hand is desirable, the beautiful hand is not always necessarily small; symmetry and whiteness, not size, are to be the determining features of its beauty. It is to be long and narrow; no bone in it is to show with a reminder of its osseous construction; and it is to be set with dimples, more choice and lovely than jewels. The fingers are to taper, without the enlargement of a single joint on the way; and the nails are to be rosy, round, unmarked, and exactly as long as the finger. Some degree of whiteness may be given by use of various lotions and practices, but this shapeliness is a thing not to be forced; and when a hand is long and slender, and yet plump enough to be dimpled, and still remaining small, it is the very perfection of a hand. It is of no use to say that such a hand when unadorned is adorned the most, for our own eves tellus to the contrary; and we know that a band of pearls, a glitter- . ing gem, sets off its symmetry as much as a great star does the velvet roundness of the evening sky. And the only beauty it can ever lack is that of gentle gesture and generous deed.—Harper’* Batar.

Not Buried Alive.

Fob Mme years past 1 have taken great pains to ascertain the truth in regard to the published statements of persons being buried alive, under the supposition that they were dead. In every instance the story has proved to be false. Yet there is not a year without the horrible narrative of somebody somewhere being consigned to the tomb, and, for some cause or other, the grave or vault being opened, the discovery was made that the buried individual had “come to," and had perished miserably in frantic efforts to obtain deliverance. It has been my habit, oa seeing in the newspapersone of these statements, to send a letter of inquiry to the minister or some other resident of the region, requesting the precise facts in the case. Invariably the story proves to be a fabrication, or a growth out of something that had nothing terrible in it. One persen heard somebody say that she had heard of a man who told another that he believed that a man had been buried before he was dead. And then it alntothe papers, and into the tradiof the neighborhood, and then into the books, and wit becomes a part of the graveyard literatuie of the world. The latest instance to which I have attested is that of Er. Green, of Hoosic

Falls, N. Y. Borne few years ago he lay two or three days in a trance. A few weeks ago he died. At the proper time be was laid in a vault When it came to be talked about that he was once in a trance state, there was some anxiety as to his condition, and the vault was visited, only to find the moot obvious evidence—the same that Lazarus gave—that he had been dead all the time he lay there. But this was bnough to start the story, and the telegraph—not from ZfoMie, N. Y., but from Bennington, VL—sent the startling intelligence that signs of life were discovered, the body was taken home, and the result was yet awaited with intense anxiety I I wrote to a friend in Hooeic and learned the facts, which are without any romance or sensation. The doctor died and was buried. That to all. Now, Ido not deny that such dreadful accidents as premature burials may and do happen. There are on record some instances of which there to no reason to doubt the truth. But even this to admitted with a mental reservation, for the books insist that no authentic cases are on record. The mother of the Scotch preachers, the Erskines, to traditionally held to have been placed in a vault when she was supposed to be dead. A ring on her finger tempted the sexton to undertake its abstraction, but when he used his knife she started from a trance; he left somewhat hastily; she followed him and went home, to the great surprise of her husband. This to the tradition, but if it were traced to its source it would be found as unfounded as all the rest. No better proof of the unreliability of these stories than the results of the system adopted in Germany, of placing the dead in houses prepared for their reception, where they are watched professionally until decay makes it obvious that life to extinct. At Mentz, a surgeon was forty-five rears attached to one of these houses, and, although it was rare for the house to be without an inmate, in all that time there was not an instance of a person being restored. When I was at Halle, and at the grave of Gesenius, I asked the sexton to show me the arrangements to prevent premature burials. He was an old man; sextons are often old men; he led me to a house near the gate of the cemetery; in one of its two rooms was a bed, on which the body of the one supposed to be dead to placed; it to covered up, as in sickness, and the air carefully kept in a state favorable to health. On each finger to placed a thimble, and from each one extends a thread, passing through the walLto a bell, so delicately hung that the least pulsation or movement of a finger would set the bell ringing, to the alarm of the attendant, who instantly flies to the reviving sufferer. “ And how many times, in your long service, have you rescued your customers from an untimely gravel” “ Not once,” he answered. " I have never had a case of recovery, nor of one who has given any signs of fife.” •' Have you heard of any cases in other places ?” “ It is said that one was saved in Erfurt, but it is only a report; may be true or may be not!” This is the testimony that comes uniformly from all the books and all the countries where the subject receives careful attention. While it goes to show that instances of premature burial are exceedingly rare, it does not show that such cases are impossible. In times of prevailing epidemic, when bodies are carried off by authority as rapidly as possible, to retard the progress of pestilence, it would not be strange if mistakes were made. Asiatic cholera sometimes brings the victim to a state of apparent death, from which he may recover, under careful and persevering treatment. But in the common course of human experience, the approach and advent of death are so clearly defined, and certainty to so easily had, that premature burial can be possible only from great carelessness or indecent haste. The ordinary tests of the breathing may fail, but the action of the heart can be detected by the ear, even when the most delicate hand fails to discover it by the sense of feeling. In new-born infants, it is difficult to detect the motion for some minutes together, but in the case of others, the interval between pulsations of the heart does not exceed six or eight seconds. And if this examination is made twentyfour hours after death is supposed to have taken place, the fact is made certain one way or the other. There are other tests which may be readily applied, but they are not needed in the case of persons dying under ordinary circumstances. The customs of civilization, the dictates of natural aflection, and the most rational judgment, require such an interval of time between death and burial as to make the case palpable to the senses, so that no possible doubt can exist. It is not likely that one case of doubt occurs in each million of persons buried, anjl the one case of doubt would prove to be a certain death in nine cases out of ten. From all which I infer that the nervous apprehension some people have that they will be buried alive, is just as unreasonable as it would be for a man to expect to be taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Such an event has occurred, and it to not impossible that it may again. But it to not probable.— Irwiaub, in N. Y. Obterver.

The Prophet’s Birthday.

How the followers of Mohammed celebrated their Ptophet’s natal day, is thus pictured by the Alexandria correspondent of the London Timet, writing on the last day of March: \ “ Last week was given up to religious festivity by the Mohammedan world. It was the occasion of the Mooiid-en-Neb-bee, or birthday festival of the Prophet, and coincides with the return of the pilgrims from Mecca. The mosques are lull of worshipers, and crowds often perform Zitaro, a kind of prayer in unison, which is offered up by a large company, sealed cross-legged, who cry aloud that there .is no Deity but God, and swing their bodites rapidlv backward and forward, as thriy shout,'until they become so excited by tide motion that the alliterative sentence they utter— ‘ la Mah, Mah la’—becomes merged! in a fierce howl The pilgrims spread’ their merchandise out for sale in the public spaces, and they and their friends take their pleasure on swings and whirligigs, and sip and smoke in the coffee-houses. Tents are put up, when coffee and pipes go on all day long, and story-tellers relate never-ending iove stories, encouraged by a frequent‘Yah’ of lazy enjoyment from tiie audience. Punch has found his way to Egypt, and the Arabs intensely enjoy the apotheosis of marital power, while their prejudices are respected by the veiling of Judy’s face after the strictest fashion of the harem. The whole festivity culminates in the ‘Doeeh,’ the ‘treading*;’ when the Sheikh of the Saadeeyah derP* 1 ® 8 OTur the prostrate bodies of lhefaithful. The Princesand Ministers all attend, the representatives of European Powers, with thsir wives, go to see it; tourists crowd to Cairo for the occasion, as they would for an Easter ceremony at

Jerusalem, or a mystery play in Bavaria. Yet it is almost as degrading a sight as the procession of the Juggernaut-car itself. ** Borne SOO or 800 men of the Saadeeyah sect, the peculiarity of whose religion to that they can eat serpents and hack themselves with knives by way of pleasing Allah and hto Prophet, voluntarily lay themselves bn the ground in order that their Bheikh may pass over them on horseback, thus treading on their sins, and preparing them for Paradise. They prime themselves with AasAeesA, a strong narcotic, made from hemp, with much the eflect of opium, and then are arranged by skilled packers, face downward, so as to present a compact, unbroken surface for the horse to pass over. If the packers find a flaw in their arrangements, they seize a man from the crowd and jam him in to fill the gap, and it would be a declaration of rank heresy to say them nay. Vast crowds of natives assemble to see the sight; the Bheikh, in all hto robes, appears; two men guide the horse, who, by hto hesitating, delicate tread, alone seems to feel the shame and scandal of the proceeding. As he progresses, the men scramble up as best they can, mostly with no apparent hurt, but some hardly able to move, and a few carried away* in fits. It to altogether a degrading spectacle, and unworthy of a country that claims to rank with civilized Nations. Its sole effect to to keep alive fanaticism, and this year an Englishman was set upon and beaten by Arabs, who who would not raise a finger against a sti anger at anv other time of the year. The Khedive to said to disapprove, and never goes, but the attendance of the Princes and dignitaries still give this scene the importance of a State ceremony. As they drive up in their broughams, perfect Europeans in speech and dress, one feels how much this to a country of contradictions.”

Invention to Dispose of Troublesome Callers.

The Baltimore American Jsays that Mr. John Kelly, the stage manager of the Academy of Music, has improvised an ingenious arrangement for keeping the stage entrance clear of loungers, who are apt to congregate in groups on the prompter’s side, fronting the passage, which to the only means of entrance and exit available without crossing the stage. The circumstance that during every performance a man is stationed at the electric apparatus to regulate the lights in the auditorium has been utilized by directing a wire from the battery to the floor of the passage, which to covered with zinc. When several persons stop in the passage, blocking it up, the man at the battery touches a knob, and instantly a lively current of electricity is communicated to the zinc, and as quick as lightning the loungers are bounced off, their ridiculous antics resembling the jerky movements of one of those wooden supplejacks that children amuse themselves with. This arrangement is found far more effective than all the large posters that could be hung up. In case of fire it would be very advantageous. Inasmuch as a number of housekeepers and ladies who receive numerous calls have had convex mirrors S laced outside of the second-story win - ows, so that they can tell who to at the door by glancing at a mirror, it would not be a bad idea to have a small electric battery connected with a strip of zinc fastened on the doorstep. By such an arrangement book-agents, soap-peddlers and hucksters could be disposed of effectually and without any annoyance.

The Manufacture of Wedding-Rings In Birmingham, Eng.

The manufacturers who actually confine themselves to.the making of weddingrings are comparatively few in number. It is an easy-going and pleasant trade, and so fine are the profits that all transactions are strictly for cash only. Birmingham makers supply mostly the wants of the United Kingdom and the British Colonies, but many European nations make their own matrimonial yokes. There are, in all, about twenty-four different makes of rings, and three qualities of gold. The Scotch and Irish people like usually a cheap quality; while in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the North of England heavy, costly rings are wanted. Wedding-rings are of two orders—the “ round” and the broad sort —in which the band of gold is flat and displayed. There is thus a little fashion, even in these simple matters, and in different parts of England broad or round rings are in vogue. Popular taste is in favor of broad rings, as the most showy, but round rings for very “ swell” people. The quality of the wedding-ring must be of irreproachable “ carat,” and it may happen that a few sovereigns find their way into the melting pot. At the manufactory I inspected, I learnt that a bar of gold of the value of £6OO lasted some five or six days, and was estimated to make from 90 to 100 dozens of rings. On the average, some 60 or 70 dozens of rings are sent away from here every week. Think of this awful fact, dear ladies, that every nng represents one marriage! Truly a wholesale making of fetters that bind more closely than the prison chains. As much confidence must be placed in the workmen, old and trusty servants are employed; and for them work is always found, if the demand be great or small. Christmas is a tremendous time for weddings, and the makers work “ double tides" for some three weeks previously, sometimes toiling nearly all night. Easter and Whitsuntide are also favored periods for the commission of matrimony, but Christmas is best loved of all. Tolerably even though the trade is, slack seasons affect it; then, of course, prudent men do not rush headlong into matrimony. The prices of rings range from a few shillings to several pounds. There are terribly vulgar brides who will have moat massive ana costly rings, fearful to behold; and occasionally opulent male snobs take a fancy to have a plain gold ring of appalling proportions, as an instance, doubtless, of pareenu success and wealth. The fashionable ring is a neat thing of three to four pennyweights. Apart from the trade orders there are many curious private customers who come to the manufactory for the one single gold circlet that is to mark one of this life’s great contracts. Often the workinggirl—soon to be a bride—buys her own ' ring herself, and no matter how poor or Eshe may be, the ring shall be of ted quality. A slight return of ir “ luck money,” on the purchase to be productive of good, and superstitions prevail among the customers. One bride-elect came arfully with her purchase to have langed. The ring was accursed, been tried on by some thoughtless the bride had worn it. The omen d to be indicative of the worst Many, indeed, are the strange fanmected with this magic circle. > girl who has scraped up her little to buy an elaborate ring, will it out of sheer jealousy for a heav-

let one, if some companion bride-elect has made a more massive purchase. Shall we enter the magic laboratory wherein pledges matrimonial are confectioned? Truly an alchemist’s study. A small, dingy workshop, fitted with a few benches for some half-dozen workpeo pie, and the ordinary rotary polishing wheels, blow-pipes, reflecting glass bottles, and so on. Here on the floor to the melting furnace; through a small aperture the gold bar or bag or sly sovereigns to dropped into the melting-pot. The gold, having been duly melted, to taken to the mill to be rolled. It to then annealed. By this time the precious metal to as black as sheet iron, and the raw material of weuding-rings, as it lies in the workshop, resembles nothing so much as sections of nail-rod iron, or pieces of flattened telegraph wires. Gold, indeed, not if we know. This nail-rod gold has now to be drawn through a machine something after the wire-drawing principle. An end of a black gold rod to made fast in the machine, which to then started, and away goes the bar through the machine, and comes out twisting tightly on the drum of the machine like a rope round a windlass. It to drawn round or flat as may be required, and appears, after the highly-attenuating process, its own natural color, the impurities of the annealing having been rubbed off. The links that are to lead to—let us hopemuch “ linked sweetness,” having been thus "long drawn out” themselves, are cut into short strips of the length of wed-ding-rings of all sizes, and sent to receive the official stamp, by which internal cabalistic design unbelievers know that the articles are “ hall-marked,” and so, above suspicion. The embryo rings now present a rough appearance, and are of a dull, yellow tint. The remaining processes are very simple. The little sections are hammered roughly round, and the ends joined, then beaten into the comSlete circle, and so, rough, coarse and ull, are handed over to the gifted being who to to produce the last magical change, and transform the dull, brassy-looking circlet into the trim, neat, shining symbol of wedlock, all ready for the nervous digit of the tremulous bride. The ring is fixed in the revolving wheel, away goes the said wheel at a good speed, the polishing instruments—of hard stone —are deftly applied, and, hey, presto! soon the wheel stops, and out comes the ring as bright and clean as a new pin. In this almost primitively simple workshop these half-dozen workpeople turn out weekly a goodly number of rings. Of a truth, the making them to as simple as may be. The artisans are checked at various stages by the weight of gold given out to them. A. certain quantity of gold to weighed out, and should produce so many strips through the drawing machine. At different stages of manufacture the materials are weighed, and the final result should be so many manufactured rings. A special tub is provided for the workpeople to wash their hands in on leaving work, and this tub yields auriferous harvests. The show-rooms of the wedding-ring maker are simple in the extreme. One small office suffices, and a couple of dolls’ chests of drawers contain the samples of hto quaint trade. To my fancy It to the most charming business, so clean, so easy and—most potent of all facts —so strictly on the " cash principle.” When we remember the enormous credits common to the jewelry trade in general, this “trade rule” to remarkable, especially as the whole process of making and finishing the wedding ring to so very simple. But it is, I believe, religiously adhered to. — Birmingham Daily Mail.

His Postal Card.

At ten o’clock yesterday forenoon a man wearing a doubtful look appeared at the stamp clerk’s window in the Postoffice, and asked for a postal card and facilities for writing. He was a long time getting readv to put his pen to the card, and he had only made a stroke or two when he called out: “ How do you spell ‘ Jim ?’ ” “Why, J-i-m, of course,” answered the clerk. “ Don’t look as if it was right,” said the man, as he held up the card and scrutinized the word. “Sure you haven’t made any mistake?” “That’s the way, of course,” growled a bystander. “ How else can you spell the name?” “ That’s so—how could I?” smiled the man, as he looked again. “ I’ll put J-i-m against any other style of spelling every time. Now, his other name is—is . Well, knock me down if I haven’t forgotten ! Why, hang it, I have known him for ten years, and now I can’t think of his namel Jim Jim yum!” He looked round in a helpless way, and one of the small crowd finally said: “ You can write the message and think of the name afterward.” “So I can. I want to say to him that his wife is sick abed, his landlord is howling around for rent, and that he’d better come home. How do you spell it ?’ ’ “ I’ll write it.” answered the clerk. “ He couldn’tread yourshearography,” said the stranger. “Jim isn’t much on education, and I have to write just as poorly as I can or he couldn’t make out a word. Less see! Do I want to startoff with P. S.. or what?” “I should say: ‘You are wanted at home to once,* if it was me,” suggested a car-driver who was after a stamp. “ 'Twouldn’t do,” sighed the man, shaking his head, “I wouldn’t dare spring the thing on him suddenly, or he’d make for Canada. The place to tell him to come home is down here at the bottom.” “ Where is he?” some one asked. “Why, in in in why, blister my ears why 1” “I’ll bet you've forgotten the place!” shouted the car-driver. “J-i-m, Jim—J-i-m, Jim, and he’s in—-in—J-i-m, Jim!” gasped the man as he looked around with an appeal in his eyes. The crowd mentioned twenty different places, but he shook his head at each one. “If you can’t think of his name, and can’t remember his address, how are you going to send the card ?” asked the clerk. “That’s so—how am I?” sighed the man. “If you was me you wouldn’t send it, would you?” “I don’t think I would.” , “ Then I won’t. If his wife can think of his name and the place where he is she’d better write it” When he walked away he carried his hat in one hand and scratched his head with the other, and muttered: “ J-i-m with a great big ‘J,’* and Blister my ears With a great big ' B,’ and I ought to have written his name down on the door or somewhere. Less see! J-i-m. md he’s i-n in—in,” and he disappeared up Congress street.— Detroit Free Brest. —Somebody advertises for a servant girl “ who would not be above placing herself on an equality with the rest of the faptily.”

Religious. "NOT MY WILL, BUT THIN 9." Laid on Thine altar, O my Lord divine, Accept my gi ft thia day for Jeaus’ sake; I have no jewel* to adorn Thy shrine. Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make. Bat here 1 bring within my trembling hand Thu wil 1 of mine, a thing that Beemeth small; But only Thon, dear Lord, can'st understand. How, when I yield Thee this, I yield my all. Hidden therein Thy searching eye can see t Struggle. of passion, visions of delight—* AU that I love, or am, or fain would be, Deep love, fond hopes and longing infinito-r, It hath been wet with tears, and dimmed with sighs; Clinched in my grasp, till beauty it hath none. Now from Thy footstool, where it vanquished Um, Ito prayer aaoendeth: Let Thy will be done. Take it, O Father, e'er my courage fail, <. < And merge it so in Thine own will that e’en, If in some d<*p<Tute hour my cry prevail, And Thou give back my gift, it may have * xsen So changed, so purified, so fair have grown. So one with Thee, so filled with peace divine, I may not keep or feel it as mine own, But gaining back my will, may find it Thine. —JPreebyterian.

Sunday-School Lessons. MCCORD QUABTXB, 1877. Jun* B—The Lamentation of Amoa Amo* 5: 1-11 June 10—The Promise of Bowel Hoaea lit 1-9 Jun* 17—The Captivity of Israe1...9 Kings 17:8-18 Jun* 24—Review Leaaon (with Nahum 1: 118.)

Christian Resignation.

“ I have been forced,” said Fletcher, “by many disappointments to look for comfort in nothing but in the comprehensive words, ‘ Thy will be done.’ ” The experience of every regenerate heart in periods of trial leads more or less to the same unfailing refuge. This lesson of Christian resignation is often a hard one to learn. Sometimes it costs us unnumbered crosses and sorrows. Not infrequently the hope and affections of years have to be laid tearfully upon the altar. Often when we are almost persuaded that we have learned to say, " Thy will be done,” the loosing of some cherished tie, or the failure of some darling project, reveals us again to ourselves in all our insubordination of heart. But the lesson is nevertheless as salutary as its process is severe. The value of Christian submissiveness, when it is once found, has a wondrous power to alleviate the pains and heal the sorrows of life. ' True Christian resignation is, however, essentially distinct from that passive submission to the inevitable which many exhibit in the presence of affliction. The spirit of rebellion to the Divine will may lurk under the forms of surrender. The resignation which does not spring from a loving heait, which does not look up even through the tears and agony of bitter trial, and see the hand of a wise and merciful Father through it all, to not the spirit of resignation which Christianity requires. It to not the reluctant yielding to superior power which constitutes true resignation, but rather the spirit which to forward to bow, which feels all the smart of the chastisement, but which still finds in the midst of it all a sweet consciousness of God’s presence, and a most precious sense of humility and self-relinquishment. > It is in this spirit that the disciples were instructed to pray, “ Thy will be done.” It was thus that the Psalmist, when flesh and heart failed him, found God the strength of his heart and his portion forever. It was in this same spirit of loving patience and trust that Paul declares that he is “troubled, but not distressed; afflicted, but not cast down.” There is in all this not stoicism , but true Christian resignation. Paul looks for Christ's sake with a noble disregard upon persecutions and earthly trials. What to other men seem insufferable agonies, to his clearer faith are only “ light afflictions, which are for a moment,” and which are not to be compared with that “ far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” which reveals itself in such unspeakable fullness beyond —a vision that, with all its redundancy of rapt expression, still seems to be vainly struggling for embodiment, with the poverty of human language and the dimness of human sight In a time of gloom and apprehension like the present, this spirit of patience and Christian resignation is especially needful. We should pray for ourselves, for others, for our common Christianity, for our country, for the triumph of law, and justice, and right. But, above all, we should pray, “ Thy will be done.” If we cannot read or reach the full purposes of Providence, as they are revealed in storm and sunshine, in personal trials, or in National perils and disasters, we may at least learn to listen reverently to the voice of Him who rules and overrules all things in the largest wisdom, and for the largest human good, " Be still, and know that I am God.”— London Baptiet.

Religious and Temperance Tract Mission,

R. B. Nordyke, Superintendent of the Religious and Temperance Tract Mission at St. Anne, Kankakee County, 111., has issued an appeal in behalf of said mission, in which he states that “the alarming prevalence of immorality and . intemperance, numbering its victims by many thousands, among the rich and the poor, the high and the low, begetting untold sorrows, frightful disease, premature death, and numerous startling crimes,” makes this mission an urgent necessity. The objects of the mission are—to promote the cause of total abstinence from the use, manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages; to suppress the publication and dissemination of obscene and Immoral literature, disreputable books, lithographs, photos, etc.; and the hope is expressed that the mission may be the means of winning many souls to Christ The circular says: “We distribute tracts (religious and temperance) in the Sunday-schools, at the Public Temperance Meetings, on the streets, etc., and shall co-operate with Young Men’s Christian Associations, Temperance Societies and ministers of the Gospel, of all denominations, who will circulate them from house to house. We shall also arrange for Bible readings in public rooms, passenger depots, town halls, etc., and for occasional temperance lectures. /. -t “This mission commenced, and has been obliged to continue, its labors without a working capital or endowment fund. What it has accomplished, with God’s blessing, has been under pecuniary disadvantages and difficulties. But the need of its beneficial labors were never mote urgent than now. Its work ought to he largely increased, certainly not lessened; and, on any account, must not stop.”

The reader to appealed to to send at Ei by check or otherwise, a contribu- , to the extent of his ability, of whatever amount to aid In carrying forward this important mission. Address Mr. Nordyke.aa above. , { ■/

Mr. Moody’s Dead Brother.

I Have just returned from my native town. W« h*d a very dear broihw. He was born a few weeks after my father’s death, and hb was the Benjamin, of the family. When he was seventeen years old he had a severe sickness, And* that made him doubly near so us all. J prayed for him long and often that God would receive him into Hto kingdom, and finally he accepted Christ. 1 then went away, and he was to follow me. It didn’t seem so far from him when be was a Christian. When I was in Europe I was afraid that every mail would tell me that he was gone. When I left for Chicago, I thought I should see him again: bukat last one day I got a dispatch telling me that my dear brother was gone I started to Northfield to bury him, and we Itfid him away in the little cemetery them, and'these last days that I have been there has reminded me of it. I thought with sorrow of the many sweet hours that we had passed together. . And I sat under the trees, where we used to sit and discourse upon the Holy Word, and I went all over the farm, and everything reminded, me of him. And I said, “Shall I see him again?” He had a stronger held upon my love than any man that ever lived. The cemetery was only about 300 yantofrom the station, and as 1 was leaving the little birds were sinking over the grave, add it seemed to m< nat I got a new view of the resurrection morning. I shall see that brother again, the darkness will be driven away, and then I shall be with that Idvely brother. And then those words of Paul came to my mind: " But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.” Thank God for that verse. We have hope that we shall see those dear friends again. It is a blessed hope that we shall be with them together before God. Bless God for these dear words, and may they sink down deep into our hearts, and may God give us a sure hope —a hope like an anchor to bind our souls to Him who sits at the right hand of God.

Dying at Starvation.

A case of destitution in a thickly-popu-lated portion of this city came to the knowledge of the police yesterday, which, in the distressing character of its details, almost surpasses belief.' In a; house on Twenty-fourth street a family have for four days lingered between life tad death without a bite of food, and this has only been the termination of a long period of wretchedness and privation. Their story is a common one. Seven months ago John Brown came to this country from England, with his wife and two Children. He was in quest of employment, and he located in No. 318 East Twenty-fourth street, under the belief that in this city a man of robust health and good adaptability for business would not fail to prosper. Months passed, however, ana no opportunity for an engagement presented itself. His little means gradually dwindled away, and then, when he had become weary of seeking for work in vain, and was driven to despair at the thought of his wife and little one waiting for the change in his prospects which never appeared, be shut himself up with them and awaited with resignation the fate that seemed inevitable. The family had no friends to appeal to, and, like many, they shrank from begging with A hdrror that even the pangs of hunger could not overcome. For the last four days not a morsel has entered the mouth of any of the family, tad it was only when the little child, two years old, was found dead in its bed yesterday that the story of these people’s distress became known. The police were notified and camp to their apartments — poor ones they were—and there they found a haggard man hatching over a wan, starying woman, who could, pot move, but Who looked with a mother’s instincts still upon the poor pallet where the Utt e famished child, and one, |hat still lingered between life and death, were lying. The woman and thfe living child had to be removed to Bellevue Hospital, where they lie pow; jn a critical condition, and the husband’s Wants were attended to.— N. F. Herald. . ; \ ; , r "

For Sweet Love’s Sake.

A casb of strong devotion was developed in Denver a few days ago. A young man of eight summers had just had a front tooth pulled. He did not wince when the string, to one end of which the incisor Was attached, was given the violent jerk that decided the matter, but brightened up as if greatly relieved, and confronted his mother, who was performing the duties of the dentist, witji, “Now, mamma, please pull the other.”' As “ the other” Was not loose, the lady refused, and the boy went away seemingly-discon-solate. Soon afterward, he returned, and the mother, noticing a peculiar vacancy about his mouth, began ta inspection. A few well-directed questions brought to light the fact that he had performed the job himself. . “ Hqw did you do it?” she asked. “I just put a string around it, gave it a pull and out it came?’ “ What on etath possessed you to dp it TV. “’Cause, mam,"he replied, rather meekly, “ Maude P— has both her’n out, ana I wanted both of mine out.” Maude and, the young man are sweethearts.— Denver (vol.) Tribune. ■

“The Conflict Ages.”

Men differ on nearly everyiaue. There have always been opposite parties In politics and religion, though the measures fought over one day may be unlvetnslly adopted at another, and those sacrificed regarded as heroes and martyrs. Medicine j has also been subject to revolutionary disturbances. When Drs. Harvey and Jeiiner announced their discoveries, they were held in contempt and ridicule by an incredulous and'ignorant public, yet to-day they are received Mid honored by all as benefactors. When Dr. Pierce 'announced his 2Xw»wry, many seemed to doubt, and were skeptical concerning all medicines and doctors, bnt proof of merit has dispelled all doubt, and to-soy the Golden Medical Discovery is the standard remedy In curing the most obstinate diseases of the liver and blood, having almost entirely superseded the old-time sarsaparillasby reason of its superior merit*. t . .1 Norwich, Chenango. Co., N. T„ I . Nov. 84,1878. f B. V. Pißßcn, M. D.t I was afflicted with a scrofulous affection on one of my legs. It was very troublesome for over two years, so much so that I could not wear a boo tj and Incite keep my leg bandaged. It resulted In c raw sore. It got co bad that it became a general talk that I would have to undergo amputation of the 'limb.' One physician told me he never saw such a sore cured. I commenced taking your Golden Medical Discovery, together with your Pellets, as directed on the bottles, and when I had consumed .six bottles of Discovery, my leg wad entirely well, and has remained so eter smee—a period of over two years—and I would not swap it for fifty wooden lege. Tours truly.

JOHN SHATTUCK.