The Syracuse Journal, Volume 5, Number 12, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 18 July 1912 — Page 2

TheSyracuseJournal GEO. O. SNYDER, Publisher. Syracuse, ... Indiana EASY TO STRENGTHEN NECK Bimple Exercises Will Go Far to Do Away With Severe Headaches That Seem Mysterious. A thin, weak neck is a frequent cause of headache. With such a neck the blood supply to the brain is poor, with the result that the latter is easily fatigued, and then you have headache. 4 Then, when the neck muscles are weak, the bead is rarely carried in its proper position. It is allowed to droop forward, or to one side, the proper cir culation of the blood being interfered." . with, and headache is again the con- • sequence. Further, when the head is not held properly, there is jar when walking ox taking other exercise, and once mors headache is the inevitable result, f The two best exercises fofi the neck ajfe head bending and head lifting. In the former the head is bent backwards and forwards and to one side or the other, the under jaw being thrust out when bending backwards, end forced down into the chest when .the head comes forward. Head lifting is really neck stretching, the neck being stretched as far upwards as possible. Brain workers who feel fatigue coming oh will And that a few minutes of head bending and head lifting will clear their brains and wonderfully restore their energies. Moon Not Round. That the moon is not round, but oval, is the conclusion reached by Professor Castadilobo of Coimbra university, Portugal, the report of whose observations during the recent total eclipse of the sun was read before the French Academy of Sciences. He took cinematograph pictures of the whole- of the eclipse and was rewarded in finding from the films that at the time of the maximum obscuration the moon, while completely blot ting out the sun at top and bottom, did not quite cover it on the right and left. From this he concludes that the satellite, like the earth, is not a sphere. The difference between the greatest and least breadth is, however, estimated by him at less than three miles. Some British Extravagances. The British nation is generally considered to be amongst the thriftiest in the world, but we are not without our little extravagances. Every year, for instance, we spend, on an average, $35,000,000 on football. ' A million more than that is spent on hunting. Our tobacco bill amounts to no less a sum than $180,000,000, while $125,000,000 is spent on jewelry. Gambling represents an outlay of $70,000,000, and intoxicating beverages call for $775,000,000 in our money. On the other hand, our charitable nation gives millions a year for various missionary societies, hospitals, homes, etc. Last year,,alone $10,000,000 were spent on missions.— .tjjnswers, London. 4 " Wise Farmer. In the legislature of one of the western states last winter there was a bill under discussion-' whether they should teach farming fn the public schools. There was a young man whose business was school teaching before he became a statesman. He was an advocate of such a law being passed. An pld farmer member rose from his seat and said that the law would be useless because the teachers were incompetent to teach the children farming. The young school teacher statesman asked him by what authority he made such a statement. The old farmer answered if they knew how to farm, why would they teach?—Mack’s National Monthly. Caught in the Act. “Darling do you really love me?” breathed the lover. “I do—have I not sworn It many a time?" sighed the loveress. » “You have—but do you?” "Why do you ask? What have I done to make you doubt it?” “Ha, girl! I saw you—l caught you—" “What did you see, love? Speak!" “When I came in, I saw you setting the clock hour forward!’* She could not deny It. Her affection was not boreproof. This was the beginning of the end. Simplified Spelling In Australia. Simplified spelling is progressing in Australia. The education department * of Victoria has issued a circular to its teachers embodying a list of words that must be taught in future on “nu •pelin” principles. The “u” is to be dropped out of all such words as “honour” and “favour.” Plough is to be- ~ come “plow," and center Is to be come “plow," and centre is to be want to know why theatre is not also Americanized. The Other Way About. Parson—So your husband is sick. Maybe he has been throwing himself too heavily into his work. Mrs. Casey—Not on yure loife! He's been throwing his wn’urk too hlvily into him. That’s what’s the throuble wld him. He’s a bartinder. Altering the Caae. “I very much fear my neighbor has » got my goat." -Well, suppose he has. Don’t worry, but forget it.” "I can’t. It was an Angora.” Public B*tvlce. Margaret —Josephine has gone In tat a new sort of philanthropy. Katharine —Goodness! What? Margaret —She has formed a society for the prevention of new forms of auction bridge.—Life. One Ungratified. wtte __Y°u promised me that If 1 ■would marry you my every wish ehoold be gratified. Husband —Is it not. Wife-No- I wish I hadn’t married (you-

jjjjgCMS UP A BUtMCO,

FTER being buried under sand for fifteen centuries, the remains of Ostia, the Newport of the ancient Romans, have now been largely unearthed. This year’s American visitors to the Eternal City will fin - them almost as interesting to visit as Pompeii itself. Ostia is older, too, than

i ft?#"

either Pompeii or Herculaneum, older than Rome itself, whose seaport, as well as fashionable watering place, the long-buried city used to be. Thd work of unearthing Ostia has now been going on for some years. Os late, thanks to the interest that has been taken in it by King Victor Emmanuel and the parliament—the latter having just voted $150,000 toward new excavations—it has made rapid headway. The two principal streets of the city, as well as its splendid theater, having been brought to light. This ancient town, the greatest center of commerce, and of amusement of Ruman times, with its splendid buildings and magnificent monuments, has been burled since the 'fall of the Roman Empire in a grave of mingled sand, stones and rubbish, which in places is 20 and even 30 feet deep. The upper ten of Rome had their summer homes at Ostia, which is only thirteen miles from the capital, and used to go there in April and stay until September, during all of which time there was a lot doing. The Malumae, or May festival, was celebrated at Ostia with great pomp by the emperor and his court, who drove all the way from Rome in their gorgeous state coaches, followed, say the records, by the notables, which means the 400 of the day, and the matronea, which* may mean the chaperones, though they had little use of these in those rapid days, and accompanied by crowds of people cheering to Castpr and Pollux, the presiding divinities of the place. These festivals lasted several weeks, during which there were constant libations, which is Roman for rounds of drinks, and sacrifices to Bacchus and Venus, the gods of wine and love. - Plutarch, Livy and Cicero speak of Ostia as having been a “place of de-. light” and “the favorite town of emperors and. nobility for several hundred years.” Nero had a special fondness for the Roman Newport, which

WHERE DO COMETS COME FROM TO US? By GEORGE C. COMSTOCK. Professor of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin. The popular interest in comets is doubtless due to their transitory character, associated with the common belief that they are rare and unusual appearances. Great comets eertainljf'aro unusual and not more than once or twice in a lifetime are there to be seen such types as the beautiful comet of 1882, which was visible in broad daylight, and; whose tail was long enough to bridge the space between earth and sun. But little comets are plentiful as great ones are rare—“as numerous as fishes in the sea” was Kepler’s phrases three centuries ago—and with the systematic use of the telescope in searching for comets, their number has grown, until now there is scarce a night in the year •upon which one or more of these bodies may not be seen. But their stay is brief and within a few weeks, or at most a few months, they are gone, “never to reappear,” as is often said of them. It is well known* however, that some of them do come back after a time, as Hat ley's comet only two years ago, and there are more than half a hundred others which appear and disappear, time after time, upon schedules well known an'd regular.

Surely Case of Bad Luck

i Algernon Couldn’t See How Any One Else Concerned Had Any Real Kick Coming. “Yo’ know dat place I tol’ yo’ I’s lookin’ fo\ w’ere dey’s to gi' me nine dollars a week an’ my boa’d, Mistab Topflo’ ?” “Yes, I remember your speaking of It, Algernon,” replied Mr. Topfloor, pausing at his door, latch key in hand. “Well, sah, I los’ dat place!” “I didn’t know you had actually found It,” remarked Mr. Topfloor. “Oh, yas, sah,' I foun' It all right—dat is, I come mos’ nea' findin’ it. Oere was a gemman down on de fou't flo', he promise mos’ solemn dates be git a Job he ’spectin’ as p’esldent' ob a railroad dat he spec’ would be startin’ somewheres out wes' by nex’ Augus*, be sho gi' me a place as poster m de statiu; i dey’s gwine build; so yo stdai was a mighty close t'ing. Mistah

is another way of saying that there was a warm time in the old town on more than one night, judging by the imperial fiddler’s liking for splendid orgies. That the goddess of love enjoyed a special popularity among the Ostienses, as the inhabitants of the city were called, is shown by the large number of statues of Venus, including one particularly fine one, which have been discovered there. There is evidence, too, of the cronistae, the reporters of that* time, that the life in the season at Ostia was, in the words of Bill Nye, a continuous round of torchlight processions and Mardi Gras. It is pretty hard to say how many years before the foundation of Rome Ostia was in existence and flourishing as the seaport of Latium. Virgil says that Aeneas, escaping from the burning Troy, stopped with his fellows at the mouths of the Tiber, where he founded the New Troy, afterwards called by the simpler name of Ostia. This poetical account is not wholly supported by historical investigations, however. But t|iere is no doubt that Ancus Marcius, who lived some 400 years before the birth of Christ, established himself at Ostia after having defeated several Latin towns. It was the foundation of Rome and its rapid development that caused an equally rapid and marvelous development of the port of Ostia. This, owing to the short distance from the city, was often called the port of Rome, and it provided for the city the greatest part of the many requisites for its From the corn of Egypt and Sicily to the marbles of Greece and Asia Minor, from the wines of Falernus and of Naples to the gold of Africa and Spain, everything brought to Rome was landed at Ostia and thence by the Tiber was shipped to the capital. Ostia followed Rome in its splendor and its magnitude; when the Roman empire was at its zenith Ostia was also at the maximum of its glory. Not only was it a commercial center, but a military base for war expeditions. Claudius, the emperor, sailed from Ostia to the conquest of Britain. Excavations at Ostia had never been successfully and scientifically carried out until a few years ago, The world owes to Professor Lanciana, the Italian archaeologist, the first scientific research of the ruins of the town. This savant was also the

Nevertheless the great majority of comets do disappear and have not come back, and astronomers are divided in opinion as to whether they ever will return. When a comet is discovered It is the business of the astronomer to find, as promptly as may be, the path it is pursuing, whether it is oval or vshaped, and here he encounters the real difficulties of the problem. He must rely upon observations made . while the comet is visible, and this pe-1 riod is so short compared with the time taken to move over the whole orbit, that it is almost impossible to decide from the little section of the orbit covered by observations whether it belongs to the one type or the other. Whether the orbits be prevailing of one kind or the other, it is clear that they are of very different sizes, some of them approaching so close to the sun that the comet is literally made more than red hot as It sweeps past, while in other cases-the comet at its nearest approach to the sun is far outside the orbit of the earth. From a statistical study of these orbits, it appears probabble that those comets that are discovered and observed from the earth constitute only a small fraction of the total number that enter or belong to the solar system. To be discovered at all, a comet either must be unusually big and bright or it must come near the earth, an, with due reference to these conditions and to

* — Topflo,-—’bout de closes’ I eve* come to a rale good job like dat I alius say 1 rudder® wo’b de po’tlr business dan rSos any'ting else; dere’a a lot o’ money in it es yo’ calcumlates right But seems like dere ain’ no hope fo’ me to git no wo’k in any line but de elebatln’ businness, ’cos eve’ time I t’inks I has my finger on a good job de whole t’ing fall t’ro. But dis beyah job I’s tellin’ you’ ’bout, I los’ it jes’ cos I’s de mos’ unuluckies’ pusson on de yarth. How’d I lose it? Well, sab, I los it ’cos de gemman as 'spec de railroad would be startin’ jes up an’ die befo’ be got de job o’ p’esiden’. Doesn’ I t’ink ‘be de mos’ unlucky i us two?’ I sho cay n’t say dat, sah, e de one dat am lef In de lurch. he had jes’ a-live 'bout six mont’s o’—or mebbe a yea' — eve’yt’ing would a-ben rejusted an’ he could went mos’ any time wid’out dere iu’ much loss; but as it is, I sho unno w’en I cayn git ’nudder chance

first to draw the attention of the Italian government to the treasures which th# sands of Ostia were concealing. Some authorities on archaeology almost discouraged Professor Lancianl in his first attempts, but a short work was quite sufficient to prove, what an important page of history Ostia would disclose to the world if its ruins were brought to light. The excavations at Ostia have now uncovered the two main thoroughfares of the town, the “decumanus” and the “cardo,” which, according to Roman topography, marked the first foundations of the city. The decumanus, the street leading to the sea, was flanked by porticoes leading to shops or private houses. Some of the porticoes have been found in excellent condition and most of the walls are also well preserved. These walls are* as usual in Roman architecture,- rather thick, thus showing that the heat must have been, considerable in the town, especially as almost every house bears traces of an open space or veranda which opens toward the sea and is sheltered from the sun's rays. The theater, which lies close to the decumanus, still bears Its original form and some of its columns, its statues and its mosaics are beautifully preserved. The capitals of the columns are of remarkable workmanship and judging by their height and by the size of the statues which adorned the entrance of the theater the latter must have been an exceedingly large building to#hold several thousand people. It was founded by Agrippa and restored by Caracalla at the end of the fourth century. In this theater was found a large statue of Venus which is now at the Lateran Museum in Rome, while another, the Venus qf the Sea, has been found buried underneath the stage. A great part ct the decumanus has yet ko be uneasthed, the greatest and 'perhaps the ryost interesting pan. as tiiis is the portion approaching* the sea, where the famous port is supposed to have been in existence. Professor Vaglieri—who, in succession to Lanciani, is now In charge of the excavations —thinks that he may not only come across the walls of the port and Its docks, but that he may also find the remains of ancient ships and at any rate archaeological material of the greatest importance for the reconstruction of this old. port.

the average number of comets that are found year by year, It appears that for every comet that ever comes in side the orbit of the earth there must be some 45 or 50 that never come so near the and which must therefore in great part remain undiscovered. An even more striking conclusion along these lines is that if we count the’orbit of the most distant planet, Neptune, as fixing the boundary of the solar system, there are at all times presj ent within this spherical domain sev--1 eral thousand comets, the average number being a trifle under 6,000, but of these thousand there are visible from the earth at any one time hardly more than one or two. It must not b© inferred, however, that comets are less numerous near the earth than elsewhere, for quite the contrary is true, the number of comets per billion cubic miles of space is greater near the sun and diminishes somewhat rapidly to the outermost confines of the system and it ia only the immense expanse of the solar system beyond the earth’s orbit that makes the total number of comets so great It is this same great space available for them to move in that makes the chance of collision between comets and planets so extremely small. There is, no known instance of a head-on collision between such bodies, or of the falling of a comet into the sun, although the mathematical chapter of accidents contemplates as probable the occurrence of about one suck event as the Idtter in every century.

like dat It jes’ my bad luck! Good night, sar.” Sounded Like Gaelic. A story Is told of a certain mayor of Cork who headed a deputation to the emperor of the French and commenced an oration to his majesty in which he conceived to be the French tongue. “Pardon me,” said the emperor, after he had listened to the speech with much patience, “English I know fairly well, but, I regret to say, I have never had an Opportunity of studying the Irish language!"— Argonaut Showing of "Doll Census.” At Sabetha, Kan., a doll census was taken. One family had forty There were dolls in 222 homes. There were twenty more dolls in a dozen homes There were dolls fifty, forty and twen > ty-flve years old When to Break Your Word. Never break your Word —unless you can do It when a hyphen will fit in r nicely—Lippincott’s Magazine i

Kttt THIRD Figures in iiiiteracy Shows Germany and England in Lead. i - Proportion Is Smaller In the Kaiser's Realm Than in the British Isles, But There Are Some Qualifying Circumstances, However. Washington.—Considered without qualifying circumstances, the latest official reports indicate that only three persons out of ten thousand in Germany are unable to read or write, while the proportion of illiteracy in Great Britain is 1501 per 10,000, a» against 770 per 10,000 in the United States. These figures are based on a comparison of illiteracy among some of the leading nations which has Just been made by the United States bureau of education. The bureau has used the preliminary figures of the 1910 census for this country, and the latest official reports available for the others. Although America-seems to be a bad third in the comparison, the bureau of education’s publication calls attention to circumstances which tend to put a much better face upon the matter. Thus the American figures include the entire population more than, ten years of age, while the German figures cover only the army recruits and the British statistics are based on data drawn wholly from official marriage registers. Hence the German and British statistics deal only with adults, and, generally speaking, with physically and mentally normal adults, while the United States census in eludes without discrimination everyone above the ten-year age limit Again, it is pointed out, the showing of the United States is brought down by reason of the fact that the country has a large population of foreign-born whites, as well as of colored persons, among whom the percentage of illiteracy is 12.8 per cent and 30.5 per cent respectively. The Illiteracy among the native whites of this country is only three per cent . Density of population has an important bearing on the problems incident to bringing the children together for purposes of education, and therefore is an important consideration when discussing illiteracy statistics. In this connection the document issued by the bureau of education shows that the number of inhabitants per square mile In the German empire is more than 310, in Great Britain practically 463, and in this country Just a shade over 80. France, with a population of 89.5 persons to the square mile, has 11.4 per cent, of illiterates in its- population over ten years of ag'e. It should be noted, however, according to the bureau of education’s report, that this includes a large number of persons who never had the benefit of compulsory education laws, 'were enacted in 1882. The great nations of western Europe are compared with the United States for the reason, among others, that, like this country, they all have well-organized systems of public instruction. The bureau of education’s examination of five nations of southern and eastern Europe shows that the proportion of illiteracy here runs from 26 to 70 per cent. “The lowest ratio for this group,” says the bureau of education’s monograph, “exceeds that for the southern states of the Union, where the greater part of the American colored population 1* massed.” FINDS OLD HORSESHOE. Fifty years ago or longer, when Senator Isaac Stephenson was a young man and the primeval woods of Wisconsin had not yet made him a millionaire, a horse shoe, cast in a forest path, was hung over a branch of a young tree and forgotten. Recently a timber “cruiser” found the shoe deeply inbedded In the wood, and brought it to “Uncle Ike,” who promptly gave him $lO for It. Senator Stephenson believes the shoe is of English iron, and it is evidently hand made. “American iron was not good in those days,” he said. “In the olden days, yop know, there was a king whose horses had four golden shoes. One waa lost, and the finder was supposed to reap good luck with the shoe. I suppose our fancy about good luck and horseshoes comes from that tale. Any way, the man who hung this shoe in the tree evidently remembered that proverb, and had a kind thought for whoever later found It” The block of beechwood with its imbedded horseshoe lies on the senator’s desk in his committee room. CIGARETTE AGES OLD. Dr. Walter Hough, curator of ethnology of the United States national museum, recently ran across the cigarette’s ancestor during the course of some special studies and researches on the utilization of fire founded on the aboriginal incense burners of Mexico and Central America. The first cigarette, according to Doctor Hough, was smoked in the southern Pueblo region. It waa made of a section of cane tube filled with vegetable incense. The cigarette tube was packed with a mixture of herbs —quite like the modern cigarette—which, when burnt, produced a pleasing odor, the semblance of which to a nowadays cigarette is a matter of opinion, of course. Ab a commentary on the waxy Judgment of the ancient smoker, Doctor Hough declares that the ancient cigarette generally was not lighted, but offered by implication as a sacrifice. In some instances, however, they were ignited at the time of offering. Instead of the giddy gold tip, which now is occasionally the object of a deep scorn, the cigarettes were girdled with strands of white and dyed cotton cord, and sometimes miniature blankets, beads and feathers. This was to carry out the idea that the sacrifice was animate and symbolically represented the human body. The presence of tobacco In the old cigarettes was about as noticeable as In the present day article. After mentioning many varieties of gums and herbs which might be found In “the makings’jof a Pueblo cigarette. Doctor Hough pf’*’- “among which obacco ” r Tougb ' that

•there were used such things as arxeu. isia, balsam root, cedar tops, sweet grass and gum, and the doubter of the cigarette lineage may do well to consider the concluding argument before replying to Doctor Hough’s theory. HE KNEW A PECK. Dr. S. W. Stratton, director of the government bureau of standards, draws a good salary for determining down to a gnat’s eyewlnker Just what Is a peck, a yard or a pound. Not long ago he paused at a little grocery near his home to buy half a peck of eating apples. The grocer measured them out in a square wooden box. . “That doesn’t look like a half-peck measure,” remarked Stratton. "It Is, though,” replied the grocer, just that briefly. “Well, it isn’t a serious matter,” said Stratton, “but I think you’re wrong. That box looks to me quite a bit smaller than a regulation halfpeck measure. “Mister,” began the grocer, leaning forward with both hands on the counter, ‘Tve been selling stuff by the measure for nigh on to thirty years, and I know a peck or a half-peck when I see it. You couldn’t possibly know as much about such things as I do.” “Maybe not, maybe not,” agreed Stratton, and he walked out without further argument. ' WOULD “GO HOME.” Richard White of Lawrence, deputy sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives, tells this one: “A" gentleman was walking through the Africa section of Cincinnati one day when he heard a terrific racket. He made an Investigation and found a colored woman beating her aged husband, who was shouting for mercy. * “ ‘Here, woman, you mustn’t do that!’ exclaimed the man. “ ‘Why musn’ ah do dat?’ angrily demanded the negro woman. ‘Ain’ he mah ole man?’ “ ‘Even if he Is your husband you have no right to beat him that way. What has he done?’ “‘Whut’s he dun? Why, mistah, dat low down niggah dun less de hen house do’ open an’ all dem pullets has got out. Ain’ dat enuff?’ “ ‘Well, that isn’t serious,’ said the gentleman. ‘I wouldn’t beat him any more if I were you. Besides the chickens will all come home.’ “‘Cum home!’ snorted the colored woman. ‘Man, yo’ all doan know chickens. Dey’ll all go home.’ ” MAY BAN BARBERS. As a result of the death of Cadet Julian N. Bishop at the naval academy on May 4 from blood poisoning, all midshipmen at the academy may be ordered to shave themselves. A board of inquiry consisting of Commanders George R. Evans and G. O. Lewis and Surgeon A.' W. Dunbar of the navy are now investigating the causes leading to Cadet Bishop’s being infected. When Cadet Bishop reported to the academy hospital on the sick list on May 1, he stated that one of the barbers in Annapolis had in shaving him, cut him. The cut was a small one, but two days later blood poisoning set in. It resulted In Cadet “Bishop’s death. Education a Failure. Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma, whose mother was a Cherokee Indian, stirred up some excitement down Oklahoma way in one of the first lawsuits he ever tried, says the Washington Herald. The opposing counsel saw fit to call Owen a liar. Owen got up and addressed himself to the court in about this lap; guage: “Inasmuch as the court has done nothing to maintain its own dignityr and as I am amply able to take care of myself, I shall take this affair into my own hands.” Then he turned to the lawyer across the table and remarked to him In a loud voice that he was both a liar and a blackguard, and that, furthermore, he could just take that, and that, and that! Whereupon the opposing counsel fell to the floor as one man. Owen had used only his fists, bdt everybody In the court room fled, not knowing when bullets might be in the air. After the affair was over the lawyer who had called Owen a liar stood on the front steps of the court house and observed to a couple of friends: “I never was much in favor of .educating those Cherokee boys, anyhow!” “Fathers of the Revolution.” The expression “fathers of the revolution” does not appear in any history of the revolutionary period and Is evidently a misnomer, fqr the reason that there can be but one father. The patriotic association styled “Sons ol the Revolution” has decided that those who are entitled to be called sons oi the revolution are: “Male descendants; above the age of 21 years, from an ancestor who as either a military, naval or marine officer, soldier, sailor oi marine, or official in the service of any one of the 13 original colonies ox states, or of the national government, representing or composed of those colonies or states, assisted In establishing American independence during th« war of the revolution between th« 19th day of April, 1775, when hostilities commenced, and the 19th day oi April, 1788, when they were ordered to oease.” London Grocer's Costume. The grocer’s assistant In London used to be as carefully looked after ai his employer, precise regulations being laid down respecting the way h« should dress. His coat had to be made “close and comely,’ ’and, as well as th« breeches, was to consist only of “close and comely,” and, as well as th« English leather or English stuffe coat ing not more than 2s. 6d. the yard. - His stockings were to be of woolen yarns or Kersey, he was not to weal “Spanish shoes with polohia heels/ and his hair was to be cut short. H was forbidden to wear any girdlt point, garters, or shoe brings of an] kind of silk or ribbon or any rose a such like goods upon his shoes, 4. breach of these regulations rendered him liable to eighteen hours’ Imprisonment in the Guildhall ’ . . V ' :

IfflUMnoM SUNWSOKE Lesson . -(By E. O. SELLERS. Director 'of Evening Department, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago.) * THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM. LESSON TEXT-Mark 4:26-32. Matt. 13: 33. GOLDEN TEXT—‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.”— Matt. 6:10. Last week we observed the fact that the genesis of this new kingdom Jesus came to establish was to be the life, his life, when was as seed. The reception of the seed in various sorts of soil, however, made a vast difference as to the ultimate outcome. Today we may observe from these words of the Master what are to be the processes of the establishing of the kingdom, for we do not read into this parable a record of the final consumation, but rather that these parables reveal different aspects of the general process. While it is true that this first parable is only recorded by St. Mark it is Jn reality a complement of these parables .about the kingdom found in the thirteenth of Matthew and elsewhere. We have already noted that the seed is the word, Luke 8-11, and that the soil is the hearts of men, but hfere Jesus tells us that in the spiritual as in the material universe man “knoweth not how” the life principle propogates itself It is a helpful thought to every*. .Christian worker that he is hot to be held accountable i for that part of the process; his part is to be that of the man who shall cast the seed into the ground. Not upon, but “into.” (v. 26). Having thus planted the seed let him ‘sleep and rise again” e. g., let him trust a wise God to see to it that the seed germinate and bring forth. All of your worrying and mine cannot hasten the process nor change the result once the seed is sown, so . let us be careful to sow them right and as far as possible be sure we plant it in properly prepared soil rather than waste it among the thorns or where the birds of the air (Satan) may soon snatch it away. 1 Process is Gradual. Again let us beware of presumptuousness “he knoweth not how.” Can you, my reader, define life? Can you explain the transmission, the development, the propagation of life? We accept the results of these things in nature without questioning, why stagger at similar things In the spiritual f realm? Why question the reality of the Christian life when we see all about us its results? In verses 22 and 23 of this same chapter we are admonished that if we have ears “let him hear” (a positive injunction) and almost the very next word tells us to “take heed what we hear.” Going on down to verse 28 of the lesson j ve see clearly the reason for these words, for our lives will grow and will reproduce each after its own kind. Ifwe sow wheat we reap wheat. Jf we allow tares to be sown in our lives we shall reap tares. The process is a gradual on 9, but a sure one. “First the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear.” The harvest will not take place until the process be completed. It is not till the fruit is ripe that the husbandman puts forth his sickle. We are not to bother ourselves so much with the process as we are to guard the source. Sow good seed and God will see to it that it shall bring forth. Let us not expect the “full corn” of ripe experience from the “tender blade” of early Christian life. Let us have patience till these young Christians have time to reach the full maturity of their powers. Jesus the harvester of this parable knew when to put in the sickle, viz., when the fruit is “ripe,” (v. 29, R. V.) Whatever be' the nature or character of this harvest we are left to infer, for Jesus gives another picture of this same mysterious yet irresistible process whereby this kingdom is to grow. He compare* it with a mustard seed. The first was the internal hidden part of the process. This is to draw our attention to the outward visible growth of the kingdom. Jesus was humble and lowly in his coming and in his conduct here upon earth. The Main Truth. Looking back over history his was indeed “less than all the seeds in the earth,” yot he set into motion those principles and powers that have caused his kingdom to become great in the earth (Isa. 9:7.) Under the branches of this kingdom have lodged the weary and the stricken ones. Th« birds of the air symbolize the gather ing together of thr nations of the earth that they may take refuge under the shelter and shadow of the kingdom of God, see Ezek. 17, Daniel 4, etc. We must beware of fanciful interpretations or applications. The main truth is that almost without exception the beginnings of all great movements in the kingdom of God have been like mustard seed, small but exceeding great in their growth. Witness such moral developments as the slavery questioh. Compare the present day temperance agitation with what it amounted to one hundred, yes, twenty-five years ago. The seme tan be said of countless other “movements.” For the third parable that of the leaven which a woman hid in the three measures of meal we need to refer to Paul’s inspired words as recorded in 1 Cor. 6:6-7 and Gal. 5:8-9. Here Paul explicitly tells us that leaven la a type of sin. That we who are in Christ are a new lump, unleavened. That the old leaven Is that of malice and wickedness, -but that we who have put away leaven are the broad of sin-’ cerity and truth. What do we therefore infer? Viz., that as growing up * alongside the good seed shall also grow the tares with fruitage of death and decay.