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A-WEAK x.
BY MANDA L. CROCKER.
I reach my weary, empty hands
Across tiio tide that's coming in—
Across tho sorrow, pain, and sin.
They bockon me to lur-olf lauds.
And Marnh’s waters round my feet,
A rising tidal, dark and strong ;
A cruel, cold, deep tide of wrong,
That shuts me from the fountains swoct.
The hearth, the home without a song.
All helpless, now, I stand beside,
And look across the surges wide,
And feel the crushing weight of wrong.
’Tis oh, to taste tho fountwns sweet!
’Tis oh, to rid my life of woe!
’Tis oh, the happiness to know.
Where kindred souls in rapturo meet.
But Marah s waters bathe my feet,
And o’er it all a wordless dread
K’er stares at me like the wicked dead,
And makes the terrors ail complete.
LILLIE EDDLES;
OH,
ABMCTED BY THE B9SH
BEEBES.
A Story of the War in
the Southwest.
BY ARVIDE 0. BALDWIN.
CHAPTER X.
THE ABDUCTION.
When everything was ready and they all
appeared calmer, John saw Laura, and re
quested her to tell him all. He wished to
know the worst and know it all.
“Before it seemed as if I could not beai
it, but now I feel that I must know,” he
said.
Laura, with her eyes red from weeping,
proceeded to tell him, in as few words as
possible, all that transpired from the time
the men left home in the morning until
they returned.
“You had not been gone a half hour,” she
began, "before six men were seen approach
ing the house from different directions.
They were on foot and said not a word un
til they had reached the porch, when they
ordered the negroes to lay down their arms.
They appeared bewildered and dazed with
fear, and complied with the demand at once
without making a show at resistance.
“Lillie ordered them to shoot the first one
that set his foot on the porch, but the
frightened slaves were like so many blocks
of wood, without the sense of shame at
their display of cowardice. The door was
fastened against ihem, but if you will look
you can see where it was burst from its
fastenings, and in they rushed.
“ ‘Back, you villains!’ said Lillie, as she
pointed her pistol at the leader, who paid
no attention to her words, but pressed on.
“ ‘Back, Edom Woodsley, for I know’ you
through your disguise. Back, I say, or I’ll
shoot you!’ she said as she retreated.
“On they came, and Lillie’s pistol flashed
in the face of him she called Woodsley.
He turned partly around as she fired, and
we all knew he was hurt, for his right arm
appeared to be useless.
“‘Catch the blasted wench! Catch hei
and tie her!' he exclaimed, and in a moment
her pistol was knocked from her hand and
the great, rough men grasped her and tied
her with cords. It makes my heart ache to
think how the poor girl sobbed when she
found she was powerless in their hands.
“ ‘O, where is John, or Henry, or Jeff?
If they were hero, you villains would pay
for this cruelty, and they will make you pay
well, yet!’ she cried.
“ ‘Gag her if she makes too much fuss,’
said Woodsley, who appeared to be the
leader.
" ‘Edom Woodsley,’ Lillie continued,
‘ you are the vile thing that has been play
ing gentleman for the last few years, and
trying to deceive people, but I have known
your wicked nature. You have not de
ceived me!’
“ ‘l’ll break your proud spirit for you,
you vixen, and you’ll be glad to crawl in the
dust at my feet,’ was his reply. ‘Oh!’ ht
groaned, as he put his hand to his shoulder,
•you tried to kill me, didn’t you? 11l cut
that pretty nose from your face, but I’ll pay
you for this. ’
“When ma and your mother pleaded
with tears and prayers for them to let the
poor child loose, they were roughly taken
and thrust out of the room. Mercy is un
known to the wretches.
“After they had secured what food, blan
kets and other things they desired they de
manded money, but threats and abuse were
of no avail, for all denied any knowledge
of money being hidden around the prem
ises.
“When Lillie heard that the bushwhack
ers’ raid was to c-pture her, iand that she
must accompany them, she begged that
they allow her to remain at home, but their
hearts were like adamant, and her pleadings
were in vain. Sylva asked them to take her
along if they took her young mistress—a
wish that was gratified with alacrity.
“After as short a delay as possible they
led the captive away, and Sylva was a will
ing sharer of the fate of her fair mistress.
They led them into the timber north of the
house, where I have no doubt they had
horses tied, and we watched them until the
leaves hid them from view. ”
John arose, as Laura ceased speaking,
and, gathering everything together that was
prepared for his trip, walked silently out
into the night.
The night was dimly lighted by a few
stars that blinked away in a lazy manner.
The night air was bracing and invigorating,
and our hero walked with rapid strides
toward the Wire Hoad.
A dark figure glided out of the house and
was soon by John’s side.
“Marsa John!”
John started.
“G, is it you, Jeff?"
“Yes, Marse John, I’se wid you.”
“Good, Jeff, come on. We’ll teach these
fellows a lesson before we return. ”
The two crossed the road and at once en
tered the woods on the east side.
“I know the way,” said Jeff, and he took
the lead. The country was perfectly fa
miliar to him, and ho walked along in the
shadows of the trees ne irly as well as in
broad daylight. They would follow down
one ridge for a short distance, and then go
across to another and down that. This was
kept up for a long time, and at last the wel
come sight of the river, glistening like a
belt of silver, was seen through the trees.
Here they halted, but it was only long
enough to be positive of the point at which
they hed struck the river. They immedi
ately resumed their journey and continued
on up the stream, close under the bluff's on
the oottoms.
After another half hour's travel they
■gain halted.
Jeff touched John’s arm and pointed
through the trees to the foot of a bluff.
“Here dey am!”
There was a glimmer of a decaying camp
■re to be seen and the two men had n«
doubt about it being the camp of the bush- 1
whackers.
“Dis way, Marse John,” whispered Jeff.
And the ne..ro led the way dose by the river
bank past the camp and on up the river.
Across the river diagonally from the camp
fire was a mass of broken, seamed sand
stone rocks, rising high in the air.
These rocks were washed and worn by
the waters that covered this country cen
turies ar;o. Tho locality was one of the
most perfect places tor defense that could
be found. Water trickled down between
the tones from the bank above, and was
easily pot at.
The men kept on up the stream until they
came io a riffle, and then waded across.
Jeff led the way direeily to the natural for
tification we have describe A, They climbed
up the rocks until they reached a deep re
cess that had been made by a large stone
being misplaced. Once in this re ess they
i'elt that it was impossible for any body of
men to dislodge them from it with fire
arms.
uiiun.
It was so happily situated that it cc m
manued a view of the bushwhackors’ camp,
and John believed that it would be better
to at once visit tbe neighborhood of the |
camp and see if the captive maiden was i
there, and discover the strength of the i
enemy they had to contend with.
When he told Jeff of his plan, that inde- ;
vidual insisted on being the one to run the j
risk, but John wanted to see for himself,
and so he would not listen to it.
“I’ll be back in an hour, at the latest, ” he
said, as he cliintiftd down.
Jeff walched his master until he had dis
appeared in the darkness.
John passed up and across the river again
and proceeded stealthily down opposite the
camp. When he was near onough to see
the flickering of the dying fire, he got on
his hands and knees, and, keeping the
brush and rocks between him and his foes,
crept cautiously forward. He did not stop
until he wag within a hundred feet of the
camp.
Sitting on a log with his back toward our
friend was the sentinel.
They had not been subjected to enough
of danger yet to make them watchful, and
that fellow who Lad been selected for this
night’s watch over his fellow-rascals’ slum
bers w’as nodding in a very unsoldier-like
manner. Stretched about upon the dry
ground in the cavern under the foot of the
bluff that these men had selected for their
camp were, perhaps, a dozen men.
Nearly everything to “make home pleas
ant” was scattered promiscuously about.
These were the spoils of their nefarious
business that honest citizens had been
plundered of.
Lillie was not there. He soon became
convinced of that. But where could she be?
On one side of the fire, upon a fairly
comfortable pallet, he recognized the form
of that person whom he hated above all
others—Edom Woodsley.
He could barely control the desire to send
a bullet into the black heart of that unprin
cipled man, but he was not here this time
for revenge. It was for a more laudable
purpose; but he felt that it might not be
long before he would return, and nndei
different circumstances.
When he was satisfied that those foi
whom he was seeking were not there he
immediately retraced his steps and returned
to the rocks where he had left Jeff.
CHAPTER XL
THE ALTERNATIVE.
What was his astonishment to find that
that individual had disappeared! John had
great confidence in Jeff, but he thought that
this was a needless and useless risk.
Time wore on, and just as the first faint
streak of dawn appeared in the east, Jeff
climbed the rocks to their retreat.
“Did yer fin’ Miss Lillie, Marse John?”
“No, Jeff; she is not at the camp.”
“No, Marse John, yer’s correct; dey isn’l
dar.”
“Did you go there, too?” John asked, hall
angrily,
"Yes, an’ I done went to anoder camp,
too.” And this natural scout and warrior
chuckled to think he had outdone his edu
cated master.
“Well, what did you find?” demanded
John.
“Foun’ Miss Lillie an’ Sylva, sah. ”
“You have? Where are they?” And John
started to go.
“Wait, Marse John. Yer can't do nuffin
now. Yer mus’ wait ’till ebenin’.”
“Well, tell me what you know anyway, ”
said John, eagerly.
And Jeff told him.
“I couldn't stan’ it arter yer leff. an’ so I
jes’ got up an’ went too. I went to dei
camp fust, an’ I got dar jes as yer was ei
pullin’ out. D’ye min’ dat log ter yer lef’
as yer cum out? Do, eh! Well, I was dai
agin de udder side. W’en yer lef’ I jes look
ober in de camp. W’en I see Woodsley,
de debbil was er hoi’ uv me, for I could
hardly keep frum lettin' ther ole gun loose.
What fer de Lawd Tow sech fo’ks made fer,
nohow? I den goes aroun’ on dis yere side
uv em an’ hunts fer a paf, fer I knowd dat
ef de women wasn’t dar’ dey mus’ hab
anoder place close by, an’, Marse John, I
was correc’. I hit de paf an’ tuck it an’
follered it on until I kem ter Does yer
see dat bushwhacker cornin’ ober de hill
yander?'’
John looked in the direction indicated.
Sure enough! There was one just coming
over a hill, only about a quarter of a mile
from camp, and he was on his way there
now.
“Dar is whar dey am, Marse John; jes
ober de hill.”
“Were you there, Jeff?”
“Yes, sah, was there for a long time, but
didn’t see Miss Lillie, but I knowd she war
dar ’case I saw Sylva gwine fer water to de
spring. ”
“Did yon speak to her?”
“Yes, sah. I saw do man watohin’ de do',
an’ 1 crep’ down to de bush close by, an’
1 got dar jes as she was gwine away wid de
water, an’ I sez, ‘Yere, Sylva!’ an' she
almos’ drap down wid fright, but I sez,
‘Dis yer’s Jeff! Don’t be skeeredl’ an’ I
done tole her den to tell Miss Lillie dal
Marse John was heah close, an mo' perlick
erly Jeff, an’ dat dey would bof be turned
loose mighty soon, an’ not to fret- ”
“What did Sylva say?”
“She say dat de poo’ girl was cryin’
hersef mos’ sick.”
“Anything else, Jeff?”
“No, Marse John, one ob de debbils what
waz er watchin’ de gals, holler, ‘Come ’ere,
you brack nigger, er I’ll blow de debbil
outen yer!’ an’ so she went; but dat bush
whacker won t lib ter be as ole as Metfau
-Belum, sah.”
It was evident that the guard was being
relieved, or that they thought it only neces
sary to have one guard doing duty during
the daytime.
“Can we accomplish anything at once,
Jeff?”
(TO BE COXTIWUED.)
Objectionable Features.
Brown—“ How do you like your new
house ?”
Smith—“ Well, there are some ob
jectionable features about it.”
Brown— “YVhat are they?”
Smith—“ The landlord’s.”— Life.
The upright body of a dead tramp
was the other day mistaken by tho Har
risburgh, (Penn)., small boys for a dum
my, and was stoned accordingly.
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: “Uses of Stratagem.”—
Breached to the 18th Regiment, X.
V. S. N. (»., at the Peekskill
(N. Y.) State Camp.
Text: “ Then ye shall rise up from the
ambush and seize upon the city." —Joshua,
viii., ?.)
Men of the. Thirteenth Regiment, and their
friends here gathered, of all occupations, and
professions, men of the city and men of the
fields, here fs a theme fit fnr all of us.
One Sabbath evening with my family
around me, we were talking over the scene
of the text. In the wide-open eyes and tho
quick interrogations and the blanched
cheeks. I realized what a thrilling drama it
was. There is the old city, shorter by name
than any other city in the ages, spelled with
two letters —A, I—Ai. Joshua and his men
want to take it. How to do it is the
question. On a former occasion, in
a straightforward, face to face fight
they had been defeated; hut now they are
going to take it by ambuscade. General
Joshua has two divisions in his army—the
one division the battle-worn commander will
lead himself, the other .division he sends off
to encamp in an ambush on the west side of
tiie city of Ai. No torches, no lanterns, no
sound of heavy battalions, but 30,000
swarthy warriors moving in silence,
speaking oniy in a whisper; no
clicking of swords against shields,
lest the watchmen of Ai discover it, and the
stratagem be a failure. If a roystering
soldier in the Israelitish army forgets him
self, all along the line the word is “Hush!”
Joshv.a takes the other division, the one with
which he is to march, and puts it on the north
side of the city of Ai, and then spends the
night in reconnoiteriug in the valley. There
he is, thinking over the fortunes of the
coming day, with something of the feelings
of Wellington the night before Waterloo, or
of Meade and Lee the night before Getty -
burg. There he stands in the night and says
to himself: “Yonder is the division in am
bush on the west side of Ai. Here is the
division 1 have under my especial command
on the north side of Ai. There is the old city
slumbering in its sin. To-morrow will be the
battle. Look! the morning already begins
to tip the hills. The military officers of Ai
look out in the morning very early, and
while they do not see the division in ambush,
they behold the other division of J oshua,
and the cry: “To arms! To arms!”
rings through all the streets of the
old town, and every sword, whether
hacked and bent or newly welded, is
brought out, and all the inhabitants of
the city of Ai pour through the gates, an in
furiated torrent, and their cry is: “Come,
we’il mal e quick work with Joshua and his
troops.” No sooner had these people of Ai
come out against the troops of Joshua than
Joshua gave such a command as he seldom
gave: “Fall back!” Why, they could not
believe their own ears. Is Joshua’s courage
failing him?
The retreat is beaten, and the Israelites are
flying, throwing blankets and canteens on
every side under this worse than Bull Run de
feat. And you ought to hear the soldiers of
Ai cheer and cheer and cheer. But they huzza
too soon. The men lying in ambush are strain
ing their vision to get some signal from
Joshua that they may know what
time to drop upon the city. Joshua takes his
burnished spear, glistening in the snn like a
shaft of doom, and points it toward the city;
and when the men up yonder in the ambush
see it, with hawk-like swoop they drop ijpijn
Ai, ana without stroke of SVrdKf or stab of
spear take the city and put it to the torch.
So much for the division that was in am
bush. How about the division under Joshua’s
command? No sooner does Joshua stop in
the flight than all his men stop with him,and
as he wheels they wheel, for in a voice of
thunder he cried: “Hp.it!” One strong arm
driving back a torrent of flying troops. And,
then, as he points his spear through the
golden light toward that fatal city, his
troops know that they are to start for it.
W hat a scene it was when the division in am
bush, which had taken the city marched down
against the men of Ai on the one side, and
the troops under Joshua doubled upon their
enemies from the other side, and the men 06
Ai were caught between these two hurricanes
of Israelitish courage, thrust before and
behind, stabbed in breast and back, ground
between the upper and the nether millstones
of God’s indignation. Woe to the city of
Ai! Cheer for the triumphs of Israel!
Lesson the first; There is such a thing as
victorious retreat. Joshua’s falling back
was the first chapter in his successful besiege
ment. And there are times in your life when
the best thing you can do is to run. You
were once the victim of strong drink. The
demijohn and the decanter were your fierce
foes. They came down upon you with greater
fury than the men of Ai upon the men of
Joshua. Your only safety is to getaway
from them. Your dissipating companions
will come around you for your overthrow.
Run for your life! Fallback! Fallback
from the drinking saloon. Fall back from
the wine party. Your flight is your advance.
Your retreat is your victory. There is a
saloon down on the next street that
has almost been the ruin of your
soul. Then why do you go along that
street? Why do you not pass through
some other street rather than by the place of
your calamity? A spoonful of brandy tiWcen
for medicinal purposes by a man who twenty
years before had been reformed from drunk
enness, hurled into inebriety and the grave
one of the best friends I ever had. Your re
treat is your victory. Here is a converted
infideL He is so strong now in his
faith in the Gospel he says he
can read anything. What are you
reading? Bolingbroke? Andrew Jackson
Davis’s tracts? Tyndall’s Glasgow Univers
ity address! Drop them and run. You will
be an infidel before you die unless you quit
that. These men of Ai will be too much for
you. Turn your back on the rank and file
of unbelief. Fly before they cut you with
| their swords and transfix you with their
javelins.
There are people who have been well-nigh
ruined because they risked a fool-hardy expe
dition in the presence of mighty and over
whelming temptations, and the men of Ai
made a morning meal of them. S# also there
is such a thing as victorious retreat in the
religious world. Thousands of times the
kingdom of Christ has seemed
to fall back. When the blood of
the Scotch Covenanters gave a deeper
dye to the heather of the Highlands, when
the Y audois of France chose extermination
rather than make an unchristian surrender,
when on St. Bartholomew's Day mounted as
sassins rode the streets of J’aris, crying;
“Kill! Blood-letting is good in August!
Kill! Death to the Huguenots! Kill!”
when Lady Jane Grey's head rolled from the
executioner’s block, when Calvin was im
prisoned in the castle, when John Knox died
for the truth; when John Bunyan lay rotting
in Bedford Jail, saying: “If God will help
me and ;ny physical life continues I will stay
here until the moss grows on my eyebrows
rather than give up my faith,’’ the days of
retreat for the church were days of victory.
The Pilgrim Fathers fell back from the
other side of the sea to Plymouth Rock, but
now are marshaling a continent for the
Christianization of the world. The Church
>f Christ falling back from Piedmont,
/ailing back from Rue St. Jacques, falling
back from St. Denis, falling back from
M urtemburg castles, falling back from
the Brussels market place, yet all the
time triumphing. Notwithstanding all
the shocking reverses which the Church of
Christ suffers, what do we see to-day? Th-ee
thousand missionaries of the cross on heathen
ground; sixty thousand ministers of
Christ in this land; at least two hundred
millions of Christians on the earth. All
nations to-day kindling in a blaze of revival.
Failing back, yet advancing until the old
Wesleyan hymn will prove true;
*“i he Mon of Judah shall break tbe chain.
And give us the victory again and again!”
But there is a more marked illustration of
victorious retreat in the life of our Joshua.
the Jesus of the ages. First falling back
'rnm an appalling height to an appalling
depth, falling from celestial hills to terres
trial valleys, from throne to manger; yet
that did not seem to suffice Him as a retreat.
Falling back still further from Bethlehem to
Nazareth, from Nazareth to Jerusalem, back
from Jerusalem to Golgotha, back from Gol
gotha to the mausoleum in the rock, back
down over the precipices of perdition until
he walked amid the caverns of the eternal
captives and drank of the wine of klv* wrath
of Almighty God amid the Ahabs and the
Jezeh-ds and the Belshazzars. O men of the
puipit and men of the pew, Christ’s descent
from heaven to earth doss not measure half
the distance, It was from glorv to perdition.
Ho descended into hell. All the records of
earthly retreat arc as nothing compared with
this falling. Santa Anna with the frag
ments of his armv flying over the plateaux
of Mexico, and Nano jeon and his army re
treating from Moscow in the awful
snows of Russia are not worthy to
be mentioned with this retreat, when
all the powers of darkness seemed to be pur
suing Christ as he fell back, until the body
of him who came to do such wonderful
things lay pu’seless and stripped. M Thinks
that the city of Ai was not so emptied of its
inhabitants w hen they went to pursue Joshua
as perdition was emptied of devils when they
started for the pursuit of Christ, and he fell
back and back, down lower, down lower,
chasm below chasm, pit below’ pit. until ho
seemed to strike the bottom of objurgation
and scorn and torture. Oh! the long, loud,
jubilant shout of hell at the defeat of the
Lord God Almighty!
But let not the powers of darkness rejoice
quite so soon. Do you hear that disturbance
In the tomb of Anniathea? I hear the sheet
rending! What means that stone hurled
down the side of the hill? Who is this com
ing out? Rush him back! the dead must not
stalk in this open sunlight. Oh, it is our
Joshua. Let him come out. He comes forth
and starts for the city. He takes the spear
of the Roman guard and points that way.
Church militant marches up on one side and
the church triumphant marches down
on the other side. And the powers of
darkness being caught between these ranks
of celestial and terrestrial valor, nothing
is left of them save just enough to illus
trate the direful overthrow of hell, and our
Joshua’s eternal vitory. On his head be all
the crowns. In his hand be all the scepters.
At his feet be all the human hearts; and
here. Lord, is one of them.
Lesson the second: The triumph of the
wicked is short. Did you ever see an army
fn a panic? There is nothing so uncontrol
lable. If you had stood at Long Bridge,
Washington, during the opening of our sad
civil war, you would know what it is to see
an army run. And when those men of Ai
looked out and saw those men of Joshua in a
stampede, they expected easy work. They
would scatter them as tho equinox the
leaves. O, the gleeful and jubilant de
scent of the men of Ai upon the men
of Joshua! But their exhilaration was
brief, for the tide of battle turned,
and these quondam conquerors left their
miserable carcasses in the wilderness of
Bethaven. So it always is. The triumph of
tho wicked is short. You make $20,0110 at the
gaming table. Do you expect to keep it? You
will die in the poorhouse. You made a fortune
by iniquitous traffic. Do you expect to keep it?
Your money will scatter, or it will stay long
enough to curse your children after you are
dead. Call over* the roll of bad men who
prospered and see how short was their pros
perity. For a while like the men of Ai
they went from conquest to conquest,
but after a whole disaster rolled back upon
them and they were divided into three
parts; misfortune took their property, the
grave took their body, and the lost
world took their soul. 1 am always inter
ested in the building of theatres and the
building of dissipating saloons. I like to
have them built of the best granite and have
the rooms maije large, and to have the pillars
' made very firm. God is going to conquer
them, ana they will be turned into asylums,
and art galleries and churches. The stores
in wlich fraudulent men do business, the
splendid banking institutions, where the
president and cashier put all their property
in their wives’ names and then fail for
$200,000 all these institutions are to be
come to places where honest Christian men
do business.
How long will it take your boys to get
through your ill-gotten gains? The wicked
do not live out half their days. For a while
they swagger and strut and make a great
splash in the newspapers, but after a while
it all dwindles down into a brief paragraph:
“Died, suddenly, July 22, 1888, at 85 years of
age. Relatives and friends of the family are
invited to attend the funeral, on Wednesday,
at 2 o’olock, from his late residence on Madi
son square. Greenwood.” Some
of them jumped off tl plocks. Some of them
took prussic acid, Some of them fc!l under
tlie snap of a Derringer pistol. Some of
them spent their last days in a lunatic asy
lum. Where are William Tweed and his
associates,' Where are Ketcham and Swart
woiit, absconding swindlers? Where is
James Fisk, the libertine? Where is John
Wilkes Booth, the assassin, an l all the other
misdemeanants? The wicked do not live out
half their days. Disembogue, O world of
darkness! Come up Hildebrand and Henry
11. and Robespierre, and with blistering and
blaspheming and ashen lips hiss out: “The
triumph of the wicked is short!” Alas for
the men of Ai when Joshua stretches out his
spear toward tlie city.
Lesson the third: How much may be ac
complished by lying in ambush for oppor
tunities. Are you hypercritical of Joshua’s
maneuver? Do you say that it was cheating
for him to take that city by ambuscade?
Was it wrong for Washington to kindle
camp fires on New Jersey Heights, giving
the impression to the opposing force that a
great army was encamped there when there
was none at all? I answer, if the war was
right, then Joshua was right in his stratagem.
He violated no flag of truce. He broke no
treaty, but by a lawful ambuscade captured
the city of Ai. Oh. that we all knew how to
lie in ambush for oppt r Amities to serve God.
The best of our opportunities do not lie on the
surface, but are secreted; by tact, by strata
gem, by Christian ambuscade, you may take
almost any castle of sin for Christ. Come up
toward men with a regular besiegement of
argument, and you will be defeated; but just
wait until the door of their hearts is set ajar,
or they are off their guard, or their severe
caution is away from home, and then drop in
on them from a Christian ambuscade. There
has been many a man up to his chin in scien
tific portfolios which proved there was no
Christ and no divine revelation, his pen a
scimetar Hung into the heart of theological
opponents, who, nevertheless, has been dis
comfited and captured for God by some little
three-year-old child, who has got up and put
her snowy arms around his sinewy neck and
asked some simple question about God and
heaven.
Oh, make a flank movement; steal a march
on the devil; cheat that man into heaven.
A five dollar treatise that will stand all the
laws of homiletics may fail to do that which
a penny tract of Christian entreaty may ac
complish. Oh, for more Christians in am
buscade, not lying in idleness, but waiting
for a quick spring, waiting until just the
right time comes. Do not talk to a man
about the vanity of this world on the day
when he has bought something at “twelve”
and is going to sell it at “fifteen.” Blit talk
to him about the vanity of the world
on the day when he has bought something
at “fifteen” and is compelled to sell at
“twelve.” Do not rub a man’s disposition
the wrong way. Do not, take the imperative
mood when the subjunctive mood will do
just as well. Do not talk in perfervid style
to a phlegmatic, nor try to tickle a torrid
temperament with an icicle. You can take
any man for Christ if you know how to get
at him. Do not send word to him that to
morrow at 10 o’clock you propose to open
your batteries upon him, but come on him
ny a skillful, persevering, God-directed am
buscade.
Lesson the fourth: The importance of tak
ing good aim. There is Joshua, but how are
tiiese people in ambush up yonder to know
when they are to drop upon the city, and
how are these men around Joshua to know
when they are to stop their flight and ad
vance? There must be some signal—a signal
to stop the one division and to start the
other. Joshua, with a spear on which were
ordinarily hung tho colors of battle, points
toward the city. Ue stands in such a con
spicuous position, and there is so much of the
morning light dripping from that spear tip,
that all around the horizon they see it. It was
as much as to say: “There is the city. Take
it Take it now. Roll down from the west.
Surge up from the north. It is ours, the city of
Ai. ° God knows and we know that a great
deal of Christian attack amounts to nothing
simply because we do not take good aim.
Nobody knows and wo do not know' our
selves which point we want to take, when
we ought to make up our minds what God
will have us to do, and point our spear in
that direction and then hurl our body, mind,
soul, time, eternity at that one target. In
onr pulpits and pews and Sunday schools and
prayer meetings we want to get a reputation
for saying pretty things, and so we point
our spear toward tho flowers: or w r e want
a reputation for saying sublime things,
and we point our spear toward the stars: or
we want to get a reputation for historical
knowledge, and we point our spear toward
the past: or we want to get a reputation for
great liberality, so we swing our spear all
around: and it strikes all points of the
horizon, and you can make out of it what
ever you please: while there is the old world,
proud, rebellious and armed against all
righteousness; and instead of running any
further away from its pursuit, we ought to
turn around, plant our foot in the strength
of the eternal God, and lift the old cross and
point it in the direction of the world’s con
quest till the redeemed of earth inarch
ing up from one side, and the glorified of
heaven marching down from the other side,
th • last battlement of sin is eompe’led to
swing out tho streamers of Emanuel. Oh,
church of God, take aim and conauer.
I have heard it said: “Look out for a man
who has only one idea; he is irresistible.” I
say: Look out for the man who has one idea,
and that a determination for soul saving. I
believe God would strike me de ad if I dared
to point the spear in any other direction.
Oh, for some of the courage and enthusiasm
of Joshua! He flung two armies from the
tip of that spenr. It is sinful for us to
rest, unless 'it is to get stronger
•muscle and fresher brain and purer
heart for God’s work. I feel on my
head the hands of Christ in a new ordina
tion. Do you not feel tlie same omnipotent
pressure? There is a work for all of us. Oh,
that we might stand ud side by side and
point the spoar toward the city! It ought to
be taken. It will be taken. Our cities are
drifting off toward loose religion or what is
called “liberal Christianity,” which is so
liberal that it gives up all the cardinal doc
trines of the Bible, so liberal that it sur
renders the rectitude of the throne of the
Almighty. That is liberality with a ven
geance. Let us decide upon the work which
we, as Christian men, have to do, and in the
strength of God, go to work and do it.
It is comparatively easy to keep on a
parade amid a shower of bouquets and hand
clapping, and the whole street full of en
thusiastic huzzas; but it is not so easy to
stand up m the day of battle, the face black
ened with smoke, the uniform covered with
the earth plowed up by whizzing bullets
and bursting shells, half the regiment cut to
pieces and yet the commander crying: “For
ward, march!” Then it requires old fash
ioned valor. My friends, the great trouble of
the kingdom of God in this day is the cow
ards. They do splendidly on a parade
day, and at the communion, when they
have on their best clothes of Christian
profession: but put them out in the
great Dattle ot life, at tlie first sharp
shooting of skepticism they dodge, they
fall back, they break ranks. We con
front the enemy, we open the battle against
fraud, and lo! we find on our side a great
many people that do not try to pay their
debts. ' And wo open the battle against in
temperance, and we find on our side a
great many people who drink toe mucb!
And we op«n the battle against profanity,
and we find on our own side a great many
men who make hard speeches. And we open
the battle against infidelity, and lo! we find
on our own side a great many men who are
not quite sure about the Book of Jonah. And
while wo ought to bo massing our troops and
bringing forth more than the united courage
of Austerlitz and Waterloo and Gettysburg,
we have to be spending our time in hunt’njr
up ambuscades. Thera are a great many in
the Lord’s army who would like to go out on
a campaign with satin simpers and holding
umbrellas over their heads to keep off tbe
heavy dew, and having rations of canvas
back ducks and lemon custtyds. If they can
not have them they want to go home. They
tliSkit is unhealthy among so many bullets!
that the next twelve months will
be the most si upen lons year that heaven ever
saw. The nations are quaking now with the
coaling of God. It will be a year of successes
for the men of Joshua, but ol doom for the
meaof Ai. You put your ear to the rail
tr;*® and you can hear the train coming
mdos away, Be I put my ear to the ground
,4 I 1. - ’ • £
----- - near me tnunuernig on oi
ning train of God’s mercies and judgments.
The mercy of God is first to be tried upon
this nation. It will be preached in the pul
pits, in theatres, on the streets, everywhere.
People will be invited to accept the mercy of
the Gospel, and tho story and the song and
the prayer will be “mercy.” But sup
pose they do not accept the offer of merev—
what then? Then God will come with His
judgments, and the grasshoppers will eat the
crops, and the freshets will devastate the
valleys, and the def Rations will swallow the
money markets, and the fires will burn the
cities, and the earth will quake from pole to
pole. Year of mercies and of judgments. Year
of invitation and of warning. Year of jubilee
and of woe. Which side are you going to be
on? With the men of Ai or the men of Joshua?
Pass over this Sabbath into the ranks of Is
rael. I would ejap my hands at the joy of
your coming. You will have a poor chance
for this world and the world to come without
Jesus. You cannot stand what is to coine
upon you and upon the world unless you
have the pardon and tho comfort and the
help of Christ. Come over. On this side is
your happiness and safety, on the other side
is disquietude and despair. Eternal defeat
to the men of Ai! Eternal victory to the
men of Joshua!
A Few Statisics.
A recent speaker says that the negroes
in this country have multiplied eigfht
times in a century. As they have 7,-
000,000 now, in 1980 they will amount
to 192,000,000. If they maintain the
same relative increase they will. The
whites in 10 years by birth and immi
gration have increased 30 per cent. At
this rate there will be 800,000,000 whites
and over 200.000,000 negroes—in all one
billion in the United States in 1988.
Who believes either of these statements?
By that method one can prove that the
Methodist Episcopal Church will soon
have more communicants than the world
will contain people. Last year it gained
5 per cent. net. This rate will double
its membership every fourteen years.
Hence it 1902 it will have 4,000,000; in
1910, 8,000,000, in 1930, 16,000,000; in
1934, 32,000,00%; in 1958, 64,000,000;
in 1972, 128,000,000, and so, doubling
every 14 years, in the year 2084,
less than 200 years from the present
date, there will be 32,768,000,000 of
members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in the United States alone!
Toil on, then, brethren. Do not let the
fact that, according to the figures of
the speaker quoted above, there will be
onlv 6,400,000,000 negroes and 13,200,-
000,000 whites—in all 19,600,000,000
of people in the United States at that
time disturb you. Who cares for a little
deficit of 3,168,000,000? Great is statis
tics. Of course every denomination is
deluding itself They think that they
are increasing, but as we are going to in
clude the whole population, and several
thousand millions more, they must cease
to exist! The only trouble is that if
some of them continue to grow as at
present, the multiplication table will
wipe us out in the same way. —Christian
Advocate.
THE COWS OF THE ZULUS.
A PEOPLE WHO MEASURE THEIB
WEALTH BY CATTLE.
Pasturing; and Milking Methods —
A Queer Milking Pail —A Lu
dicrous Scene-Noisy Milkmen.
During tbe day the cows are pastured
upon the open veldt (prairie), watched
overby the “boys” (who are so-called,
irrespective of age, until they obtain the
coveted gum ring to wear on the head,
which stamps the wearer as a warrior
and a manj: but when night approaches,
or danger menaces, the cows are driven
into the isi-baya, and the narrow open
is securely barred. In this enclosure the
cows are milked by the men,and,strange
to say, this is about the only work: that
the average Zulu man will undertake.
The cow’s are milked about ten in the
morning and at sunset.
The milking pail is a utensil very dif
ferent in appearance from the one in
daily use in America, and would puzzlo
the modern agriculturalist considerably.
It is made of a piece of wood carved and
hollowed from the solid, having a < ora
paratively small opening, standing about
eighteen inches in height, being tour
inches wide at the mouth and six inches
wide at the base; but it is only about
fourteen inches deep, having nearly four
inches of solid wood left at the bottom
,to keep it in an upright position, and
render it less liable to upset. At the
sides are two curiously-shaped,
which form a kind of brace when hela
between the knees, which is the usual
position. Tlie small capacity of this
pail is suited to the milk giving powers
of the cow, as, being smaller, they
do not give nearly so much
per head as the American cow. To save
himself the labor of holding the wood
between his knees, when using a milk
pail, the artful workman buries the small
log of wood in the ground, leaving only
a few inches projecting. This gives
liberty of action to both his hands, and
also allows him to use more force than if
held by the knees, no having no knowl
edge of the principles of the vise; and,
further, no matter what he may be doing,
he will always sit down to it. As the
small pail is filled, it is emptied into a
larger receptacle, which has also a nar
row mouth; this necessitates careful
pouring, and he has no idea of a funnel,
further than the one made by his hands,
the liquid running down a rude spout
made by his thumbs.
The operation ot milking presents a
curious sight. The cows are driven to
one end of the isi-baya, and as they
naturally group themselves near the
fence, the almost naked figures of the
men, with their shaven crowns, sur
mounted by a gum ring, squatting al
most under the cows, holding the milk
pails between their knees with the top
rms on a level with their chins, present
a picture that is extremely ludicrous to
a stranger. In one place the calf is try
ing to push the man away from its
mother, and is being kept off by a boy
armed with a stick; when he has milked
the cow almost dry, he will let the calf
suck a few minutes, and will then drive
it away and finish milking her, thus ob
taining more milk than if he milked hex
dry right away. In another place is a
vicious cow, a kicker, which a larger
boy is holding by the horns with one
hand, while the “noose stick” is tightly
grasped with tho other. As a rule the
cows are quiet and stand still during
milking. To educate them to HR-
Zulu bores a hole in the uOS6 of "* a ‘° V ery
young calf, u l icn mi i ked a stic £
about . ei £Uieen inches long is passed
thrqqgh the orifice; if this stick is firmly
grasped and twisted round by jerks, it
will produce exquisite pain, and so the
cow soon learns to stand still. Where an
obstinate case occurs, one boy will hold
the nose stick, and another, f ffening a
leathern rope to one of the hi Vgs of
the cow, will haul it off the g nd,
thus placing the animal in the qt ary
of standing still to be milked against its
will, or gratifying its vicious tendencies
to the extent of kicking and falling
down. a i .
The Zulu is never silent when milk?
’“Ji UQt for. on? single instant does he
otTise littering the most peculiar sounds
ever inflicied upon mortal ears—screams,
yells, shouts, whistles, and tender pianis
simo murmurs of admiration gUeeeediug
one another as the flow of milk increases
or diminishes, this practice having the
curious result of compelling any white
farmer, who buys Zuzu cattle for his
farm, to have a native to milk them, as
they will neither stand still, nor give
their milk freely, without the usual
lacteal concert, of which no European
has ever been able to produce even a
colorable imitation. Whistling is also
a great item in driving cattle, or calling
them from a distance, and the noise a
Zulu can make with his Hds alone is
incredible, and half deafens any one who
stands near him.
A» with the Israelites in the old patri
archal days, so with the Zulu to-day,
the cow is his wealth. Among the
tribal divisions not in immediate con
tact with the white settlers, metal cur
rency is not comprehended, and all
wealth is measured and estimated by
cows.
The cow is the unit of the Zulu cur
rency, eight cows making one woman,
just as one hundred cents make a dollar,
and most of the tribal wars that have
devastated Southern Africa have been
caused by the desire of one chief to steal
the cattle of another, a characteristic
similar to that extinct phase in Scottish
life, when the Highlanders “lifted” the
cattle of the Lowlanders, terming them
selves not thieves, but gentlemen
drovers.— Drake's Magazine.
Rustic Pursuit or an Eccentric Poet.
The Alta California tells that not long
ago some tourist from the East called to
a man digging iu the garden of Joaquin
Miller, the poet of the Sierras, near
Fruit Yale, Cal., and desired to be
shown over the place. The man dropped
his pick and very patiently showed
the garrulous party the crematory,
the waterworks, the wolf den, and
all they desired to see. But they ex
pressed dreadful disappointment at not
finding the poet at home. “Now, look
here, old fellow,” said the leader of the
part}', as they were going, to the man
who was about to resume his pick,
“what sort of a looking man is Joaquin
Miller, anyhow ?” “Well, he looks like
me,” was the quiet answer. “Like you?
Looks like you ?” “Yes; lam Joaquin
Miller.”