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REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S
SUNDAY SERMON.
Subject: “The Present Epidemic ol
Suicide ”
*#> _______
Text. — M God Blessed the Seventh Day."—
genesis ii.. 22.
The mathematics of the Bible is noticeablo,
;be geometry and the arithmetic; the square
n Ezekiel; the circle spoken of in Isaiah; the
ajrve alluded to in Job; the rule of fractions
nentioned in Daniel; the rule of loss and
rain iu Mark,where Christ asks fhe people to
•iplier out by that rule what it would ‘'profit
i man if he gain the whole world and lose
jis own souL ’ But there is one mathematical
igure that is crowned above all others in
he Bible, it is the numeral seven, which
he Arabians got from India, and all follow
ng ages have taken from the Arabians. It
itands between the figure six and the figure
light. In the Bible, all the other numerals
jo\v to it.
Over three hundred times is it mentioned
n the Scriptures, either alone or compounded
pith other words. In Genesis the week is
ounded into seven days, and I use my text
lecause there this numeral is for the first
produced in a journey which halts not un
il in the close of the Book of Revelations its
aonument is built into the wall of heaven in
rvsolite, which in the strata of precious
(ones is the seventh. In the Bible we find
hat Jacob had to serve seven years to get
lacliael, but she was well worth it; and
oretelling the years of prosperity and fam
ie in Pharaoh's time the seven fat oxen
re eaten up of the seven lean oxen; and
■isdom is said to be built on seven pillars;
Hid the ark was left with the Phillistines
Even years; and Naaman for the cure of his
Btjosy plunged in the Jordan seven times;
l l dead child, when Elisha breathed into
K mouth, signaled its arrival back into
Hn-rioiisne.'S by sneezing seven times; to the
Euse that Ezekiel saw in vision there were
Bren steps; the walls of Jericho before they
Ell down were compassed seven days;
Bsckariah describes a stone with seven eyes;
E c eanse a leprous house the door must be
Briukled with pigeon's blood seven times;
B Canaan were overthrown seven nations;
■n one occasion Christ cast out seven devils;
K a mountain he fed a multitude of people
Kth even loaves, the fragments left filling
Ben baskets: and the closing passages of
Ke Bible are magnificent and overwhelming
Eth the imagery ma le up of seven churches,
Ben stars, seven candlesticks, seven seals,
Ben angels, and seven heads, and seven
■owns. and seven horns, and seven spirits,
El seven vials, and seven plagues, and seven
Bunders.
(Yea, this numeral seven seems a favor-
I with the Divine mind outside as well as
Bide the Bible, for are there not seven pris-
Katie colors? And when God with the rain-
Bv wrote the comforting thought that the
■orld would never have another deluge, ha
(rote it on the scroll of the sky in ink of
Ben colors. He grouped into the Pleiades
Ben stars. Rome, the capital of the
■orld, sat on seven hills. When God
Buld make the most intelligent thing on
Eth, the human countenance. He fash
■ns it with seven features—the two ears, the
Bo eyes, the two nostrils and the mouth,
■ea, our body lasts only seven years, and
shed it for another body after
Bother seven years, and so on, for we are,
■to our bodies, septennial animals. So the
Bn'eral seven ranges through nature and
■rough revelation. It is the number of
■rt'ection, and so I use it while I speak of
Be seven candlesticks, the seven stars, the
Hten seals and tbp-seven thunders.
■The seven go’den candlesticks were and are
le churches. Mark you, the churches never
Bre, and never can be, candlqz. They are
Blv candlesticks. They are not the light,
It they are to hold the light. A room in
E night might have in it five hundred can
, Bricks, and yet you could not see your
Bf i before your face. The only use of a
Edlestick. and the only use of a church, is
■ hold up the light. You see it is a dark
■rid, the night of sin, the night of trouble,
■ night of superstition, the night of perse
lion, the night of poverty, the night of
■kness. the night of death; aye, about fifty
<Bhts have interlocked their shadows. The
Bole race goes stumbling over prostrated
|Bes and fallen fortunes, and empty
Hr barrels, and desolated cradles, and death
Bs. Oh. how much we have use for all the
■en candlesticks, with lights blazing from
■ top of each one of them! Light of par-
B for all sin! Light of comfort for all
Bible! Light of encouragement for all
■pondency! Light of eternal riches for
■poverty! Light of rescue for all persecu-
B Light of reunion for all the bereft'
Bit of heaven for all the dying! And that
Bt is Christ, who is the the Light that
■ii yet irradiate the hemispheres. But
■rk you, when I say churches aije not can-
B- but candlesticks, I cast no slur on can-
Bticks.
believe in beautiful candlesticks. The
dipsticks that God ordered for the ancient
ernacle were something exquisite. They .
e a dream of beauty carved out of loveli- I
s. They were made of hammered gold, i
>d in a foot of gold and had six branches
told blooming a'l along in six lilies of gold
h. and lips of gold from which the candles
ed their holy Are. And the best houses in :
city ought to the churches —the best
It, the best ventihated, the best swept, the
t windowed and the best chandeliered.
cabins may do in neighborhoods
most of the people live in log
ins: but let there be palatial churches
regions where many of the peo
live in palaces. Do not have a better
e for yourself than for your Lord and
g- Do not live in a parlor and put your
Sst in a kitchen. These seven candlesticks
r hich I speak were not made out of pew
>r iron; they were golden candlesticks,
sold Is not only a valuable but a bright
al. Have everything about your church
ht—your ushers with smiling faces, your
ic jubilant, your hand shaking cordial,
t, entire service attractive. Many people
that in church they must look dull in
■'' to le reverential, and many whose
' s in other kinds of assemblage show all
> different phases of emotion,
£ in church no more expression than
back wheel of a hearse. Brighten up and
esponsive. If you feel like weeping,
>. If you feel like smiling, smile, if
feel indignant at some wrong assailed
i the pulpit, frown. Do not leave your
P'dnessand resiliency home because it is
lay morning. If as officers of a church
meet people at the church door with a
k look, and have the music black, and
Minister in black preach a black sermon,
bom invocation to benediction have the
'ession black, few will < ome, and those
do come will wish they had not come al
’Men candlesticks! Scour up the six
■on each branch,and know that the more
y and bright they are, the more tit they
p hold the li lit. But a Christless church
damage to the world rather than a good.
l n 'oH stabled his cavalry horses in St
s Cathedral, and many now use the
p ll a place in which to stable their
ties and worldliness. A worldly church
ai dipstick without the candle, and it
l ,s prototype in St. Sophia, in Con
tinop’e, bnijt to the glory of God by Con
:r'e but ban-formed to base uses by
panned tiie Se ond. Built out of colored
i; f- cupoa with twenty-four win
-1 p .'. iarin g to the height of 180 feet;
in - one great bewilderment of
llc - galleries supported by eight columns
porphyry and 6ixty-seven oo umns of
n jasper; nine bronze doors with alto
o-work fascinating to the eye of any
Va ses and vestments encrusted with
Ihnner of precious stones. Four walls
<- with indescribable splendor. Though
”as cheap the budding cost one million
hundred thousand, dollars. Ecc.esi
~ structure almost supernatural in
P and majesty. But Mohammedanism
1 down from the walls of that
ip? all. the saintly Christian images.and
T, ' n the dome the figure of the cross
Jripod out that the crescent of the bar
-nrk might be substitute#!. A great
but no Christ! A gorgeous candle
■but no candle! Ten thousand such
, « w ould not give the world as much
s one home-made tallow candle by which
lost nigfrb sortie grandmo'iier in toe <£ghties
put on her Spectacles and read the of
David in largrtlype. Up with the <’hu”'cheH.
by all means! Hundreds of them, thousands
of them, and the more the better. But let
each one be a blaze of heavenly light making
the world brighter and brighter till the last
shadow has disappeared, and the last
of the suffering children of God shall
have reached the land where they have no
tif*>d of candlestick or “of candle, neither
light of the sun, |pr the Lord God giveth
them light and they shall reign forever and
ever.” Seven candlesticks, ths complete
number of lights! “Let your light so shine
before men that they seeing your good works
may glorify your Father which is in heaven,”
Turn now in vour Bible to the seven stars.
We are distinctly told that they are the min
isters of religion. Some of them are large
stars, some of them small stars, some of them
sweep a wide circuit and some of them a
snail circuit, but so far as they are genuine
they get their light from the great central
sun around whom they make revolution.
Let each one keen his own sphere. The
solar system would soon be wrecked if the
stars instead of keeping their own orbit
shuu’u go to hunting down other stars.
Ministers of religion should never clash.
But in all the centuries of the Christian
Church some of these stars have been hunt
ing an Edward Irving or a Horace Bush
nell or an Albert Barnes; and the star*
that were in pursuit of the other
stars lost their own orbit and
some of them could never again find it. Alas
for the heresy hunters 1 The best way to de
stroy error is to preach the truth. The best
way to scatter darkness is to strike a light.
There is in immensity room enough for all
the stars, and in the church room enough for
all the ministers. The ministers who give
up righteousness and the truth will get
punishment enough anyhow, for they are
•‘the wandering stars for whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever, ’ But I
should like as a minister when I am dying to
be able truthfully to*sav what a captain of
the English army.fallen at the head of his col
umn. and dying on the Egyptian battlefield,
said to Gen Wolesley, who came to condole
with him: “I led them straight; didn’t I lead
them straight, General?' 1 God has put us
ministers as captains in this battlefield of
truth against error. Great at last will be our
chagrin if we fall leading the people the
wrong way; but great will be our gladness
if when the battle is over we can hand
our sword back to our great Commander
saying: “Lord Jesus! IVe led the people
straight: didn’t we lead them straight?”
Those ministers who go off at a tangent and
preach some other gospel are not stars but
comets, and they flash across the heavens a
little while and make people stare, and throw
down a lew meteoric stones, and then go out
of sight if not out of existence.Oh,brethren in
the ministry, let us remember that God calls
us st irs, and our business is to shine and to
keep our own sphere, anil then when we get
done trying to light up the darkness of this
world, we will wheel into higher spheres,
and in us shall be fulfilled the promise
“they that turn many to righteousness
shall shine as the stars forever and
ever.” Ah! the ministers are riot all Peck
sniffs and canting hypocrities, as some
would have you think! Forgive me if, h iv
ing in your presence at other times glorified
the medical profession and the legal profes
sion and the literary profession—l glorify
my own. I have seen them in their homes
and heard them in their pulpits, and a
grander array of men never breathed, and
the Bible figure is not strained when it calls
them stars: and whole constellations of
glorious ministers have already taken their
places on high where they shine even brighter
than they shone on earth: Edward N. Kirk,
of the Congregational Church; Stephen H.
Tyng, of the Episcopal Church; Matthew
Simpson, of the Methodist Church; John
Dowling, of the Baptist Church; Samuel K.
Talmage, of the Presbyterian Church; Dr.
DeWitt, of the Reformed Church; John
Chambers, of the Independent Church; and
there I stop, for it so happens that I have
mentioned the seven stars of the seven
churches.
1 pass on to another mighty Bible seven,and
they are the seven seals. St. John in vision
saw a scroll with seven seals, and he heard
an angel cry: “Who is worthy to loose the
seals thereof?” Take eight or ten sheets
of foolscap paper, paste them togecher and
roll them into asi roll, and have the scroll
at seven different places sealed with
sealing wax. You unroll the scroll till you
come to one of these seals, and then you can
go no further until you break that seal; then
unroll again until you come to another seal
and you can go no further until you break
that seal; then you go on until all the
seven seals are broken, and 4he contents
of the entire scroll are revealed.
Now, that scroll with soven seals held by the
ancel was the prophecy of what was to come
on the earth; it meant that the knowledge of
the future was with God. and no man and no
angel was worthy to open it; but the Bible
says Christ opened it and broke all the seven
seals. He broke the first seal and un
rolled the scroll, and there was a
painting of a white horse, and that meant
prosperity and triumph for the Roman
empire, and so it really came to pass that for
ninety years virtuous emperors succeeded
each other, Nerva, Trajan and Antoninus.
Christ in the vision broke the second seal and
unrolled again and there was a painting of a
red horse, and that meant bloodshed, and
so it really came to pass, and the next ninety
years were red with assass nations and wars.
Then Christ broke the third seal and un
rolled it and there was a painting of a black
horse, which in all literature means fam
ine. oppression and taxation and so it
really came to pass. Christ went on
until He broke all the seven seals anii
opened all the scroll. Well, the future of all
of us is a sealed scroll, and I am glad that no
one but Christ can open it. Do not let us
join that class of Christians in our day who
are trying to breax the seven seals of the
future. They are trying to peep into
things they have no business with. They
try to foretell what is going to come
to them and what is going to come on the
earth. They know nothing about it. Christ
is the only one who can break the seal ol : the
future. Bible prophecy was not written to
help us to tell things in the future, but to
have us, when the things actually do
come to pass, compare them with prophecy
and so learn God’s foreknowledge and the in
spiration of the Scriptures. But you go
iuto the study of the prophecies in order
to find out what is going to happen a year
from now, or twenty years from now, or one
thousand years from now, and I will
make a prophecy of my own, and
that is that you will have your
brain addled, if you do not
positively get into a public or private insane
asylum. ” wiiere the greatest of expounders
and preachers of pro, hecy ended his life a
few years since,nrnl where you may regale the
visitorsofr.be nstitotion by incoherent mum
filings over something from Daniel or Keveia
tions about the leopard which means Greece,
and the bear which means Medo-Persia,
and the image with the great toes. VV hat a
mental wreck did the persistent attempt to
forestall events make of that miracle of
lire chers Edward Irving, of London, it
would take several mad houses to ho.d the
demented victims of the improper use of
the i ropbecies of Daniel and Revelation.
What ! are not those books to
be studied ? Y es. No part of the
Bible is more important Neither is there
any more import int shelf in thatapothecar s
store than the shelf on which are the bel a
donna and the morphine, hut he more care
ful in using them than in the use of penper
mint and ginger. Keep your hands off of the
seven seals. Christ will break 1 1 icm soon
enough. Don’t go to seme necro caller or
sp ritualist or soothsayer or fortune-teller so
find out what is going to ha pen to yourself,
or vour family, or your mends. W ait till
( brist breaks the seal to find out wnetner in
vour own personal life or the life of
the na ion or the life of the world,
it is going to be the white horse of
prosperity or the red horse of war or
the black horse of iamine. You will soon
enough see him paw and hear him neigh.
Take care of the present and the future will
take care of itself If a man live seventy
rears, his biography is in a scroll havingat
[east seven seals: and lot him not during tne
first ten years of life try to look into the
twentie-q nor the twenties mt° the
thirtbs, nor the thirties int- the forties, nor
the forties into the fifties, nor the fifties into
the sixties, nor the sixties into the *«Venties.
From the way the years have got . habit
of racing along, I guess you will no*- have
to wait a great while before ah the
seals of the future are broken. I
would not give two cents to know
how long I am going to live, or in what day
of what year the world Is going to be de
molished. I would rather give a thousand
dollars not to know. Suppose some one could
break the next seal in the scroll of your per
sonal history, and should tell you that on the
4th of July. 1890, you were to die, the sum
mer after the next: how much would you be
good for between this and that? It would
from now until then be a prolonged funeral.
You would be counting the montns and the
days, and your family and friends would be
counting* them; and next 4th of July you
would rub your hands together and whine—•
“Oneyear from to-day I amtoga Dearme! I
wish no one had told me so long before. I
wish that necromancer had not broken the
seal of the future.” And meeting some
undertaker you wouid say: “I hope you will
keep yourself free for an engagement the
Fourth of July, 1890. That day you will be
needed at my uOiuo. To save time you might
as well take my measure now,five feet,eleven
inches.” I am glad that Christ dropped a
thick veil over the hour of our demise and j
the hour of the world’s destruction when he
said: “Of that day and hour knowetli no
man: no, not the angels, but my Father
only.” Keep your hands off the seven
seals.
There is another mighty seven of the Bible,
viz., the seven thunders. What those
thunders mean we are not told, and there
has been much guessing about them; but they
are to come, we are told,before the end of all
things, and the world cannot get along
without them. Thunder is the speech of
lightning. There are evils in our world
which must be thundered down, and which
will require at least seven volleys to pros
trate them. We are all doing nice, delicate,
soft-handed work in churches and reforma
tory institutions against the evils of the
world, and much of it amouuts to a teaspoon
dipping out the Atlantic Ocean, or a clam
shell digging away at a mountain, or a tack
hammer smiting the Gibraltar. What is
needed is thunderbolts, and at least seven of
them. There is the long line of fraudulent
commercial establishments; every stone in
the foundation, and every brick in the wall,
and every nail in the rafter made out of
dishonesty; skeletons of poorly paid sewing
girls’ arms in every beam of that establish
ment; human nerves worked into every
figure of that embroidery; blood in the
deep die of that proffered upholstery;
billions of dollars of accumulated fraud
“ntrenched in massive storehouses and
stock companies manipulated by un
scrupulous men until the monopoly
is defiant of all earth and all heaven How
shall the evil be overcome? By treatises on
the maxim: Honesty is the best policy? Or
by soft repetition of the golden rule that we
must “do to others as we would have them
do to us?” No, it will not be
done that way. What is needed, and
what will come, is the seven thunders. There
is drunkenness backed up by a capital
mightier than in any other business. In
toxicating liquors enough in this country to
float a navy. Good grain to the amount of
57,950,000 bushels annually destroyed to
make the deadly liquid. Breweries, distilleries,
gin shops, rum palaces, liquor associations,
bur nation spending annually seven hundred
and forty millions of dollars for rum, result
ing in bankruptcy, disease, pauperism, filth,
assassination, death, illimitable woe. \V hat
will stop them? High license? No. Thunder
bolts will do it; nothing else will. Beveu
thunders!
Yonder are intrenched infidelity and athe
ism with their magazines of literature scoff
ing at our Christianity; their Hoe print
ing presses busy day and night. There are
their blaspheming apostles, their drunken
Tom Paines and libertine Voltairea of the
present as well as of the past, reinforced
by all the powers of darkness from highest
demon to lowest imp. What will extirpate
those monsters of infidelity and atheism?
John Brown’s shorter catechism about “W ho
made you?” or Westminster catechism about
“What is the chief end of man?” No,
Thunderbolts! The seven thunders!
For the impurities of the world empalaced
as well as cellared, epauletted as w ell as rag
ged, enthroned as well as ditched: for cor
rupt legislation which at times makes our
State and National capitals a hi mispheric
stench: tor superstitions that keep whole na
tions in squalor, century after century, their
Juggernauts crushing, their knives lacerat
ing. their wateis drowning, their funeral
pyres burning, the seven thunders!
Oh, men and women, disheartened at the
had way things often go, hear you not a
rumbling down the sky of heavy artillery,
coming in on our side, the seven thunders of
the Almighty? Don’t let us try to wield them
ourselves; ihey are too heavy and to fiery for
us to handle; but God can and God
will; and when all mercy has failed and all
milder means are exhausted, then judgment
will begin. Thunderbolts! Depend upon it,,
that wtiat is not done under the flash of the
seven candlesticks will be done by the tramp
ling of the seven thunders.
But I leave this imperial and multipotent
aumeral seven, where the Bible leaves it,
imbedded in the finest wall that was ever
built, or ever will be constructed, the wall of
heaven, it is the seventh strata of precious
Btones that make up that wall. After nam
ing six of the precious stones in that
wall, the Bible cries out—“the sev
enth chrysolite!” The chrysolite is an
exquisite green, and in that seventh layer of
the heavenly wall shall Re preserved forever
the dominant color of the earth we once
inhabited. I have sometimes been sad
dened at the thought that this world,
according to science and revelation, is
to be blotted out of existence, for it is such a
beautiful world. But here in this layer
of the heavenly wall, where the numeral
seven is to be embedded, this strata of green
is to be photographed, and embalmed, and
perpetuated, the color of the grass that
;overs the earth, the color ot the foliage
■hat fills the forest, the co’or of the
ieep sea. One glance at that green chrvsol
,te, a million years after this planet ha? been
extinguished, will bring to mind just how it
looked in summer and spring, and we will
say to those who were born blind on earth,
and never saw at all in this world,
after they have obtained full eyesight
in heaven: “If you would know how the
earth appeared in June and August, look at
that seventh layer of the heavenly _ wall,
the green of the chrysolite.” And while we
stand there and talk, spirit with spirit, that
old color of-the earth which h|d more sway
than all the other colors put together, will
bring back to us our earthly experience, and
noticing that this green chrysolite is the
seventh layer of crystalized magnificence we
may bethink ourselves of the domination- of
that numeral seven over all other numerals,
and thank God that in the dark earth we left
behind us we so long enjoyed the light of
the seven golden candlesticks, and were all
of us permitted to shine among the seven
stars of more or less magnitude, and that ail
the seven sec,ls of the mysterious future have
been broken wide open for us by a loving
Christ, and that the seven thunders having
done their work have ceased reverberation,
and that the numeral seven, which did such
tremendous work in the history of nations
on earth, has been given such a high p'ace in
tnat Niagara of colors, the wall or heaven,
“the first foundation of which is jasper; the
second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the
fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the
sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite”
“When >-hall these eyes thy heaven-built wall*
And nearly gales behold.
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong,
Aud streets of shining gold?’’
The prison night school at Trenton, N.
.J., which was opened last summer by
Keeper Patterson, has , proved to be a
gratifying success. The men have be
come greatly interested and the disci
pline of the prison has greatly improved.
All the 194 convicts who have been un
der instruction have made g-eat pro
gress, and a few have developed great
patitude for Jearniug. The school will
be continued.
A CITY WITUm A CITY.
INTERESTING TX'FAS'U'RES AND
FEATURES OF MOSCOW.'
The Kremlin's Threw
Poeuliar Pictures— A Russian's
Fondness for Horses ar»*A Boots.
Moscow, says a writer «r the .Detroit
Free duress, is a lively, bustling' cl. *7 of
nearly 1,000,000 of people, and one
charm of it consists in the ooaiuiingl.’ng
of the new and the old. It is a ciYy
within a city, and this latter is sur
rounded by a city greater still. For
there is the Kremlin, with its moat and
its wall, and its many towers and gates.
At some distance outside of this stands
another wall, pierced by gates here and
there, while further out still is the greatet
part of thebusine>s and residence portion
of the city. Like Rome, it is built
upon seven hills, but here the likeness
ends. To an American, of course, the
greatest interest centers in the Kremlin,
and doubtless to the Russian, too, for
everything connected with it to him is
of the most sacred character. One of
the main approaches is through the
“Redeemer’s Gate,” so called because
Napoleon endeavored to destroy it in
vain, and the Russians believe that
it was the direct interposition of
Christ himself that drove him back
and saved the citadel. From that day
to this no cne, Czar or peasant, Asiatic,
European or American, goes through
without uncovering his head.
Inside the Kremlin are three cathe
drals; the Cathedral of the Annuncia
tion, where all the Czars are baptized,
the Cathedral of the Assumption, where
all are crowned, and the Cathedral of
the Archangel Michael, where all the
Fmoerors were buried up to the time of
Peter the Great. These are all, ai are
most of the churches iu Mom otv, built
in the Moorish style of architecture and
m >st elaborate y decorated, l ecentiy,.
in the Church of the Assumption, which
was being renovated, several very ancient
pictures were brought to 1 ght on the
walls, and these have been carefully pre
served. One of them represents several
s enes from the life of Jonah, and is
very unique in its way. On one side the
prophet is being thrown overboard from
an exceedingly rickety-looking ship.
Then a creature with big eyes and a big
mouth and a tail (in ail about Jonah’s
size) is doing his best to “take him in.”
Rut the clowning masterpiece of the
whole picture is where Jonah —now safe
on land —is bidding the whale good-bye
in the most elaborate and polite Russian
manner.
Near by these churches is the Tower
Oi Ivan the Great, very lofty and con
taining some fifty-two bells, many of
them of very large size. At the foot of
the tower is the “Tsar Kolokoi,” or the
“King Bell,” “thegreat bell of Moscow,”
of which we have heard all our lives. It
is immense, there is no doubt of that! It
is twenty feet high and sixty feet in cir
cumference, and is about two feet
through in the thickest part.
Resides these cathedrals and towers
and this bell, there are also the palace,
the treasury, where are many valuable
crowns and jewels and other articles of
interest, the arsenal and Other buildings,
all inside the Kremlin, and forming a
part of its wall. Rut the finest modern
church in all Russia, aud, it is claimed,
in Europe, is the Church of St. Saviour,
or “the New Church,” as they call it.
It was built to commemorate the defeat
of the French in 1812, and has only
recently been completed. Ev(*ty archi
tect, every builder, every workmau and
every artist employed upon was a
Russian. More than forty years’ con
tinuous labor, and over 40,000,000 of
roubles, they say, were spent upon it.
aud the result is magnificent. It is well
worth a journey from St. Petersburg to
Moscow to see this one building alone.
The frescoes are by Russia’s two most
celebrated painter--, and will not suffer
by comparison with any, be they ancient
or modern.
Near by is the Cathedral of St. Basil,
which was built in 1554 by Ivan the
Terrible. It is a very unique, mosque
like looking structure, and the story
goes that Ivan was so anxious that no
other should ever be erected like it, that,
as soon as it was completed, he destroyed
the plans and put out the architect’s
eyes—a little pleasantry which, it seems,
he often indulged in with his friends,
and which is certainly in keeping with
his character. Rut he need have had no
fears that any one would have copied
his old church, for it is hideous in the
extreme.
In Moscow, ns well as everywhere in
Russia, the horses are very fine and very
fa<t. They have the build of race horses,
with their slim legs and far reaching
necks. Even some of the droskies have
full blooded horses, and their drivers are
able to obtain a fancy price for their use.
Horses and boots are the two things
that Russians seem to pride themselves
u; on.. They may not have any stock
ings—and few of the lower classes wear
them at all—but boots they must and
will have- Boots with high morocco
tops, and worn wilh the pantaloons
tucke 1 into the tops, so that every inch
shows; and then, like the Mexican with
his spurs, they are dressed. They are a
very polite people, even down to the
children. I saw one little fellow in Mos
cow, not over six or eight years old. take
off his hat to another boy of about the
same age and then shake hands with
him.
Host a Dapper Broker Got “Pointers.”
Here is an amusing instance of some
of the methods employed by Wall street
brokers to get information that is sup-
Sosed to affect the price of stocks. A
Tew street house that deals largely in
St. Paul learned through the society
columns of the public prints that a niece
of “Phil’’ Armour, virtually President
of the St. Paul road, was visiting friends
in Philadelphia. It happened that a
dapper young clerk in the employ ot the
New street concern had met Miss Armour
at a tennis tourney at Elberon. One of
his employers knew this and he directed
the clerk to travel post-haste to the Cam
den suburb, call qu the young lady, and
get from her in a ni< e. unsuspected way
all information passible about the great
pork packer’s health and in regard to
the likelihood of his resignation from
the St. Paul directory. The clerk dis
charged his mission satisfactorily, and
the result of his call on Miss Armour
enabled his firm to make a speedy and
profitable change of base in the great
granger stock.— New York TeUgram.
HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS.
Renovating Clothing?.
Cleanse men’s dark-colored clothing
with a quart of coffee, to which a tea
spoonful of ammonia has beeit added.
Very strong coffee may be diluted with
half its quantity of water. Use a sponge,
first cleaning spots, then going over the
whole garment, which should afterward
be hung on the back of a chair and dried
in the shade. Paint spots are removed
with ammonia and turpentine; e jual
parts. Old spots may need saturating
two or three times. Mash in soap
suds.
To Make Cottage* Cheese.
Cottage cheese is best when made a»
soon as the milk is thick and firm, be
fore' it becomes disagreeably acid.' Heat
the milk by placing the par* over boiling
water, or by pouring boiling water slowly
into the milk, stirring constantly in both
cases. Heating to ninety-five degrees
Fahrenheit, or, if you have no ther
mometer, about as warm as r*w milk,
will coagulate the albumen statliciently
to separate it from the whey. Pour in a
cloth to drain. To each pint <of tiie
drained curd, add butler one-li»lf the
3ize of an egg, and one half pint of
sweet cream; then add salt or l not as
suits your taste. Place iu molds or bowl?,
which should be previously dipped in
cold water, and, when wanted, turn out
and serve. Made in this way, it is as
much superior to that which has beau
heated till the albumen is tough, as a
nicely boiied egg is to a hard-boiled
one. The principle is the same with
both these articles of food. Too great
heat renders the albumen tough, in
soluble, unpleasant to the taste and
difficult of digestion. —Prairie Fanner.
Good Bread a Family Necessity.
The health and happiness of a family
depend, to a certain extent, on good,
weil-baked bread. At all events, our
enjoyment would be greater if bread
were only better prepared. The best
breatf is made from a mixture of flour—
such as is generally sold iu our markets
—water, salt and yeast; nothing else.
To make good yeast, take as many dry
hops as-you can grasp in your hand, boil
in two quarts of water for twenty min
utes; peel and grate four good-sized
raw potatoes; strain the hop water
while boiling hot over the potatoes,
stirring until well cooked or the mix
ture thickens like starch; a.id oue-halt
cup of sugar,one-fourth cup of salt, and,
when cool, one cup of good yeast. Stir
in one quart and a half of Indian meal,
set to rise (about six or seven hours is
sultcient) in a warm p ace, and when
light mix in more meal, press into cakes,
put in the sun to dry. Dry as quickly
as possible. When perfectly dry put up
in air-tight pails. This yeast is much
more handy and quite as reliable a 3 the
liquid yeast.
To make the bread take three quarts
of flour, a teaspoonful of salt and one cup
of yeast dissolved in a quart of water;
mix into a dough. Knead this until it is
perfectly smooth. Set in a warm place
to-rise at night. In the morning divide
into loaves and put into the pans; let
it rise light, about an hour. Rake one
hour in a steady oven. To t#ll when
bread is perfectly baked break off one
loaf after it has been baking one hour
and press wilh the finger; if it springs
back quiekly%t is done; if it retains
the impression like putty it is not. To
keep bread from running over, pin a
narrow strip of brown paper round the
pan, letting it come an inch above the
edge. The should be cool when
put in the bread box, otherwise it will
mould. —Sew York World.
Household Hints.
Powdered borax sprinkled on shelves
will drive away ants.
Soda crackers are much nicer heated
in the oven bel'o:e using.
Lye made of wond ashes will soften
hard putty in a few minutes.
Put a pail of water into the tubs
directly after using, and they will not
leak when wanted for use.
To clean nickel on stoves usp soda wet
with ammonia. Apply with an old tooth
brush and rub with a woolen cloth.
Knife handles should never lie in
water. A handsome knife, or one u ed
for cooking, is soon spoiled in this way.
A speedier and cleaner way to remove
the slun of new potatoes, than the com
mon practice of scraping with a kniie,
is to “use a scrubbing brush.”
Milk and butter should be kept en
tirely away from other articles of 4ood,
as they absorb odors and flavors so
rapidly they soon become unfit for use.
A little turpentine added as they boil
will whiten and sweeten c.othes without
injuring the most delicate fabric. For
garments very much soiled, use a spoon
ful of kerosene.
Turpentine mixed with carbolic acid
and kept in open vessels about the room
will, it is said, greatly lessen the risk of
contagion in scarlet fever, diphtheria and
kindred diseases.
If a new broom be immersed in boiling
water until it is quite cold, and then
thoroughly dried in the air, it will be
far mo e pleasant to use and will last
much longer. Frequent moistening ol
the broom is couduc ve to its usefulness
and also saves the carpet.
New stove or range furniture is some
times so much rusted as to make the use
of it very inconvenient. Put into a rusty
kettle as much hay as it will hold, fill
it with water and boil many hours. At
night set it aside, and the next day boil
it again. If it is not entirely fit for use,
repeat the process. It will ceriainly be
effectual.
The experienced chef wraps his fish in
a sheet of paper beforn boiling it. Square
napkins of cheese-cloth are better. A
sheet 6f paper may be placed inside the
napkin, which should be pinned ir
■ place. In this way the fish may be lifted
out of the pot with danger of breaking
apart, and be serve 1 without being
mangled with the fork.
Growing a Tree in His Windpipe.
Alvey Clabaugh, a youth of about
twelve years, residing with his father in
Frederick, Md., ab ut four years ago
swallowed a persimmon -eed. which was
supposed to have lodged in his throat,
and which at times caused h m consid
erable inconvenience. Several days ago
it became quite painful and a doctor was
called in, who stated that the seed was
sprouting where, it had lodged ia h;4
wind pi pe, — Pk iladel)>h ia Times.
I CHILDREN’S COLUMN.
A ft by ft Rhyme.
A queer little boy who had been to school,
And was op to all sorts of tricks,
Recovered that 9, when upside down,-
Wouid pass for the figure 6.
So when asked his age by a good old datßA
The comical youngster said,
“I’m 9 when I stand on my feet like this, .
But 6 when I stand on my head I”
—[Harper’s Young People,
n ullfml OroDiv.
Sometimss a grouse loses all hei
brood but one, and, on one such occa*
*ion, the mother’s actions were mucb
like those related si the chuck-will’s
Widow. At the appearance of the gun
ner she threw herself at his feet as
Usual, and for a moment exercised all
her arts and wiles;, butt tho little one,
not daring fo leave her, rendered them
useless. Seeing this, sh» hesitated a
moment, then seizing tine chick by its
down feather? with her bill and rising,
she fliew away with it. She disappeared
in a thicket, leaving the gunner wonder
ing at her ingenuity. Tho hrantcr who
noted Shis was Wilson,, the famous
American ornithologist,, and he sav3:
“It would have' been impossible for me
to hare k-illsd this affectionate mother,
who hadiexhibited such an example of
presence of mind, reason and sound
judgment as must have oonviaeed the
most bigoted advocates of mere in
stinct. Nicholas.
Jin Bitg-lti’a Go-Dinar'.
On Achill island, on the west coast
of Ireland, a tamo eaglo adopted two
goose eggs—sat on them and hatched
one of them, rearing the little gosling
with all tho affection of a real mother.
This happened soma timo ago. The
gosling grew up, fl mrished, mated it
self, and finally anade the oagle the hap
py grandmother of throe other little
goslings. Now tho eagle resumes all
her old cares. She is even more fussy
and anxious over this brood than she
was over their mother. She bogs them
to share her food; they shelter under
her wings alternately with their own
mother; and, indeed, they spend more
timo in the cage than roaming
about with their own parent. Tho goose
and goslings have free access to the
eagle; and when they are with her she
is always very much excited if strangers
approached in her desire to prefect
them. The eagle’s mister, Mr. Pike (in
whoso lovely grounds she has lived for
fifteen is the only person she
allows in her cage. He may caress her
and rub her legs, while she flutters
with pleasure; and she seem - quite
happy except when troubled with feara
about her foster grandchildren.—(Pic
ayune.
Send'anti tile R.ibies.
It was tho last day of vacation, yet
Betty was very happy tor she had found
some new babies—play babies.
She had been out in the tall corn that
morning with grandma, and they had
come upon some tiny green pumpkins,
and grandma had told her that she used
to dress them up in little pinafores and
play with them for dollies when she was
a little girl.
So that afternoon Betty had a whole
row of them set up on the big, Hat rock
at the edge of the wood where she had
played “keep house’’all summer. There
was Sarah Jane and Ann Miria and
Tabittra, beside a Polly and Patty and
Catherine. Grandma named them.
Cousin Tim came over to p ay with.
Betty, and he brought Scud along.
Scud was a goat.
Now Scud was always hungry, which
was not to be wondered at, being a
goat, but to have . him in a family of
babies, especially when the babies were
as toothsome as were Betty’s, was some
thing of a trial. He would keep
nibbling thenj whenever Betty’s or
Tim’s eye was not upon him.
First,he bit a piece out of Sarah Jane,
then nipped Ann Maria, and finally
gnawed the green all off one side of
Patty.
Then Betty got a string and tied Scud
to a bush, aud he bleated so loudly that
Betty and Tim ran down to the orchard
to get him some sweet apples.
They were not long away, they
thought, but when they came back
Scud was gone, and tliero was nothing
left on the rock but six little pinafores
and a few pumpkin soeds.--[Youth’s
Companion.
Wonders ol Modern Invention.
There is an establishment in Philadel
phia where some of the wonders of
modern invention are illustrated by a
combination of patents. A person may
talk into tho graphophone, and while
he is sitting in front of the instrument,
see the operator tran-cribc his words
from the graphophone to the keyboard
of a type-setting machine, from the
casting-oox of which an automatic ar
rangement carries the typo to a small
printing press, where tho impression is
at once struck off.
Literal Construction.
Irate father (to young B.nks) —Se«
hero, young man, didn t I tell you nevor
to enter my gate again?
Young Binks—Ye?, sir, and I didn’t;
i Cium over the fence.—[Ju ige.