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SUNDAY MORNING.
Chapters of Life’s Oddities.
STRANCE STORIES GATHERED FROM
MANY SOURCES.
Mad Millionairess Licesie*.
An American physician, worth $lO,-
000,000, and a member of a family
prominent socially, is now in Japan
leading a life of such sayrr-llUe ex
cess as to be almost incredible, accord
ing to Dr. Martin \v. Barr, chief phy
sician in the Pennsylvania School for
the Feeble-minded. While taking the
greatest pains to conceal the man's
identity, Dr. Barr told of the man’s re
volting methods of life In a paper on
defectives, which he read before the
Summer School of Philanthropy.
According to Dr. Barr, this man Is a
neurotic. Despite the feet that he con
trols immense wealth, no attempt has
been made to have him declared an in
competent. His family are refined,
socially prominent. Whenever they
speak of the son's course, they refer to
it as his “nervousness.” They will not
admit that be has a deranged Intellect,
though he has left friends and position
here to take up life among the “haa
ins.” the gravediggers and social out
casts of the Far Bast.
“He was a physician, rich, handsome,
cultured, of aesthetic tastes," said Dr.
Barr in Ills paper, “a graduate of one
of the most prominent medical colleges
in America, and a man who had made
a pronounced hit as a specialist.”
His fortune enabled him to secure ev
ery medical appliance known to sci
ence, and for some years he enjoyed
phenomenal success. Wine and women
proved his bane. He sank lower and
lower. His excesses no longer toler
ated at home, lie drifted from capital
to capital of Europe, anti finally es
tablished himself in Japan. With an
appetite still unsatisfied, he exhibited
new phases of moral degeneration,
causing his body to be tattooed with
wonderful skill, every picture a work
of art. His back bore a huge dragou,
the shading of every scale showing
perfection of detail; this, on revisiting
America, with utmost vanity lie shame
lessly exposed. Ho was turned out of
the clubs. Returning to Japan, lie
bought a performing bear, and wan
dered from place to place, clad in the
garb of a lianin, exhibiting himself, his
bear and Ills associates, and distribut
ing photographs of each and all in
cr.dless variety.
“This past master of vice,” said Dr.
Barr, “shocking both Europe and
America, and astounding oven Japan,
next hires a squad of Japanese boys,
practically buying them outright from
their parents, who. attiroil in full uni
form, are trained in military exercises.
To these are opposed an equal number
of monkeys, dressed as Chinese sol
diers, and the war of China and Japan
is constantly renewed for the enter
tainment of himself and his hangers
on, who watch in an ecstasy of delight
the suffering of the poor brutes. Re
wards arc offered, and the more
bloody the contest and the greater the
atrocities, the more intense is t‘ -■ rati
fication.'’ -
A I’erple.Tiine Puzzle.
The following puzzle, eulied from a i
English magazine: lias been sent to us
by Mr. O. I’odewlls, of Now York City,
who asks to liavo it explained.
If a fiat strip of paper be taken, and
Its ends paste t together to form a ring,
A Pr.RPIIEXINO rCZZOK.
and it be then cut along its centre lino,
ttvo similar hut entirely separate rings
will Iw formed, unconnected in any
way. i \ how over, the paper be twisted
as illustrated in the uppermost "-.'lew,
aud its ends be pasted together to form
a ling with a single twist in it. this
ring, when cut along its centre line,
will form two rings, one looped within
the other as shown in the third and
fourth views.
Perplexing ns this may seem at first
glance, the explanation is finite simple.
We may consider the upper edge of the
paper strip as one ring, and the lower
edge as the other. Now, following the
edges of the twist, as shown in tlie
second view, it is evident that one edge
has been twisted completely around
the other edge: or in other words, one
edge or ring has been passed through
the other ring, which wh<n cut apart
form two Intel-looped rings—Scientific
American.
Koidrrka’j)e (Suicide in Paris.
An * x‘raortlin.iiy can** of buicddo Is
reported from Evreux. in *be Depart
ment of the Eure, France, says the
London Telegraph. A Breton woman
named Marie Morvan, age ft thirty-five,
dug a grave by the side of that of her
sister ami then buried herself alive.
Morvan was an exemplary servant, em
ployed ! y a farmer near Evreux. Re
cently one of uer married sisters died,
and cn her deathbed extracted from
Marie a promise, This was to the
< ffeet that the later would fairbfully
marry her brother-in-law when he was
left a widower. After the death of the
sister Marie Morvan thought of the
premse. As she had no desire to wed,
and no liking for her brother-in-law,
the widower, she resolved to die. She
would then, she considered, join her
sister in the next world, and make
matters all right with her. The wom
an, it appears, lifted up the gravestone
over her sister, and after she had ex
cavated a tomb for herself, brought
the slab down over her. Part of Marie
Morvan’s dress was seen protruding
from, the headstone by another sister,
a Madame Ledu. who went to visit the
grave. Surprised, the woman called
for help from people near at hand,
and the slab being raised up, Marie
Morvan was found dead in the grave
dug by her own hands. She was suffo
cated soon after thr headstone had
closed on her. Her hands and face
were covered by the earth, which she
had managed to pile over hAr body.
How Somfc Froplo Live.
Some persons have lo risk their lives
every moment of the day for the
meagre three meals (sometimes only
twoi and the poor shelter that their
wages tan prc\ lt.:\ This picture
shows how men,'employed in the new
soda works at Middlewiek, Cheshire,
England, earn their living. These men
have lo work in chlorine gas, so to
protect the lungs they wear a ‘’muz
zle" of from thirty to forty thicknesses
of flannel kept sufficiently damp to til
low air bur not gas to pass through.
They earn from £- ITs. to £3 per week
—that is, about .$1:1 to $l5.
ltors Saves a Clnid.
Aii exceptional instance of extraor
dinary development cf instinct in
horses came to light at Toledo, Ohio,
on a recent afternoon, and the animal
playing the leading part was Prince,
a twenty-year-old family horse owned
by William McDonough, a grocer. The
four-year-old daughter of McDonough
wandered into the barn unobserved in
the afternoon, and was soon at play
on the floor of a big box stall, the
freedom of which is allowed to Prince
and another younger and very spirited
animal.
During her play the child fell under
the younger horse and might' have been
kicked to death had not bid Prince
come to the rescue. In the meantime
a search for the child had been started.
Mr. McDonough went to the barn and
Just as he entered he saw the old horse
softly grasp the child’s clothing, and
lifting her from danger, deposit her on
the hay in the manger, where he care
fully gu.’mJcd her until Mr. McDon
ough took her away.
Wives Cult- Hiinbaml*.
In the Valley of flic Barca, in Abys
sinia, there is .a community where the
women, without holding meetings ot
agitations of any kind, have emanci
pated themselves. All the women work
hard, while the men are idle; but by
way of compensation the house autit
all it contains belongs to the wife.
At the least unkind word she turns
the husband out at night, in storm oi
rain, and he cannot come hack unti
he makes amends by the gift of e
cow. The wife considers it a duty tc
abuse the husband, and if she were
weak enough to show any love for hilt
‘•a life or grief at his death she wouic
lie scorned by her tribe.
The wife, without any reason, may
strike her tent and go, taking with ln.i
one-third of the joint possessions. The
husband, unless he is traveling, may
not live out of his tent.
liardrum Trailured by tChild't Kiss,
Tile kiss of her little granddaughter
on her ear fractured the eardrum of
Mrs. Martha Allen, of New York, and
she' will be taken to a hcspltal for
treatment. At. the time of the occur
rence she hod tic child in her iirirji!,
and though she at once experienced
strange rambling sounds in her ear that
proved very annoying and nearly drove
her crazy, she did not entirely lope the
use of the ear. A:i examination of the
organ shows a sear on the eardrum
that experts ray is a puncture abot&
the size of the head of a pin.
Caught With a Live I’tg For Bait.
r,u -ns ami Jack K.-eland, re
siding near Locket Swanp, iri Taylor
County, -Georgia, recently captured a
300-pound alligator. The ’gator is
twelve and one-half feet long. 11 ■ was
captured on a hook baited with a live
pig. The alligator had been destroy
ing pigs in the swamp for twelve years
or more, and many unsuccessful at
tempts were made at various tfcics
to capture him.—Atlanta Journal.
The Liberty f>el)V Travels.
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition
management has determined to get, if
possible, the old Liberty Beil. If tbc
effort is successful it will be tbe first
visit of tbe bell west of the Mississippi
Kiver. If it goes to St. Louis it will
be the sixth journey which the bell
has taken. The bell’s first journey
was from Philadelphia to Allentown
in 1777, to save it from falling into
the hands of the British when the'
Americans evacuated Philadelphia.
The other four journeys of the bell
have been to American expositions.
To Chicago in 1893, to Atlanta in 1895,
to New Orleans in 1885 and to Charles
ton in 1901.—Springfield Bepublican.
H
'H
la
‘s* , '■
ry ', v
receiver. was his
ful Secretary.
"Now, -Mr. Quickly," lie said, "lock I
at the schedule, and tell me what 1
am to do in the next thirty minute!,"
“You are to get married, sir," sa l
Quickly.
"To whom?”
"That hasn’t been decided."
"Ah, yes. I remember. 1 have liver, sc
busy that no selection has been made
Very well. Now get Newport, Lenox
l ower California, London. Paris, ami
any other marriage mart, and iind a
girl live feet three, not over twenty
live, with real blonde hair, weight 150,
and a father who is in the combine, if
possible. Robinson's list of
may help you.”
la tea minutes the private Secretary
made his report.
“Here are live." he said.
His employer looked over the names.
“Good!” he exelaiiued. "The market
appears to be strong. Try number
three. Bar Harbor, you say. Walt a
minute.”
He rang up Bar Harbor. In half a
minute he was talking with Mr. Mil
ton, owner of several States and Terri
tories.
"Is it r.ll right, old man?" he asked,
Anally.
"Certainly." was the reply. “How
can 1 refits# anything to the man who
helped us at a critical moment to keep
up the price of bacon? Ethel is play
ing ping-pong.”
The ardent suitor rang up the ping
pong table, and briefly stated his er
rand..
Two minutes were passed in expla
nations.
"Yes/ was finally given.
Bishop Stumper was found at Rich
field Springs. The combination phono
graph and telephone was opened up
for the ceremony. The bridegroom em
ployed the slight delay to apologize to
Ethel’s partner for interrupting the
game. It was all right.
"Now, Quickly,” said the bridegroom,
“tell ’em to get a gait on, as in fourteen
minutes I’ve got to talk to the Presi
dent of the Kean Trust."
The sonorous voice of the bishop was
heard over the wire. The responses
were firm and audible. The moment
approached for the ring. Ethel’s part
ner had volunteered to lie best man.
“How stupid of me." said the groom.
"Forgot that ring. Hold all the wires
while I get the Bar Harbor jeweler.
Ah, here you are. I'm Bloomer, of the
Standard Air. Send a dozen wedding
rings up to Miss Milton’s ping-pong
table, p. and. ip While you are about it,
if you have any old mine diamonds, or
pigeon blood rubies, or a necklace
worth anything above a hundred thou
sand, send ’em along. Chase yourself!
All the world’s waiting."
Wedding rings and other trinkets
were on hand in ten minutes aid the
ceremony proceeded.
In twi minutes more it was com
pleted.
"And now," said Bloomer, the groom,
to his Secretary, "shut; off all the wires
luit my wife’s, and make a memo, to
send tlie bishop a couple of thousand
and some wine. Ah, my dear, we are
alone, at last. Sorry to lutrry you, but
business is business. I’ll try and come
on and see you in a month or so. In
the meantime, pick out a few r ice
houses to live in or any!king you may
want and charge it; to me. I top.- i
didn't spoil your game. Kee you later
Au rpvoir.”
Turning to his, Secretary, he said:
"And now, Mr. Quickly, we'll talk
with the President of the Beau Trust."
—Tom Masson, in Life.
A Kaif Bicycle Path.
T\v- nt.v-iivf* miles of highway, grad
ed and bridged like a railroad's right
of way, cindered like a millionaire’s
private race track, cleared through
heavy timber and carried around the
pecipitotis sides of lakes on level
shelves high above the water, and ded
icated to the exclusive use of the
wheel, is the result of long and per
sistent effort made by wheelmen of
Beattie against seemingly impossible
obstacles.
The population of Seattle, like all
Western cities, is largely recruited
from the Eastern States. Thus it was
that many people, accustomed to the
level roailß of the Middle States and
tlie rolling highways which make
wheeling in the thickly populated
East, such a pleasure, came to this city
of hills, with its beautiful surround
ings of sound, lake, river and forest,
and unpacked their wheels in all eag
erness. Disappointment at once await
ed these enthusiasts, for that same na
ture which had been so lavish in her
gifts to the eye had not smoothed high
ways for tin- bicycle. The very kills
which seemed so inviting to the would
be rider effectually blocked his way,
and the very forests which looked so
cool on a hot summer day were pene
trated here and there only by narrow,
dusty lanes cr rough, plank-floored
country roads.—Country Life in Amer
ica.
Abf*at mi ntlcti.
Counselor K /•while cross-oxamin-
Inga witness in a will contest, asked !
him what was his conception of ab
sentmindedness, tile witness having
characterized the decedent as exceed
ingly absentminded. The witness re
plied; "I should say that a man who
thought he left his watch at home and
took it out of his pocket to see if he
had time to go home and gat it was a
‘leetle’ absentmiaded.” New York
Ojimes. - I
■ v 1 t *II 1' : -e
-\ 111' 1 Ii • MW
1 " • ■
*- • it- I•i.1 'U.ik* !i *• i it.
ivy.— The Rev. Dr.J. Wil
bur Chapman,\dhc most popular of our
pulpit orators, imis never preached a more
dramatic ami powerful sermon than the
following one. entitled “Insane From Sin.’’
It is founded on\Jie text. “In the tombs,
crying and cutting himself with stones.’’
Mark 5: 5.
You are doubtless familiar with this
Now Testament chapter in which ou.
Lord is represented as having power over
devils, disease and death. Over devils
when He cast out the evil spirits from the
man in the tombs, finding enough in him
to fill n herd of swine, and enough swine
to till the .sen. .vs an old preacher used to
say; over disease when He healed the
woman who had faith enough to touch
His garment’s hem. and power over death
when He stands at the home of .I aims and
commands his little daughter to awake
and restores her to her weeping parents.
It is a comforting chapter in the light of
the fact that He is the same yesterday, to
day and forever.
In speaking of “the sinfulness of sin” T
desire to present it at this time in its ef
fect upon the mind. Insanity has been de
scribed as a chronic disease of the brain
inducing chronic disorder of tlie mental
condition, yet there is a sense in which the
fevered patient in his delirium and the
drunkard in his excitement or stupor is
insane. There are two kinds of insanity,
i first, congenital, or that which is inherited
, where brain development is arrested. Sec
ond. acquired, or that in which the brain
is born healthy, but lias suffered from
morbid processes affecting it primarily,
. diseased states of the general system im
plicating it secondarily. Tn our treatment
of this theme I have to do with both of
• these, for in the first we see how the sins
of the fathers are visited upon the children
unto the third and fourth generations,
while in the second we behold an exhibi
tion of that insanity of sin which is due
to individual excesses or tlie breaking of
Hod’s laws. Tlie Bible is full of illustra
tions.
It is not necessary that 1 should go to
an institution to find men who are insane.
1 turn to the pages of this old book and
read the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the
king. Now you see him on his hands and
knees eating grass, and his nails are like
birds’ claws and his hair like eagles’ feath
ers. Yet as we read we find ho lifted his
eyes to heaven and God set him free.
There is not less for a man in this City of
New York—no matter what his bondage—
if he will but lift his eyes up he may he
free.
Then we turn to T. Samuel, second chap
ter, and we see the rnan who wrote the
Twenty-third Psalm, David playing the
fool before the man of whom he was
afraid, crouching upon the sides of the
door posts and becoming disgusting.
In the tenth chapter of Exodus we read
the story of the man who was the king—
whose face I had the privilege of seeing as
a mummy in Kgypl—the man who said.
“I will let the people go now if you will
take away the sw arm of flies-if you will
take away the frogs.” And tlie frogs
wore taken away, and the flies, and he
did not let them go. for God hardened his
heart- an insane man, lmt not more in
sane than the man who has promised ever
since he was a child that he would be a
Christian and give up sin, and is still its
slave.
Turn to the New Testament, and hero
we find the picture of the prodigal. When
he came to hjmsclf when he was not him
self he was satisfied with swine, so long
as he had forgotten his father and his
mother, whom tradition says he killed,
he was satisfied, but when he came to
himself he was nof. Ah, the young man,
with the memory of a sweet mother back
in Ohio, who has stepped into the evil of
sin in New York and turned bis face
away from Christ, he is insane. It is the
hope of tlie minister and the prayer of at
least one hundred people in tin's church
that during this series of meetings some
of these young men mqv come to them
selves, and then come to Christ.
I.
T have been going through the institu
tions, where 1 have had the privilege of
looking upon the insane people confined
there, and I have found out the following:
I'irst, many people are insane because
of the sins of their parents. Results of
crime on future generations.
At the recent meeting of the Congress
of Criminal Anthropology at Geneva,
Switzerland, Dr. Legrain, physician-in
chief of the .asylum of Ville-Evrard, gave
the results of his investigation, which ex
tended over a period of years and showed
how sin, like disease, is transmitted from
drunken father to appetite enslaved son;
how in such soil the seeds of crime and
madness develop and ripen in the last gen
eration into sterile idiocy and the extinc
tion of the race.
First Generation.
He traced the course of four generations
of drinkers in 215 families. One hundred
and sixty-eight families showed unmistak
able symptoms of degeneracy; sixty-three
eases of mild insanity; eighty eight were
mentally unsound; forty-live at times dan
gerously insane; many of the children
were weaklings and died at an early age,
six out of eight in one case, ten out of six
teen in another. These six latter who re
mained were all feeble minded and had
epileptic fits and a. prey to evil instinct.-:.
J hirty-nine families found convulsions;
epilepsy in fifty-two; hysteria in sixteen;
meningitis in five; 108 families out of the
215 counted one out of every two individ
uals victims of periodical alcoholic deli
rium ; 100 families of the 215 insanity had
developed.
Second ft en oration.
Ninety-eight observations gave the fol
lowing: Fifty-four families had one or
more who were imbeciles or
idiotstWwenty-thron families there were
those who were morally irresponsible, un
timely births, extraordinary mortality
and hereditary diseases caused the children
to die in appalling numbers. At this stage
fathers and mothers had become common
drunkards with hut eight exceptions. ]:i
forty-two families he found chronic cases
of convulsions, and epilepsy in forty, la
twenty-three families insanity exists.
Third Generation.
Seven observations, or families, gave
him a total of seventeen children; all
were mentally unsound and physically
stunted; two were insane, four subject to
convulsions, two epilepsy, two hysteria,
one meningitis, t hree scrofula.
Summing up the 814 eases found in the
215 families he found .32.2 per cent, were
alcoholics, Bo.lt per cent, are degenerates,
13.9 per cent, morally irresponsible, 22.7
per cent, have convulsions, nineteen per
cent, are incurably insane; 174 disap
peared from this world before or almost be
fore having drawn t-heir first breath; nine
ty-three cases of tuberculosis, which bring
the total of those who died from heredit
ary alcoholism tip to one-third.
There is no fifth generation, 4or the last
line is a microcephalous idiot. Thus
Moses was right, as proven by science,
when he said, “God visits the iniquities
of the parents unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate Him.” Theft
is no fifth.
Sin is an awful thing. If I could uncover
it so that some of you could nee it you
would shrink back from it as you would#
shrink from a man who is a leper.
There are very many people who are in
sane from over work. It is the tendency
of the times. Permit me to read to you
v-V -.- f 4- - :
\
hunting fti pursued with
are inemwed and principle snerificeT,
the haste! to become rich. Great • -
eales are 1 formed day by day am Yheir
luring baixfcvtempt many people Little
>. \ ings arc iirfc'svrivb.ajjjjy Trade
is becoming largely speculative. Old-fash
ioned business methods and ideals are
passing away, and much is being sacrificed
to more rapid modes of enrichment. Some
succeed, but the larger number fall in
their ventures. Fortunes are lost as well
as won. Money changes hands, and thou
sands suffer where hundreds gain. Wrecks
of characters He all along the pathway of
speculation. In all ranks and grades of
society are found the victims of wild,
reckless gambling. Greed of wealth is be
coming too much an American vice. Its
allurements are proving too strong for our
bright, energetic and ambitious young
men, and there is a call for a steadier,
wiaei and safer spirit in business affairs.”
Second, there are inanv people insane to
day because of self-indulgence, the lack of
self-restraint. Self-indulgence ruins men,
self-denial makes them; self-indulgence
sells a man's birthright for a mess of pot
tage, and he tries to get it again only to
find that it is impossible; self-denial
makes one to he possessed of increasing
strength; self-indulgence led Belshazzar
on until we find him in the centre of the
feast, where the lingers of a man’s hand
write upon tlie wall, “Weighted in the
balances and found wanting,” and the
same- thing is true to-day, it is the lack of
self-restraint that has made many a man
to lose his soul. Dr. Talmage tells of the
man whom he saw on the shores of a lake
in Scotland creeping out from under the
hull of an old wrecked vessel aud lifting
up his hands tremblingly said. “Please,
sir, will you give me a penny?” “For
what?” said the minister. The answer
wav. “For strong drink.” Dr. Talmage
said to h#m. “I am a minister and I cannot
give you the money for that, hut 1 will
help vou. What is your name?” and he
said the man buried his face in his hands,
shook with emotion, and then finally said,
“My name is”—and he sobbed it out.
"Why,” saitl Dr. Talniage, “I knew a man
by that name in Edinburgh, a prominent
merchant; did you know him?” “God
.pity me, sir,” said lie, “I am that man;
sin slew me, and [ am here; my wife is
dead, my children are in the poor house
and T am on my way to hell.” What a
warning for every man who gives way in
the least to sin.
There are many men in tlie insane insti
tutions to-day because of self-indulgence
and lack of self-restraint. Who was it
that said. “Better is lie that ruleth his
spirit than he that taketh a city?” Why,
if a man could only take a city what a
hero he would bo! The word of God says
that every man may be greater than lie
that taketh a city if lie will rule his own
spirit. Self-indulgence ruins, self-denial
makes men. Self-indulgence sells a man’s
birthright- for less than a mess of pottage.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked,
whatsoever a man sows that shall lie reap.
L came across one young man in the in
sane asylum who came from one of the
first families in the country. There is not
a man better horn than he. He had every
thing that money could buy. Not only
was he lacking in self-restraint himself,
but his people were lacking in self-re
straint. If the hoy desired to go to
school he was at liberty to go; if he pre
ferred not to go to school he could stay at
home. After a while there came a defect
in the brain: after a little while it was in
sanity, so that now lie is in an insane
asylum. I heard him say, “Will you per
mit me lo go to father and mother?”
“Certainly, certainly,” the keeper said.
“He will never go. He will never he
ready to go. He rises in the morning,
then he falls back on his cot; lie begins to
dress and then steps; he will just about
be ready to-night; to-morrow morning he
will have the delusion again. He never
quite gets up to his desire. That is his
mania.” There is many a hoy, possibly
in our church, whose home atmosphere is
like that, and it is a most dangerous one.
I do not know that the fathers were strict
enough. I do not think my father was too
strict. In my boyhood’s home life was
the forming of my character. I should
like to hold up to every boy and every
young man the highest, ideals of manhood,
and T ask you to take Christ.
Third, there are very many people men
tally imbalanced to-day because of some
hallucination. A poor woman cried out as
1 passed along through the wards of the
institution, “Doctor, 1 am burning up; if
I could only have a breath of fresh air l
would feel perfectly well again.” A man
who used to be a leader of .society was ac
tually burrowing in the ground like an ani
mal. all the dignity of his manhood gone,
and the woman who was once the pride of
her home a mental wreck, and when 1
said to the doctor, “What is it that causes
this?” his answer was, “It is sin in very
many cases.” I know very well that there
an* many who are insane because of in
herited tendency and/
woH.s their p overstrained nerves have
given way, but T have seen a countless
number in these latter days insane be
cause of sin, and it is against this that 1
cry out.
11.
There is- ft kind of insanity in the posi
tion which men. occupy with regard to
being ( hri.stian.s.
First, let us suppose a case of sickness
where the patient gradually grows worse,
the temperature is high, the pulse is rapid,
the he rt is entii'cly wrong, the skin is
dried and-parched, the ease is critical, a
cure must come quickly or not at all, and
you go to the afflicted one and propose a
cure because your disease was the same
and you have been cured. .Suppose the
patient should remark, “I do not feel that
this remedy will cure me, after a while I
will try it.” Possibly that is a specie of
insanity, but suppose he declares that he
will wait until he grows better and the
disease has practically left him; in this,
t 00. lie is insane. Hut suppose he tells you
that In? cannot understand how the rem
edy would cure him. and that until he can
comprehend it he will not accept it. Could
anything be more insane -than such a po
sition? Or suppose he should say, “I
would take it. but 1 know one who tried
it and failed.” 1 ask you, is not this a
species of insanity?
Second, what would you say concerning
the position of such a sick man? 1 know
what you would ray. You would look at
him and say, “Poor man; he is insane;
feelings have nothing to do with the mat
ter; you cannot grow better without a
remedy. The doctor understands the case
and you do not need to understand it.”
This is what you would say, but I know
thousands of people who are away from
Ghrist and staying away from Him for
these very reasons.
Some years ago a young man threw him
self into the river from a steamboat, and
at once the cry of “Man overboard!”
startled all the passengers. They threw
back the searchlight in the darkness of
the night and could see that lie was sink
ing, but, suddenly someone threw him a
rope, and a cheer went up because he had
caught hold of it. He drew the rope to
ward him until at last they saw' him lift
himself out of the water and then throw it
i's far as he could and go down beneath
the waves. He was an insane man, hav
ing escaped from his but the man
who rejects Christ, it tfould seem to me.
i* more insane, for he has turned away
■SM '
clean?” And, liftingcries:
“These hands will make the very sea red."
I speak to some young men in this
church whose conscience is still working.
Yon can put your hands over your eyes
and there is before you the face of a
sweet mother, who said to you: “My boy,
it is a very wicked world. I am afraid
for you without a mother’s presence." l
You have a memory of that mother. Your
conscience is saving. “You had better give
up that %j n. ” God keep you from it.
t There are special sins which I should
like to suggest this evening in closing. I;
need not sneak of the sin of drunkenness.
You have heard of it this evening. John
B. Gough used to say. “God forgive me,
I do not speak it boastingly. Five years
of tnv life were a dark blot. I know what
the burning appetite for stimulants is. t
have felt its woes and T have seen it in
many men who have died the drunkard’s
deatli but as God is my witness, I say,
take awav from me the friends of my old
age, let. the hut of Poverty he my dwelling
place, let me walk in the storm and live in
tlie whirlwind, when I do good let evil
come upon me, and the shouts of my ene
mies as the sound of many waters, do all
I his. O merciful God, but spare me from’
the death of a drunkard.” I beseech you,
if conscience appeals to you now that you*
yield at once to its teachings. Charles the
Ninth after the massacre of St. Bartholo
mew said to the doctor. “I am fevered in
body and mind: oh. if I had only spared
the innocent, the preachers and the chil
dren.’’ Rousseau declared in old age that
the sins committed in his youth gave him
sleepless nights. Biclmrd the Third hav
ing slain his two nephews in the tower
would sometimes in I he night spring from
his couch and touch his sword as if to
light the demons coining up against him.
All this was conscience. In the name of
God do not stifle its voice and reject its
warning.
I should like to say a special word to
tlie hoys. 1 have the memory to-night ot
a bo\y who told me that he had left his
father’s home and his father’s employ be
cause he had begun io take money from
him. and the habit had so grown upon
him that it was impossible for him to- re
sist. “I began,” said he, “with a pennv;
my last theft was $5 at a single time. Oh,
sir.” said he, “do you think God will for
give me if I confess it to my father?” It
is a mistake to step aside the least in a
lite of sin and I call upon the boys to turn
squarely about.
1 remember the man of whom they told
me his mania was that he could not for
get. This man could not forget, nor do I
i Link we can forget. There is Cain with
the mark of murder. He cannot forget.
There is Pilate, with Ihe memory of Jesus
before him and his hands red with His
blood. He cannot forget. Judas, with the
clinking of Die thirty pieces of silver, he
cannot forget. Abraham, looking down
into the depths, says, “Son, remember.”
\\ lien Richard Cour <le Leon was a:
prisoner tlie people could not tell where
he was. The cry went up, “Where is the
king?” An old musician said, “I will find
him.” And so to every penal institution
he made his way and played the tune of
Richard Cour do Leon. After a while
there came a fluttering sign that Richard
do Leon heard. I wish F could awaken
Die memories of your boyhood. I wish
every man here could remember his moth)
er and father, the old minister and the
music of the chime, “Delay not. Delay
not. 0 sinner draw nigh.” They told me
that sometimes in the minds of the poor
people who are insane there will come a
streak of light, a little prophecy of hope.
I have an idea in every man’s soul there
lias been such a ray of hope from heaven.
You can be a Christian if you will. God
help you to he a free man. * _
* * - 9
Love For Bod.
Prayer becomes a necessity when we
Know what God’s love for us means. To
read the story, as the Bible tells it, of
the love which made the world and man,
and of the love which sent God to live and
die on earth for us; to go over the years of
living and see how goodness and mercy,
have followed all the days; to pick out
the blessings till they grow into glowing
clouds always hovering over the human
experience ihc.se show the divine love so
mightily that one cannot keep away from
the contemplation! And so the human
love grows until it reaches God, and bows
at His feet, and presses its littleness into
the very vastness of His nature, and draw*
its breath from the very presence of Him
who is Himself love! Prayer—why wo
cannot help loving then! ’['he very life
is a prayer, a clinging, delighted gazing
into a Face which knows no turning, a
holding to tin* Hand which never loosen*
its grasp, a speaking to a Father whoso
oik? great desire is the child's happiness*
Every act of ours, every need, every
pleasure, every, puin is as much God’s ao
ours, and we know it, and knowing it aa
we go to Him as the child to its mother,
as the bird to its nest, as the withered
flower to the moisture which falls and
kisses its upturned hungry lace. Granted
i God and all else follows. His love for
us, our love for Him, presupposes prayejf
as a necessity. Floyd Tompkins. __
"i
Prayer Kept llim From Falling. 1
A story illustrating the power of prayer
to keep from falling is related of a
Scotchman employed in a great steel fao
lory, who after many years of drinking
gave up the habit.
It was prophesied by those who knew
him best that lie would not hold out
through the hot weather, but contrary to
all prophecies he stood firm.
They asked him how lie succeeded, and
he said it was because at the beginning of
every hour he asked the Lord to keep
him through 1.1 te hour. At the end of the
hour he made a dot at the day of the
month on a calendar near him, and
prayed for help for the next hour. So the
Lord carried him through the day, and sci
be expected the Lord to carry him through
his life.
Kverv Man*# Duty. t
“Doing as well as we know' how” i*
belter than not doing even as well as that.
JJ;it doing as well as we know how is not
enough, unless v.c know just what is
right, and then do that. God's commands
•re positive and exact. We are told to do
this, or not to do that. God never tell#
ns merely to do our best, or according to
our knowledge. It is our duty to know,
what is right, and then to do it. Even
Milder human governments it is said that
it is every man’s duty to know the law.
And divine government has ns high n
standard as has the human. We have a
responsibility for knowing, as preliminary
to doing. Do we realize that?—Angelua.
’ r{
Perfection. '
God endowed humanity with its infinite
capacity for improvement in order that
at last it may attain perfection. 1 do not
believe any human being can be perfectly
happy as long as wo see men condemned
to suffer without a single moral thought,
without a perception of the noble meaning
of life.—The Rev. E. C. .Worcester, Phila
delphia.
The fellow' wl>o marries a deaf mut#
should make her unspeakably happy, j