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lessons at school."

They took the proved a treasure that brought them history of the United States, which the into a new world of delight. Sometimes younger children were studying. Be- they took different characters for reginning with New England settlements, presentations, and the evening ended in and being six in number, they called a frolic, for good-natured mirth was each other, for the time, after the six never repressed. States, persuading old Daniel to take First of all, a preparation had been his native Rhode Island. "That woman made for the Sabbath. There was a beats all creation," he was heard to church in this town, but at a distance exclaim, "the way she works all day of five miles, and during many days the and goes on at night over her books." roads were not passable. She had The mother used to say she hardly knew leaned upon infinite strength, gathering if she were any older than her boys wisdom through all the experiences. when they were trying to trip each other The secret of many a promise had been with questions. The teacher of the revealed to her understanding, and district school came over one Saturday above everything, she desired that the afternoon. "I never had such pupils," Scriptures should become precious to said he, "as your sons, in history; her children. She took up Bible chaand, indeed, they want to look into racters, bringing to bear the same vivid everything." Afterwards he heard with interests, the same power of making delight the story of their evening's them realities. work. The deep snow often shut them These lessons were varied by little in, but the red light shone clearly and sketches or reports of one Sunday to be bright from the sitting-room window, read aloud the next. Of this Nate took and a merry group were gathered hold with a special zest. None of this around the table. Every two weeks family could sing. She thought of a an evening was given to some jour- substitute. They learned the Psalms, ney. It was laid out in advance, much of Isaiah, and many hymns, reand faithfully studied. Once, The- peating them in concert, learning to odore remembers, a shout of laughter count upon this hour around the fire as was raised when nine o'clock came, by others do upon their music. How many Jerry's exclamation; "Oh, mother, of these times came to her in after life don't go home now; we are having -a vision of the bright faces of her such a good time!" Five years they boys, as they clustered affectionately lived in this way, and almost entirely around her. by themselves. They studied botany. She knew the name of every tree and shrub for miles around. The little boys made a collection of birds' eggs, and then began to watch closely the habits of the birds. It was a pure, simple life. It would have been too wild and lonely but for the charm of this devoted mother. Her hours of loneliness were hidden from them, but she learned in an unusual degree to throw every energy into the day's work of study, and create, as it were, a fresh enthusiasm for the present hour. Her loving sacrifice was rewarded. Each child made her his peculiar confidante. She became the inspiration of his life.

Time rolled by. The railroad passed through. A village sprung up, and the land was ready to sell. She could keep enough for her own use, and the boys could prepare for college. Thede and Nate went away to school. The old home was kept bright and pleasant, friends, new settlers, came in, and now there was visiting and social life.

Jerry stayed on the farm; Thede became an engineer; Nate, a minister; Johnnie went into business. Theodore used to say: "Mother, as I travel about, all the stones and flowers make me think of you. I catch sight of some rock, and stop to laugh over those blessed times." Nate said: "Mother, when I English history opened a wide field am reading a Psalm in the pulpit, there to this family. One afternoon she always comes to me a picture of those brought in Shakespeare to prove some old evenings, with you in the rocking historical question. It was a rainy day chair, by the firelight, and I hear all and the boys were all at home. Jerry your voices again. Johnnie wrote: began to read "Hamlet" aloud; it" Mother, I think that everything I

have has come to me through you." When Jerry, who remained faithful always, had listened to his brothers, he put his arms about her, saying tenderly: There will never be anybody like mother to me."

She died at sixty-five, very suddenly. Only a few hours before, she had exclaimed as her children all came home together: "There never were such good

years old. He is infected with the mania for getting, and the more he gets the more he wants. If you could see him just as he is, and where he is inevitably going, and how he is going there! He is one of the coming victims of dementia paralytica, the prevalent ailment among so many Wall street men.

WOMAN TO CHURCH.

boys as mine. You have paid me a THE GANDER THAT TOOK THE BLIND thousand fold. God grant you all happy homes." They bore her coffin to the grave themselves. They would not let Geese are generally considered very any other touch it. In the person evening they gathered around the old silly creatures; but the story below, hearthstone in the sitting-room and from an English paper, of a staid old drew their chairs together. No one gander who took upon himself the care spoke until Nate said: "Boys, let us of a poor blind woman, ought to give pray," and then, all kneeling around her vacant chair, prayed that the mantle of their mother might fall them. They could ask nothing beyond that. Our Monthly Exchange.

THE MILLIONAIRE.

upon

us a new feeling of respect for the race. It must have been a funny sight indeed to see the dear old woman finding her way to the house of God led by a gander! But is it not, too, a touching instance of the care which our Father has for His afflicted ones?

church called to see this old person at her own house. He found that she had gone out, and he expressed his surprise to her daughter that they should let her go out alone. "Oh, sir," replied the daughter, "there is nothing to fear. Mother is not alone; the gander is with her."-The Sunday Hour.

In Germany an aged blind woman used to be led to church every Sunday Who is this hard-working man? by a gander. He would take her to the This is the millionaire, the man who door of the pew where she sat. As soon wanted to be rich and has got rich, and as she was in her place, he would walk is getting richer every day. Is he the quietly out of the church and occupy happier for it? Happy! Bless your himself in the churchyard, feeding on soul, he's more miserable, fuller of cares the grass till the service was over and and anxieties, and harder work than he heard the people coming out of ever. He is the veriest slave of them church. Then he would go to the pew all. He is pushed with business, and of his old mistress and lead her home. business is pushing him. He has so again. One day the minister of the many irons in the fire that some of them are burning his fingers while others are getting cold. His present life is a rush from the meeting of this Board to that Board, and thence to some other Board. He is a director in this company and a trustee in that and silent partner in another, world without end, and more coming. He hasn't time to eat and hardly time to sleep, and when he does lay his poor head on the pillow he can't A FRIEND who is proud of his Gerstop business plans and schemes, hopes man scholarship was greatly amused and fears, from whirling and whirring the other day by a joke in a German through it. He can't take a day to spend in quiet out of town, and if he could he would take all his business with him into the woods. He is a slave and a victim. His millions in bank don't bring him so much enjoyment as does a new ten-cent piece given to a boy ten

newspaper. At our request he has translated it thus: "Mamma the Fritz lets me no place in the bed!" "No place? Will he then more than the half have?" "That not, mamma, but he wants his half in the middle of the bed, and I upon both sides of he.

"

OUR CABINET.

A CURIOUS CHARACTER.

the use of the church on a week day, as he had "something to say to the people." As the consistory had confi"Death," says Sterne, "opens the dence in Stork's integrity of purpose, gate of fame. To some extent this the request was granted, though the saying seems likely to be illustrated in pastor, who was absent when the action the career of Ludwig Stork, who died was taken, doubted its propriety and in South Bethlehem, Pa., on the 9th of declined to be present on the occasion. November, 1883, aged upwards of At the time appointed about fifty eighty years. Some of our readers people assembled in the expectation of may remember him as a gigantic Ger- hearing a sermon. I was but a child man who sometimes taught school and then, but the whole scene is indelibly was at other times engaged as an assist-printed on my memory, The audience ant in editorial work on various Ger- had waited until it had grown impaman newspapers, but generally seemed tient, when suddenly the door opened to be "on his travels" without a cer- and a tall figure came stalking up the tain destination. He was enthusiasti- aisle. Without looking around he cally devoted to poetic composition, immediately ascended the the pulpit, and his effusions frequently appeared opened a huge roll of manuscript and in German newspapers, but rarely began to read a poem descriptive of a under his proper signature. His fa- thunder storm. Having finished one vorite nom de plume was "Sigmar poem he passed on to another, and thus Thuisko." He was, indeed, popularly continued reading German poetry for known as "the poet;" but was personally so eccentric that it is not surprising that his literary efforts failed to be appreciated. Now that his long life is finished it turns out that his poetic ability was much greater than was generally supposed, and there is some talk of publishing a collection of his poems. He was not a great genius, but when the history of German literature in America comes to be written, his name will probably take its place among the

rest.

two mortal hours. Some of his poems are said to have been of a devotional character, but his exalted language was naturally beyond the comprehension of his audience. Gradually his hearers stole away until but a few were left, but Stork did not allow himself to be disturbed. When he had finished reading, he immediately descended the pulpit marched out of the church, and then walked away without waiting for congratulations.

CAMPAIGN POETRY.

Poor Ludwig Stork! He was, inLudwig Stork was a native of Darm-deed, a curious character. Now that stadt in Hesse. He belonged to a his long journey is ended, we feel like prominent family and was thoroughly adding our little tribute to his memory. educated. In early youth he served as Peace to his ashes! a soldier in Algiers. It would have been easy for him to become an emi nent man in his native land, but he was in the highest degree unpractical and eccentric. About 50 years ago he The writers of political songs are came to America and soon afterwards greatly worried because the names of found his way to Pennsylvania. It the candidates do not lend themselves was while he was teaching school in easily to poetry. Blaine, it is true, Lehigh County, about 1846, that an rhymes to a great many words; but incident occurred which illustrates his "Blaine and Logan" is not so easily peculiarities. He applied to the con- handled. It rhymes to "Sound the sistory of the Egypt congregation for slogan," but as this is perhaps the only

possible rhyme, the thing is indanger of growing monotonous. In the case of the Democratic candidates the difficulty is even greater. A poet in the Philadelphia Call expresses his feelings on the subject in the following touching stanza:

"Tis hard to find rhymes

For S. Grover Cleveland;
We've tried many times,

But none of them leave stand.
Still ower we fell

With Thomas A.,Hendricks-
A word may start well,
But always the end sticks.

SOME NUTS TO CRACK.

I.

a

By what process a pew at church can be considered in harmony with box at the opera or theatre, in the case. of a professing Christian.

II.

How it comes about that stormy weather on Sunday seems so much worse for men than for women, and so often prevents their presence at church

and school.

III.

Why good teachers are scarce in Sunday-schools, while so many talented Christians are not doing anything special on the Lord's Day; and how the Lord probably regards such neglect.

IV.

The reason we do not have a better division of Christian work. The burdens nearly break some, while others go scot free. If there is any credit due, all are ready to share it.

V.

The cause of an apparent absolute dearth of religious interest in certain classes which are always full and personally attached to the teacher.

VI.

Why personal applications of divine truth are not more frequently made by superintendents and teachers, that so the truth may have full effect, to the

AN EXTEMPORANEOUS SERMON.

The Rev. Dr.Dodd, who lived near Cambridge, England, had rendered himself obnoxious to many of the students by frequently preaching against

drunkness. Several of them met him on the highway and determined to make him preach in a hollow tree which was near the roadside. Accordingly, addressing him with apparent politeness, they asked him if he had not lately preached much against drunkenness. He replied he had, and they insisted that he should now preach from a text of their choosing. In vain did he remonstrate on the unreasonableness of expecting him to give a discourse without study, and in such a place. They were determined to take no denial, and the word "malt" was given him for a text, on which he immediately delivered himself as follows: "Beloved, let me crave your attention-I am a little man, come at a short warning, to preach a short sermon from a small subject, in an unworthy pulpit, to a small congregation. Beloved, my text is 'malt.' I can not divide it into words, there being but one; nor into syllables, there being but one. I must, therefore, of necessity, divide it into letters, which I find to be these four

M. A. L. T.-'malt.' My beloved, M is moral, A is allegorical, L is literal, and T is theological. The Moral is set forth to teach you drunkards good manners; therefore, M, masters, A, all of you, L, listen. T, to the text. The Allegorical is when one thing is spoken and another is meant. The thing spoken of is Malt; the thing meant is the juice of malt, and of which you drunkards make M, meat, A, apparel, L, life, T, treasure. The Literal is according to the letter.-M, much, A, ale, L, little, T, thrift. The Theological is according to the effects that it works, and these I find to be of two kinds; first, in the world; secondly, in the world to come.

The effects that it works in this world are-M, murder, A, adultery, L, looseness of life, T, torment. So much for the text. I shall speak first by the way of exhortation M, my masters, A, all of you L, leave off, T tippling. Secondly, by the ex-Baptist Superintendent. communication: M, masters, A, all of

salvation of the soul.

you, L, look for, T, torment. Thirdly, by way of caution take this: A drunkard is the annoyance of modesty, the spoil of civility, the destruction of reason, the brewer's agent, the ale house benefactor, his wife's sorrow, his children's trouble, his own shame, his neighbor's scoff, a walking swill bowl, the picture of a beast and the monster of a man." He then concluded in the usual form, and the young men, pleased with his ingenuity, not only thanked him, but absolutely profited more by this short and whimsical sermon than by any serious discourse they had ever heard -Selected.

OUR BOOK TABLE.

LIFE IN ALASKA. Letters of Mrs. Eugene S. Williard. Edited by her sister, Mrs. Eva McClintock. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication. Price $1.25.

We have here a series of letters written by the wife of a missionary in "our Arctic province." These letters were written in the confidence of private friendship, without any intention of publication, and are therefore plain and unpretentious. The writer is, however, thoroughly interested in her work, and carries her readers with her by the power of her enthusiasm. The trials of missionary life in this remote region are graphically depicted, and we cannot withhold our sympathy from the men and women who are heroically sacrificing themselves in the cause of Christ. The Presbyterian Church is doing a work in Alaska which deserves to be recognized and appreciated by all the branches of the Christian Church.

COOKERY FOR BEGINNERS. By Marion Harland. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price, in limp., water-proof binding, 60 cents.

The trouble with most cook-books is that their directions are too elaborate. To be successful, you need to have a confectionery and a drug-store near at hand. In this little book this mistake is entirely avoided. The terms employed are simple and the materials are those which are familiar in every household. We have tried a number of the receipts in our own family and find them excellent. THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. By John G. Morris, D.D. Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society. 16 mo., 54 pp. Price 25 cents.

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The principal object of this interesting Sunday School story is to teach the secret of happiness, which is to make others happy. Christians have so much to be thankful for, and so firm an assurance of Divine favor, that they ought to be always cheerful and full of thanksgiving. This truth the author has illustrated in the character of "Sunshine Mary." MARGIE'S MISSION. By Marie Oliver. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price 25 cents.

This is a very pleasant story, whose purpose is indicated by its title. The heroine bravely meets the trials of life, and in her humble sphere accomplishes much good. It is surprising that the publishers should be able to furnish so much reading at so small a price.

A POCKET SYSTEM OF THEOLOGY FOR SABBATH-SCHOOL TEACHERS AND CHURCHMEMBERS GENERALLY. By the Rev. John Reid. With an Introduction by the Rev. John Hall, D.D. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication. Price $1.00.

We regard this volume as well suited to its intended purpose. It is written, of course, from the standpoint of the Westminster Confession, and defends its faith with great clearness and vigor. We doubt the wisdom of attempting to meet the questions raised by modern science, as some of them do not properly fall within the province of Theology, and all are too extensive to be properly considered in such narrow limits. As a whole, we have no doubt the book will be useful, and we hope it will enjoy an extensive circulation in the churches for which it is immediately intended.

Tracts received from the Presbyterian Board of Publication:

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. By the Rev. J. Howard Nixon, D.D.

THE PERILS OF THE PLAYHOUSE. By Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.

WILDWOOD. By Mrs. Nathaniel Conklin (Jennie M. Drinkwater). Philadelphia: Price Presbyterian Board of Publication. $1.50.

A lively, interesting story concerning a little waif picked up and saved for Christ. The general tone of the book is excellent, and we have no doubt it will become a favorite.

The Century for August is the "Midsummer Holiday Number." It opens with an article on "British Wild Flowers," magnificently illustraAn exposition of this important doctrine by ted. Other valuable articles are, "Recent so eminent a scholar as Dr. Morris cannot fail American Architecture," "On the Track of to be interesting. Though profound, it is clear Ulysses" and "Carmen Sylva." "Dr. Sevier " and simple; and we are glad to learn that it is is continued, and Henry James, Jr., begins a enjoying an extensive circulation. If the Luthe-story entitled, "A New England Winter." The ran doctrine had always been stated by its Century Co., Union Square, New York. defenders in a manner so guarded and concilia. tory, we believe there would have been little room for the great controversies of the sixteenth century. At the same time we are under the impression that the author unconsciously fails to do full justice to the views of those who held a somewhat different doctrine.

St. Nicholas for August.-This number of St. Nicholas is profusely illustrated, and may be rightly called a Midsummer Number, Space cannot be given to tell of the many interesting articles that are to be found within its cover. The Century Co., Union Square, New York.

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