FROM Constantine to Hildebrand, from the third to the eleventh century, the Vaudois, we may trust, cultivated their valleys in peace. The Roman Church, engaged in its strife with emperors and kings, overlooked or despised the teachers of the mountains. In the contest of giants, the modest shepherds were forgotten. Yet they aimed with almost fatal effect the rustic sling of truth against the Roman Philistine. Nothing is more plain than that from the twelfth to the fifteenth century the people of Europe were nearly united in opposition to the Roman See. The popes had never yet been able to reduce to subjection the larger portion of the Christian church; it was only over kings and princes that their victories had been achieved. Every country in Europe swarmed with dissidents, who repelled as antichrist, the bishop of Rome, who pointed with horror and disgust to the vices and the crimes of the Italian prelates and the encroaching monks.
In Languedoc and Provence, the home of the troubadour and of mediæval civilization, the Roman priests were pursued to the altars with shouts of derision. Bohemia, Hungary, and Germany were filled with various sects of primitive Christians, who had never learned to worship graven images, or to bow before glittering madonnas. Spain, England, Scotland, are said by the Vaudois traditions to have retained an early Christianity. In the fourteenth century it is certain that nearly half England accepted the faith of Lollard and Wycliffe. The Romish writers of the thirteenth century abound in treatises against heretics; the fable of a united Christendom, obeying with devoted faith a pope at Rome, had no credence in the period to which it is commonly assigned; and from the reign of Innocent III. to the council of Constance (1200-1414) the Roman church was engaged in a constant and often doubtful contest with the widely diffused fragments of apostolic Christianity.
The popes had succeeded in subjecting kings and emperors; they now employed them in crushing the people. Innocent III. excited Philip of France to a fierce crusade against the Albigenses of the South; amidst a general massacre of men, women, and children, the gentle sect sunk, never to appear again. Dominic invented, or enlarged, the inquisition; and soon in every land the spectacle of blazing heretics and tortured saints delighted the eyes of the Romish clergy. Over the rebellious kings the popes had held the menace of interdict, excommunication, deposition; to the people they offered only submission or death. The inquisition was their remedy for the apostolic heresies of Germany, England, Spain—a simple cure for dissent or reform. It seemed effectual. The Albigenses were perfectly extirpated. In the cities of Italy the Waldenses ceased to be known. Lollardism concealed itself in England; the Scriptural Christians of every land who refused to worship images or adore the virgin disappeared from sight; the supremacy of Rome was assured over all Western Europe.
Yet one blot remained on the fair fame of the seemingly united Christendom. Within the limits of Italy itself a people existed to whom the mass was still a vain idolatry, the real presence a papal fable; who had resisted with vigor every innovation, and whose simple rites and ancient faith were older than the papacy itself. What waves of persecution may have surged over the Vaudois valleys in earlier ages we do not know, they seem soon to have become familiar with the cruelty of Rome; but in the fifteenth century the popes and the inquisitors turned their malignant eyes upon the simple Piedmontese, and prepared to exterminate with fire and sword the Alpine church.
And now began a war of four centuries, the most remarkable in the annals of Europe. On the one side stood the people of the valleys—poor, humble, few. Driven to resistance by their pitiless foes, they took up arms with reluctance; they fought only for safety; they wept over the fallen. Yet it soon appeared that every one of the simple mountaineers was a hero; that he could meet toil, famine, danger, death, with a serene breast in defense of his loved ones and his faith; that his vigorous arm, his well-ordered frame, were more than a match for the mercenary Catholic, the dissolute Savoyard; that he joined to the courage of the soldier the Christian ardor of the martyr; that he was, in fact, invincible.
For four centuries a crusade almost incessant went on against the secluded valleys. Often the papal legions, led by the inquisitors, swept over the gentle landscape of Lucerna, and drove the people from the blazing villages to hide in caves on the mountains, and almost browse with the chamois on the wild herbage of the wintry rocks. Often the dukes of Savoy sent well-trained armies of Spanish foot to blast and wither the last trace of Christian civilization in San Martin or Perouse. More than once the best soldiers and the best generals of Mazarin and Louis XIV. hunted the Vaudois in their wildest retreats, massacred them in caves, starved them in the regions of the glaciers, and desolated the valleys from San Jean to the slopes of Guinevert.
Yet the unflinching people still refused to give up their faith. Still they repelled the idolatry of the mass; still they mocked at the antichrist of Rome. In the deepest hour of distress, the venerable barbes gathered around them their famine-stricken congregations in some cave or cranny of the Alps, administered their apostolic rites, and preached anew the sermon on the mount. The psalms of David, chanted in the plaintive melodies of the Vaudois, echoed far above the scenes of rapine and carnage of the desolate valleys; the apostolic church lived indestructible, the coronal of some heaven-piercing Alp.
The popes, the leaders of the inquisition, the dukes of Savoy, bigoted and cruel, often condescended to flatteries and caresses to win those they could not conquer. They offered large bribes to the poorest mountaineer who would consent to abandon the church of his fathers and betray the haunts of the heretic. Wealth, honors, the favor of his king and of the Romish priests, awaited him who would recant; an easy path of preferment lay open to the young men of the valleys, accustomed only to toil and want; they were tempted as few other men have ever been. Yet the papal bribes were even less successful than the papal arms. A few imbeciles who had lost their moral purity alone yielded to the allurements of gain and pleasure; the great body of the Vaudois youth rejected the offers with disdain. The stately magnanimity of the "Noble Lesson," the simple principles of their ancient catechism, taught them in their plain churches by some learned yet gentle barbe, raised them above those inferior impulses by which the corrupt world beneath them was controlled.
No hereditary vices tarnished their fair organizations; no coarse disease impaired their mental and moral vigor. With a wisdom above philosophy, they saw that it was better to live with a calm conscience a frugal life than to revel in ill-gotten gold. They clung to their mountains, their moral purity, and their faith. Generation after generation, fiercely tried, hardly tempted, never wavered in their resolve. The war of four centuries for liberty of conscience, for freedom to worship God, was accepted by the youthful Vaudois as their noblest inheritance. The contest went on with varying success but equal vigor, and ceased only in its final consequences when the triumphant voice of Garibaldi proclaimed Italy forever free.
Pope Innocent VIII., a man of rare benevolence, according to the Romish writers, and a devoted lover of Christian union, resolved (1487) to adorn his reign by a complete extinction of the Vaudois heresy. He issued a bull summoning all faithful kings, princes, rulers, to a crusade against the children of the valleys. No heretic was to be spared, his goods, his life, were declared forfeited unless he would consent to attend mass. The pope, or his inquisitor, enumerated in a pastoral letter the crimes of the Vaudois. He charged them with calling the Roman church a church of the evil one; of denouncing the worship of the virgin, the invocation of saints; of asserting with unblushing boldness, that they alone possessed the pure doctrine of the apostles.
To Albertus Capitaneus was committed the sacred trust of leading an army into the guilty region, and executing upon its people the sentence of Rome. The Catholics gathered together in great numbers at the appeal of the chief inquisitor; a tumultuous throng of soldiers, brigands, priests, entered the valleys and commenced a general pillage. But they were soon disturbed in their labors by the swift attacks of the Vaudois. The resolute and fearless mountaineers sallied from their caves and ravines and drove the robbers before them. One Christian, armed only with the vigor of innocence, seemed equal to a hundred papists. The crusaders fled, beaten and affrighted from the valleys; the malevolent design of Innocent was never fulfilled; and the Romanists asserted and believed that every Vaudois was a magician, and was guarded by an invisible spell.
Yet still the perpetual persecution went on. The papal agents made their way into the lower portions of the valleys, seized the eminent barbes and faithful teachers, and burned them with cruel joy. The Vaudois never knew any respite from real and imminent danger. Ever they must be ready to fly to their mountains and caves; ever their trembling wives and children were exposed to the cruelty and cunning of the envious priests.
The sixteenth century opened. The Reformation came, and the chief reformers of France and Germany entered into a friendly correspondence with the barbes and churches of Piedmont. They admitted the purity of their faith, the antiquity of their rites. But the rise of the Reformation served only to deepen the rage of the papists against the children of the valleys. The darkest days of the Vaudois drew near, when their enemies could for a moment boast that the last refuge of Italian heresy had fallen before their arms.—Historical Studies.
Faithfulness in Present Labor
To FAIL, through weariness and discontent, in the narrow and despised field of present labor, is a prophecy of disastrous failure if ever the opportunity comes to enter that larger, longed-for field, which haunts the imagination of every incompetent worker. How can the strength and the ability which have shown themselves unequal to the lesser task, prove equal to the larger? The words of Holy Writ spoken centuries ago by one who was tried and who was not found lacking, bear an impressive warning for every weak seeker after a larger career: "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?"—S. S. Times.
Christianity in Small Deeds
Gold is gold, whether there be a wedge of it, or only a grain; and water is water, whether it be the mighty ocean, or an atom of vapor condensed upon a glass. There is no word or deed of life so small that it may not be filled with the spirit of Christ, and be Christian, just as truly as the crowned life of Paul. When the high heavens can be mirrored in a drop of dew, why may not the smallest deed of life mirror the whole spirit of Christianity?—Sel.
Heart Answering to Heart
"As IN water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." Prov. 27:19.
For Mercy's Sake.
IN a magazine which I took up to-night, for a little rest and refreshment, are three articles concerning women's work. Two, with great minuteness and nicety, give directions about housekeeping. The other is a delightful account of a neighborhood reading circle, and of the books read and the essays written. Next month there will be an article about elaborate and careful sewing, with lamentations because the machine has done away with the beautiful one thread and two thread stitching of old time.
But in all such articles where are the directions for the care of the children? Where would come the time for the thoughtfulness which notices that four-year-old Mary has got up ready to cry at every word, and lightly eases her burdens for that day; that mediates between heedless Tommy and careful Jennie in the matter of school-bags and rubbers, which Jennie had got ready for school and which Tommy has scattered in his wild search for his own missing geography; which pauses in the breathless hurry of Monday morning to hear nervous Nellie's spelling lesson that she may not wear out her anxious little soul before recitation, with fears lest she shall "miss"? There is danger that there shall not be room enough in our living for the children and their inevitable care and hindering. No, mothers, give yourselves and your children a fair chance. Take dainty care of them, souls as well as bodies; then do not feel "as if you should sink into the ground" if your neighbor finds that you do not dust your whole house over every day. Never work so hard that you cannot find the strength of their mental and moral requirements; never be so eager after the unattainable perfection in housekeeping that their precious things and their most precious selves are tucked away into back rooms, out of the light and warmth of the daily family living.
Not long ago I was passing some days with an old school friend. One small kitchen-girl and her own hands did the housework for a family of four children, one of them a restless baby of two. It had been a hard day for her. Up at half past six to "see about the breakfast," which meant to dress and feed the hungry baby, to build a fire in the dining-room, for it was a chilly fall morning, besides making johnny-cake and coffee, and practically cooking the rest of the breakfast. Then came the whirlwind of getting the older children off to school; a lunch put up for one who had only one session; the mending of a rent in No. 2's dress, caught on a door-knob as she hurried through; the sending of orders by No. 3, who passed by the market, while all the time the half-sick baby fretted and cried for something which nobody but mamma could do. After that the busy morning, two or three rooms swept and dusted, gingerbread made, a little fruit "put up," baby washed and fed and put to bed for his morning nap. There was not one moment's cessation till the hungry children came home for their dinner. The careless servant had forgotten the fire and the baked potatoes were not quite done—a delay which made the writing of "excuses" necessary for fear of possible tardiness; then the dinner for the baby, and lastly dinner for the oldest. In the afternoon the mother tried to lessen the great pile in the mending basket, but the baby tangled her spools and hid her scissors, dropped her button-box and cried to be taken up. A call or two filled up the spaces. After tea, and the children sent to bed, she gave an involuntary sigh of relief and reached out her hand toward the last magazine. She had been one of the best scholars in our class, and loved books as she loved her daily bread.
Presently the youngest girl, a reticent, quiet child, came shyly back and said, "I want to have a talk with you to-night, mamma;" and, "So do I," burst out the impetuous older one. The mother hesitated, and a shade of impatience passed over her face. Then she answered, brightly, "All right, I will come up as soon as you get undressed." It was half-past eight when she returned. There were stitches to be taken for the husband, who started on a short journey in the morning, and the only leisure of the day was gone forever.
She told me with a little tremble in her voice what the whispered confidences had been,—confessions of small deeds which the tender consciences were not quite sure about, questions about the right and wrong of school-room and play-ground ethics. "Why wasn't it right to copy from the next girl at the blackboard?" And the reticent Belle had said with a kiss and a hug, "Mamma, I don't think Edith has talks with her mother as we do, for when she told me a bad story to-day, I asked her what her mother would say when she told her, and she opened her eyes wide and said, 'Why, you don't suppose I tell my mother everything, do you?'"
Busy mothers, take courage and be happy; you may not be able to compass dainty housekeeping, elaborate cooking, and beautiful dress-making with such time and strength and help as you can command, but don't you dare to neglect or push aside these little children. Let all the rest go without a sigh, but keep fast hold of their love and confidence; watch the unfolding of their minds more earnestly than you do the baking of your cake; be more careful of the newly awakened conscience than you are of your new parlor curtains; take more time to think over the problems of each child's inherited temperament than you do the best way to make pickles. These things perish with the using, but souls look out of the blue, and black, and gray eyes. Whether they are to make the most of their faculties, their temperaments, and their education, depends very much on how you understand them, and how you help them.—Mary Blake, in Congregationalist.
HOW ARE you growing, boys, straight or crooked? Now is the time, while you are young, to lay the foundation for an upright, erect manhood. Honesty, truthfulness, industry, and obedience are the four brightest stones in the formation of your character; build on these, boys, and you are sure to grow straight; while, on the other hand, a character without these attributes is sure to be an evil one.
You are boys now, but soon you will be men. Do you mean to grow into good or evil men? Do you mean to be idle, disobedient, and untruthful, or do you mean to act nobly, work bravely, and make for yourselves a name which all who know will honor and respect? Now is the time for you to decide.—Christian at Work.
The Home Circle.
A PLAIN MAN'S PHILOSOPHY.
"A GLOOMY WORLD," says neighbor Black,
"Where clouds of dreary dun,
In masses rolled, the sky enfold,
And blot the noonday sun!"
"Ay, so it is," says neighbor White,
"But haply you and I
Might shed a ray to cheer the way—
Come, neighbor, let us try."
"A vale of tears," says neighbor Black,
A vale of weary breath,
Of soul-wrung sighs and hopeless eyes,
From birth to early death!"
"Ay, so it is," says neighbor White,
"But haply you and I,
Just there and here, might dry a tear—
Come, neighbor, let us try."
"A wilderness," says neighbor Black,
"A desert, waste and wide,
Where rank weeds choke, and ravens croak,
And noisome reptiles hide!"
"Ay, so it is," says neighbor White,
"But haply you and I
Might clear the ground our homes around,
Come, neighbor, let us try." —Sel.
Bless His Dear Heart.
In a very elegant palace car entered a weary-faced, poorly-dressed woman, with three little children—one a baby in her arms. A look of joy crept into her face as she sat down in one of the luxurious chairs, but it was quickly dispelled as she was asked rudely to "start her boots." A smile of amusement was seen on several faces as the frightened group hurried out to one of the common cars. Upon one young face, however, there was a look which shamed the countenance of the others.
"Auntie," said the boy to the lady beside him, "I am going to carry my basket of fruit and this box of sandwiches to the poor woman in the next car. You are willing, of course!"
"Don't be foolish, dear; you may need them yourself, and the woman may be an impostor."
"No, I'll not need them," he answered, decidedly; but in a very low tone. "You know I had a hearty breakfast and don't need a lunch. The woman looked hungry, auntie, and so tired, too, with three little babies clinging to her. I'll be back in a minute, auntie; I know mother wouldn't like it if I didn't speak a kind word to the least of these when I met them."
The worldly auntie brushed a tear from her eye after the boy left her, and said audibly:—
"Just like his dear mother."
About five minutes later, as the lady passed the mother and three children, she saw a pretty sight,—the family feasting as perhaps they never had done before; the dainty sandwiches were eagerly eaten, the fruit basket stood open. The eldest child, with her mouth filled with bread and butter, said:—
"Was the pretty boy an angel, mamma?"
"No," answered the mother, and a grateful look brightened her faded eyes, "but he is doing an angel's work, bless his dear heart!"
And we, too, said, "Bless his dear heart!"—Peoria Call.
It's Very Hard.
"It's very hard to have nothing to eat but porridge, when others have every sort of dainty!" murmured Dick, as he sat with his wooden bowl before him. "It's very hard to have to trudge along through the snow, while others roll about in their coaches!"
"It's a great blessing," said his grandmother, as she sat at her knitting, "to have food when so many are hungry; it's a great blessing to have a roof over one's head when so many are homeless; it's a great blessing to have sight and hearing and strength for daily labor, when so many are blind, deaf, or suffering!"
"Why, grandmother, you seem to think that nothing is hard," said the boy, still in a grumbling tone.
"No, Dick, there is one thing that I do think very hard."
"What's that?" cried Dick, who thought that at last his grandmother had found some cause for complaint.
"Why, boy, I think that heart is very hard that is not thankful for so many blessings."—Sel.
A WORD TO MOTHERS.
In the evening, when your children have prayed for pardon and peace, endeavor to infuse the spirit of that beautiful expression of the psalmist, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep; for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety." At no time is the influence of a mother more valuable than when her children are retiring to rest.—Jewels for the Household.
The Secret of Education
"HE that has found a way," says Locke, "to keep a child's spirit easy, active, and free, and yet at the same time to restrain him from many things he has a mind to, and to draw him to things that are uneasy to him—he, I say, who knows how to reconcile these seeming contradictions, has, in my opinion, got the true secret of education."
Health and Temperance.
By Helen Campbell
Food and Intemperance.
WHILE it is certain that a fair proportion of meat is likely to insure better health and strength than is likely to be the case where it is rejected entirely, it is equally certain, from the researches of modern science, that its office is more that of stimulant than of absolute nourishment. Precocious development in many ways is the direct result of any surplus; and in arranging the system of food for children, this is a point always to be considered and guarded. No meat whatever up to six or seven years old is a wise rule, the coming of the second teeth being the safest indication to follow; and after this not more than once a day, and in very small quantities. The first effect of meat on any stomach is a stimulating one; of a large amount, a greatly increased secretion of gastric juice, and a resultant sense of dryness in the stomach, which calls at once for drink. Water seldom satisfies. Strong tea or coffee may meet the need for a time; but, as a fact, profuse eating of meat seems to give birth to, and include the necessity for, some form of alcoholic drink. The meat eater in a high civilization craves and takes wine—almost a necessity in the elaborate dinners of many courses—in a lower one, whisky or gin takes its place.
Dr. T. D. Crothers, a scientific observer of causes and results, now secretary of the Woman's National Hospital, at Hartford, Conn., writes:—
"The question of physical aids to resolution is comparatively new, but I send you a few practical points. Foods should always be largely of grains and fruits, wheat in all forms, corn, rice, barley, beans, and oatmeal; soups of meats, vegetables, and grains, without condiments, except salt; cook as well as possible, beans and oatmeal are the most nourishing of foods."
Air must also come under the head of food, the lungs becoming diseased and digestion impossible where it is impure; and Dr. Crothers' testimony here is in the line of that from many other workers in inebriate homes:—
"A window open at night is absolutely essential. If a man gets up in the morning with his lungs choked and his stomach fevered by breathing over and over the same air all night, he will feel that a drink of liquor is the only thing that could possibly freshen him up."
Macaroni, beans, peas, and lentils, have proved especially valuable, and should be cooked in the most savory manner, using plenty of sweet oil or butter, as preferred. "The various garden vegetables are helpful, but a diet mainly composed of them would not resist alcoholic drinking so effectually as one of macaroni and farinaceous food. Highly glutinous bread is of great use from this point of view. It should never be sour, for sour bread has the tendency to encourage alcoholic drinking. Bread that is imperfectly fermented and liable to become sour is in very common use, and, in my opinion, greatly contributes to foster intemperance, as also the use of meat of the second or third quality. The use of salted food tends to promote intemperance, while regular hearty meals of fresh, wholesome, glutinous food tend to discourage it."
At a later point he writes: "If we inquire the cause of a vegetarian being disinclined to alcoholic liquors, we find that the carbonaceous starch contained in the macaroni, beans, or oleaginous aliment appears to render unnecessary, and consequently repulsive, carbon in an alcoholic form. Liebig says that 'alcohol and fat or oil mutually impede the secretion of each other through the skin and lungs.'"
Much the same ground is taken by Dr. Edward C. Mann, in an address before the American Association for the Care of Inebriates; and the general testimony from all who have had opportunity for large observation and experiment confirms these theories in full.
It must be remembered that every reformed man, or every man attempting reform, is shattered physically. Alcoholism is a disease in itself, and means, in nine cases out of ten, some disease also, in one organ or another, requiring medical treatment. And with this must come at once a change of habits as to food. How to accomplish this when the wife is as ignorant as the husband, who can tell? The first work of every temperance reformer should be to preach this necessity, and to preach it with such intense earnestness and conviction as to pierce the crust of stupidity, ignorance, and torpor incasing them all. Many can never be convinced, and here, as everywhere, any reform must begin with the children. Give them an industrial training. Let them learn how to make savory and relishable dishes from cheap material. Teach them cleanliness and order. Teach them the laws of life. Make them understand their own bodies, their uses, their sacredness. Nothing but knowledge can be any safeguard, and till that knowledge is insured to every child of the republic we cannot hold ourselves guiltless if they grow to criminal lives and dishonored deaths.—Helen Campbell, in Christian Union.
Poisonous Wall Papers.
THE question of the poisonous effects produced by the use of arsenic in wall paper has frequently come before the public of late. During the past week investigation by the Health Board has proved that arsenic is used in the manufacture of wall paper in large enough quantities to produce disease.
The Medical Record of recent date, commenting on the use of arsenic, says: "From inquiry we have made there can be no doubt that, with one exception, all grades of colored wall papers manufactured in the United States contain more or less arsenic. This practice of introducing a poisonous substance into a covering for walls is the more reprehensible from the fact of its being totally unnecessary. One firm in London, England, and one in New York produces wall papers having the most varied and brilliant coloring, which have not even a trace of arsenic in their composition, and there appears to be no reason for other manufacturers using poisonous colors, except that by doing so they make a higher profit.
"Arsenical colors are strong, and about one-half the price of non-arsenical colors, and herein lies the secret of their persistent use by wall-paper manufacturers; and it appears to us that the action of the Legislature is called for to put a stop to the practice. The public appears to be under the impression that arsenical poisoning from wall papers is due to portions of arsenic in powder being dusted off the walls. Such is not the case; the chief danger lies in the fact that in damp weather the arsenic undergoes decomposition, and forms, in combination with other substances present, arseniuretted hydrogen, which diffuses in the room, and, being a deadly poison, causes sickness to the inmates. This form of arsenical poisoning is more to be dreaded than that from the particles removed by attrition; the latter, however, is also a source of danger to health."
Chemistry affords a ready test as to the presence of arsenic. Place the suspected green material in a solution of ammonia (aqua ammoniæ). The chemical substance that produces the green tint is arsenite of copper, and the liquid will acquire a blue tint from the disengagement of the oxide of copper from its combination with the arsenic. If further test be desired, a few drops of the colored ammoniacal solution poured upon crystals of nitrate of silver will leave on the crystals a deposit of yellow arsenite of silver.—Sel.
A Praying Mother.
AS WE pass the story of Ruth, we come to a still more beautiful picture among the mothers in Israel. Among the Bible mothers there is none more eminent than the praying mother Hannah. She was the wife of Elkanah, a Levite, who brought up his family, amid a corrupt generation, to worship the Lord. "There are various intimations that, in the worst times, not a few families were to be found religious and well regulated, and which followed with exactitude all the requirements of the law." This happy state of Elkanah's household was doubtless due to the prayerful life of Hannah, who, in great wrongs and sorrows, or in love and joy, equally well knew the great blessing of going to the Lord in prayer. What a blessing to her husband and child was that praying mother? Prayer gave Israel a prophet, "who, having been the child signally granted in answer to her many prayers, was by her consecrated from the womb a Nazarite to Jehovah." Perhaps children were not given to Hannah, at first, so that her faith might be quickened in asking for a son.
Rich and happy in the possession of the gift for which she had asked, Hannah went not up before the Lord at Shiloh, until she could bring him the child again, that he might abide before him forever. As in the child of Elizabeth and the child Jesus, so the happy father and mother beheld every grace in the boy so early consecrated to God. Their faith was great. What an influence the faith of the parents had on the house of the Lord, when at last came the joyful day. The Lord, who had come down so often to meet Moses in the tabernacle, now came down to meet the little child. The hallowed associations and touching simplicity of the scene make us linger. "And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli," and while they showed the sacrifice of Christ, who was once offered to bear the sins of many, little Samuel was taken before the high priest, who himself was a type of Christ, our great High Priest.
The mother stood at that very spot where she had stood in deep sorrow praying for a son, and now, with overflowing heart, presented that son to the Lord. Eli and the Levites listened to the tender and beautiful consecrating words with tearful eyes and joyful hearts, and they blessed her son, taking him up in their arms. How gladly they looked at the little Samuel while he worshiped the Lord there, as his mother had taught him? The other children who came to the feast had a beautiful example. And Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord!" With songs of thankfulness she returned to her home. What self-denial is shown by that father and mother in parting with a loved child of such tender years! How willingly the Lord accepted their child! He did not want them to wait till he was older in years and sin. The Lord said, as he said many years afterward, "Suffer little children to come unto me." It would have pleased him to have had all the little children of Israel thus lent to him.—Advocate.
Learning
LEARNING without grace but beclouds the intellect. Few men knew more of the truth in letters than the Jewish rabbis, and yet few so bitterly hated the Son of God. Learning, to be a blessing to its possessor and the world, must be consecrated by grace to the service of God and the good of humanity.—Sel.
Godly and Worldly Wives
The difference between a godly wife and a worldly one is this: the former is a real gem, shining in the dark evening of adversity; but the latter is a mere paste, glittering only in the morning of prosperity.—Sel.
God’s Work Through Weak Instruments
By Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné
God, who prepares his work through ages, accomplishes it by the weakest instruments when his time is come.—D'Aubigne.
SECULAR.
—Michigan has 6,000 Indians.
—Kansas is $16,000,000 in debt.
—The U. S. Senate adjourned, sine die, April 2.
—Oregon is receiving more immigration than for the past two years.
—Philadelphians claim their city exceeds 1,000,000 in population.
—The Russian Government has just bought two vessels from an American firm.
—The receipts of the New Orleans Exhibition now reach about $6,000 per day.
—A number of British war vessels have been ordered to prepare for commission.
—The annual cost of maintaining the reading-room of the British Museum is $125,000.
—A report from London says that Russian troops are being massed at Urush Tashan, near Pendejah.
—The Act for Constitutional Prohibition has passed both houses of the Rhode Island Legislature.
—A test well at East Aurora, N. Y., at the depth of 1,350 feet, struck a solid bed of salt 78 feet thick.
—There are 5,000,000 colonies of bees in the United States, which annually yield 120,000,000 pounds of honey.
—The Alabama Legislature has enacted a law fining a man $100 if he gets drunk outside of his own house.
—General Barrios, the would be dictator of Central America, is reported dead, which as yet appears doubtful.
—The severest earthquake shocks known in California for some years, were felt Monday night, March 30, in various parts of the State.
—A party of sixteen persons will start in about a month on an exploring expedition to Alaska. They expect to be absent about two years.
—Twenty-three citizens of Wichita Falls, Tex. have been arrested on a charge of murder. They are said to belong to a league of assassins.
—Fire destroyed Schumacher & Ettlinger's lithographic art establishment, in Bleecker Street, New York, March 29. Total loss, $350,000.
—The Constantinople Government has issued orders to its officials to prosecute all magicians, denouncing them as common cheats and rogues.
—A perfect skeleton, to which was attached a ball and chain, was lately unearthed twenty-five feet below the surface of the earth near Savannah.
—A rival prophet named El Makki has arisen in the Soudan, which greatly alarms the followers of El Mahdi. His adherents are constantly increasing.
—The rebellion in Manitoba still continues. A battle was lately fought near Crozier, in which forty of the rebels were killed and as many more wounded.
—The British steamer Orestes, from Liverpool for Penang, came in collision with and sunk a Chinese steamer on March 30, and seventy persons were drowned.
—The American steamer Colon was seized March 30, at Aspinwall, by the revolutionists. The city, a place of 2,500 inhabitants, has since been burned by the insurgents.
—Parisians ate 13,000 donkeys, mules, and horses last year. The Academie de Medecine has awarded a prize to an essayist who strongly recommends a more general use of such diet.
—The sheriff of Cameron County, Louisiana, reports that there is no place in his county where intoxicating liquor is sold. As a result the county jail has been utilized as a corn-crib.
—The constitutional amendment providing for the submission to the people of Texas the question of prohibition, passed the house of representatives Monday, without discussion, by a vote of 72 to 16.
—Late advices from Tonquin state that the French have been badly beaten in their recent battles with the Chinese. The French commander entreats the War Office to send him re-enforcements immediately.
—Inhabitants on the banks of the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers are now living in fear of damage by freshet, as the warm weather advances. A great break-up is expected soon. Some are moving to higher points.
—A machine is in use at Melbourne, Australia, for sheering sheep by steam. It operates in the same manner as the ordinary shears, but cuts much quicker and cleaner, without the least danger of injuring the fleece or the sheep.239
—The past winter has been one of destructive severity to feathered game in Illinois. Many prairie chickens have been frozen to death, and quails have been almost exterminated.
—The officers of the Manville, R. I., cotton mill, which employs 1,500 hands, have voluntarily advanced the pay of the employes five per cent., believing that the financial outlook will warrant it.
—The president appointed the following ministers last week: Thomas J. Jarvis, of North Carolina, to Brazil; Alexander Lawton, of Georgia, to Russia; Anthony M. Kelly, of Virginia, to Italy; Richard B. Hubbard, of Texas, to Japan.
—Kuhlow's German Trade Review reports that a firm of extensive iron workers in Essen, Prussia, are making gas out of water and that they are using this water gas in their works both for welding and for lights. What is coming next?
—A counterfeit twenty-dollar gold piece of the date of 1880 has made its appearance. It looks all right, and has a metallic ring, but may be readily detected by its light weight. It is the first counterfeit of the double eagle ever reported.
—A wretch committed an outrage in Merced, this State, was arrested, tried, received a thirty years' sentence in San Quentin Prison, and was safely lodged in that institution all within one week. The wheels of justice in that section have evidently been oiled recently.
—One of the industries of San Francisco is a match manufactory. With the improved machinery now in use a log of cedar can be taken to the factory, and in thirty minutes be sawed, split, glued, dipped in the sulphurous mixture, and boxed and labeled ready for shipment.
—Rowan County, Kentucky, is experiencing a reign of lawlessness. A political quarrel last year over the election of sheriff has grown into a bitter feud, until one side or the other has been espoused by nearly every citizen of the county. Several tragedies have already taken place.
—A literal fashion of “picking up a language” has been adopted by a recent traveler in Central Africa. He carries a phonograph with him, and makes a point of persuading the native chiefs to talk into the instrument. Thus he gets a lasting record of the tribal dialects, which he can bring back and submit to European philologists.
—The Retailer, a whisky organ, publishes a petition to Congress, in which it states that these petitioners are suffering greatly from the enforcement of the State laws which make it “unlawful for citizens to sell certain articles of diet on the seventh day of the week,” &c. It appears that these fellows have their theology about as badly mixed, as they have their whisky.