"THEOLOGY hath nothing new in it, except that which is false. The preaching of Paul must be the preaching of the minister to-day. There is no advancement here. We may advance in our knowledge of God's revealed truth, but it stands the same. For this good reason—that it is perfect, and perfection cannot be any better."
Living for What You Pray For
By Austin Phelps
ARE you living for the things you are praying for? What one thing are you doing for Christ which costs you self-denial? Are you seeking for opportunities to deny yourself, to save souls? Are you willing to be like Him who had not where to lay his head? Can ye be baptized with the baptism that He is baptized with?—Prof. Austin Phelps.
SELFISHNESS
I HAPPENED to be coming through Bangor a few weeks ago on the last day of an agricultural fair. The cars were crowded with all sorts of country folks who had come into the city for their annual recreation and sightseeing. A grand chance to study human nature at its best and at its worst! Such a scramble for seats as the train backed into the station to be filled! Everybody wanted the best seat. Great burly men with the strength of their shameless manhood ruthlessly crowded from the platform delicate women with babes in their arms. One man rushed in and preempted two double seats, turning over the back of one and fencing off his claim with an umbrella, which he held stoutly across the entrance. One woman took defiant possession of two seats with bag and baggage, and successfully held the spare one by telling all applicants that it was engaged.
And then what solid comfort they all seemed to take in seeing the great crowd of late comers anxiously scurrying through the aisles in a vain search for a resting place! How glad these fortunate ones were in their plush comfort that they had denied themselves a last look at the fine horses on the fair grounds, and by that act of self-denial had succeeded in getting into the train ahead of their neighbors! And yet the majority of these people were good respectable people of the good State of Maine. Many of them would doubtless suffer much to bless a brother man in need. Many of them were Christians, I presume. They were simply yielding to those selfish impulses which are the surest indications that the world is as yet far from the standard of Him who pleased not Himself.
ROME AND THE PAPACY.
By Editor
THE following, which we clip from the Patriotic American, no doubt presents the situation in Italy about as it is:—
ROME, September 28.—The presence in Rome of Monsignor Ferrata and the happy auguries of the republican policy of the pope in France, have raised anew the question of a republican government in Italy, from the point of view of Catholic interests, and the position of the pope.
Since 1870 a little group of Catholics have turned with some degree of hope toward a republican régime. Old prejudices have been arrested, and the torrent of aspiration tended less to monarchism. But since the pope has raised the banner of republican democracy, the change has rallied all sympathies in that direction, has caused a fruitful alteration in the feelings of Catholics in France, and has notably modified Catholic opinion in Italy. The idea of a republic grows among the masses. Several prominent conservative journals have pronounced clearly for this change. In Rome itself several well-known journals make no secret of their marked preference for the American system. In ecclesiastispheres people look without fear upon the possible advent of a democratic republic.
This change in sentiment has produced a sensation and a sensible disquietude at the Quirinal and also in the great European courts. Their views on the matter have been communicated to the Vatican and their demands for a modification of policy supported by influential personages, but their interested representations have rather accelerated than modified the movement.
The alteration of sentiment in Italy is due to various causes. First, there are certain groups alarmed at the tendency of the king to sacrifice the country to the interests of the dynasty by doubtful alliances. Italian royalty has become synonymous with a ruinous, or at least an infertile, institution. Further, Catholics consider that the monarchy has contracted exorbitant engagements in order to prevent the loyal and pacific solution of the Roman question. Add to this the general movement which is felt throughout Europe, the spread of the American idea over the old continent, the persuasion becoming more universal that the republican form of government constitutes the best under which a strong nation can be mistress of itself.
Finally, there is the initiative of the pope in France. The Vatican nowhere discourages republican aspirations, seeing that the advent of a federal republic on the American type would give a place to Rome as a free city, the patrimony of Christianity and of the holy see. It is for these reasons that personages in high places hostile to the Vatican are now much preoccupied with the dangers menacing them. The Quirinal accuses the Vatican at the courts of Europe with lending a hand to the movement which aims at the triumph of republicanism in Europe.
But the Vatican stands firm, declaring that the religious interests in France are in unison with those of the democracy, and that as to Italy, the pope has no reason to consolidate the monarchy, which openly works to diminish the influence of the Papacy in Italy and throughout the world.
The Italian Government is especially concerned over what may happen when the Catholic groups will declare for the Republicans at the elections. In view of this combination the Austrian and German Governments recommend that the Quirinal should show less hostility to the pope, and so try to counteract the movement. This policy may be adopted for a time, but it is believed that when the general election takes place, the ministry will resume a policy of combat, in order to try to make the pope withdraw from his position.
The pope will not allow himself to be intimidated. If the Italian Government pushes matters to extremity, the Vatican can have recourse to extraordinary measures, such as have been discussed and prepared for since June, 1889. The situation thus tends to an important historic solution, despite the efforts of Vienna and Berlin to moderate the action of the Quirinal and pacify the ecclesiastic party in Rome.
SPARE THE ROD.
By Laura Brownell Collier
SHALL we punish our little ones? and, if so how? is the question that taxes the brain and wrings the heart of many a fond mother. One would think she feared she might be called upon to play the part of a Jameson, compelled to act as Stanley's slave driver, while longing to sketch the savage and catch butterflies. It is so much pleasanter, if Karl or Katherine has been guilty of naughtiness, to gather the plump little sinner close into one's arms and invent some telling story of the "naughty spirit" that is in each of us, warring against the good we would do. The small man or woman is comforted, while unconsciously stimulated to resist temptation. But, spite of all the kindergarten talk of love and sunshine, a need is sometimes felt of sterner force—a real deterrent power.
In this last decade of the nineteenth century we have grown so much wiser than our mothers and grandmothers, poor dames! that most of their approved methods fill us with pity and amazement; none more so than those they followed in disciplining their children. But even Herbert Spencer, who has done more than any other one man of our time wisely to modify the training of children, does not limit parents to the application of natural penalties. He distinctly says that in the earlier years it is often necessary to supplement such penalties by severer arbitrary ones.
All punishment seems to the unthinking, cruel; but it may veil the deepest tenderness. Not long ago a little blue-eyed maiden, dear to me as my own life, was seen with a pin in her mouth. It had been expressly forbidden. From babyhood, pins, pennies, and buttons had been occasionally allowed as playthings,186partly with an idea of training her not to subject all things to the sense of taste. But now, as she was nearing her fourth birthday, and becoming an adept in the business of dolls' dressmaker, she fell before a seamstress' temptation to make a pin dish of her mouth. As I told her the great danger that might follow the swallowing of a pin, and the grief it would be to all of us to have her suffer, she was gravely attentive, and submitted without a murmur to have all the paraphernalia of her trade taken away from her for the day.
After sitting in a high chair in silent meditation for a while, she solemnly announced, "I sink I can 'member," and was allowed to betake herself to other play, while I complacently reflected how seldom severe measures were necessary. To my dismay the very next afternoon, as the little woman stood by me completely absorbed in pinning and fitting these pathetic first attempts, a pin was put into the mouth ready for instant use. I could see how convenient it was, how unconscious the act. But a tragedy in the family of a friend had made me as afraid of a pin as of a pistol, and I had to break in upon the pleasant contriving and go over again the story of danger, asking her to think for me what would be the best way to help her. With quivering lips and gathering tears she decided that she must be punished, and that of all punishments a whipping was the worst, adding, "But I'm soor one tip would be enough to keep me 'membering." And it was. For weeks there has been the greatest care in laying down pins, and the habit seems formed. It would have been the reverse of kindness merely to cuddle and comfort the wee lassie after she had judged herself.
While the whipping of an elder child has in it an element of degradation that often arouses the worst passions and justifies the protests that have been raised against brutal flogging, is it not possible that in rare cases, with young children, the sudden sharp tingling of pain is the best help in deterring from dangerous experiments? May not the reaction from faith in Solomon's warning o'erleap its bounds?—Laura Brownell Collier, in Christian Union.
Repentance and Reformation in the Churches
THERE is no possibility of reform until the churches are willing that their sins shall be unsparingly exposed, condemned, repented of, and renounced. Such repentance and reformation have never yet been known in the history of the church. Reforms have always been effected by withdrawal from the old organizations and forming new ones.—Church Militant.
Comforting the Weary Soul
By Jeremy Taylor
CERTAIN it is that as nothing can better do it, so there is nothing greater for which God made our tongues, next to reciting his praises, than to minister comfort to a weary soul.
The Happiness of Memory
By Sydney Smith
MANKIND is always happier for having been happy; if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.—Sydney Smith.
The Home Circle.
"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."—Phil. 4:8.
NOBODY'S DARLING.
Out in the heat, or pitiless cold,
And far away from the Shepherd's fold,
Nobody's darlings stray;
The whole long day in the lonely street,
With shivering forms and naked feet,
They tramp their weary way.
No clean, soft bed when the nightfall comes;
Only "the stairs" in the wretched slums,
Or "doorstep" bleak and drear,
For homeless, wandering waifs to sleep,
Where nobody's darlings wake to weep,
No loving mother near.
The bright birds fly to their downy nest,
Or soar away o'er the ocean's crest
To seek a fairer land;
But nobody's darlings stand and wait
With pleading gaze through the opening gate,
Where dwell sweet mercy's band.
O blessed homes, where children find
A refuge safe, and a welcome kind,
And hearts of tender love;
Where nobody's darlings sleep at night,
In their snow-white cots so clean and bright,
Sheltered like weary dove!
Ye men of wealth, with a helping hand,
Come to the aid of the noble band
Who seek lost gems to win.
The children's angels are yearning o'er
Fair childhood blighted on life's black shore,
'Mid earth's dark scenes and din.
Nobody's darlings! gather them in;
Poor little outcasts of want and sin,
Bring them into the fold,
And tell them of God's bright home above,
Of its gates of pearl, its light, its love,
And streets of shining gold.
—Selected.
CHILDREN IN CHURCH.
I HAVE no use for a pastor that objects to babies coming to their Father's house on the Sabbath. The cry of a baby soon hushed, or the restlessness of a little one, never disturbs a congregation. But I do sometimes wish they would leave their mothers at home. From where I sit in church two or three wee people often come within the range of my vision. One mother sees that the little one is comfortably seated, and then gives her attention to the service, disregarding all attempts of the child to engage her in conversation. Left thus to his own resources he amuses himself quietly, and, as he is not obliged to sit perfectly still, he seems to find no difficulty in passing away the time satisfactorily, and no one's attention is distracted by him. A few things, however, I notice are understood. He never makes any noise in his movements, never turns around to survey the congregation behind him, never gets on the floor except when others are standing.
Another mother is so solicitous lest her child should make a motion and disturb someone that she renders herself and the baby and everyone around uncomfortable. She whispers to it to "be still," says "sh-sh," is continually putting it back into proper position, and ends up by making it so nervous that she has to take it from the house.
There is still another mother, who, after putting her tiny daughter on the seat, adjusts the little bonnet, arranges her hair, smooths down the miniature cloak, whispers to her, then sits and looks at her for two or three minutes, and at last, as if suddenly conscious that there is something else going on, gives a moment's attention to the minister, then begins and goes through the performance again, repeating it every five minutes during the service. I wish that baby would leave her mother at home.—The Advance.
TOBACCO.
ILLS FOR WHICH THE WEED IS RESPONSIBLE.
Tobacco leaves contain principles common to all vegetable substances, such as starch, sugar, organic acids, salts, etc., and a peculiar alkaloid to which the plant owes its special qualities, called nicotine. Among the volatile principles that pass into the smoke along with nicotine are hydrocyanic acid and carbonic oxide. Of these a notable amount is absorbed by rapid smokers swallowing this smoke, the gas passing into the circulation. These facts go far to explain the accidents that sometimes occur after hours passed in a medium saturated with tobacco, and even187without smoking, and also explain the phenomena of intoxication produced by eating food left for a long time in a similarly vitiated air.
The decoction of tobacco destroys life in a time short in proportion to the strength of the dose. Tobacco may also poison through the lungs and through the skin. Smoking, which has had many imaginary ills laid to its door, is really responsible for attacks of suffocation, like angina pectoris, for nicotine amblyopia, for glandular pharyngitis, for a special form of asthma, and for epithelioma in the predisposed. Nearly all excessive smokers are dyspeptics. Smoking is bad for everybody, especially for women and children.—New York Medical Record.
THE BRAKEMAN'S CHRISTMAS STORY.
"Funny things occurred down at our house Christmas," said the brakeman. "I'm away almost every night in the year, but Christmas night I got a lay off and staid home with the wife and babies. Next door to us lives one of the stingiest old codgers that ever was. Wheeler is his name, and everybody calls him Stingy Wheeler. He is an old chap who has no children and no friends, and who is said to be worth a good deal of money. I've had a good deal of sickness in my house this winter, and times have been right hard with us. It was mighty little Christmas we had, I can tell you.
"Well, there's one thing we can say, Henry," said my wife to me, "and that is that our house is not hard to warm. It beats all the way coal does last us here. That half ton you got a month ago isn't nearly all gone yet."
"That's the way coal lasts when there's nobody to steal it, as we had where we lived last," I replied. "Now there's only one man in this neighborhood I'd suspect of stealing coal, and that's Stingy Wheeler. I wouldn't trust that old codger very far."
"Neither would I," said my wife.
"That night, after we had got in bed, my wife woke me, saying she was sure she heard someone in the coal house."
"I believe its old Wheeler," I said.
"So do I," my wife replied; "but be careful, Henry, and don't get into any trouble with the old skinflint," she added, as I hastily dressed myself.
"Softly I tiptoed out to the coal house, and sure enough there was a man there, hard at work with a shovel. It was stingy Wheeler, and he was throwing coal from his bin into mine."—Chicago Herald.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER.
By Mrs. M. V. Warren
FROM the earliest period of its existence through the whole course of life the mother wields an influence upon her child. Do not understand me to mean that the father has no influence; but I do believe that the mother has a far greater and more lasting one, at least in a great majority of cases. She it is who has the entire charge of the babies from morning until night; she it is who is always ready to listen to the childish prattle and the little troubles. It is the mother who kisses away the tears, who mends the broken toys. And, oh, how she should improve the golden opportunities thus given her to make impressions upon the tender child nature that will tell in all the after life of her dear ones!
The mother who has a heart full of sympathy, hands ever ready to assist the childish wants, a little time now and then to indulge in a game, is the mother who has a place in the hearts of her children that can never be supplanted by another.
Dear mothers, be a companion to your children, not a slave to them. Enter into their joys and sorrows with all the zest of motherhood. Keep their confidence; make them to know that you are their very best friend, to whom they can come at all times and under all circumstances. Study the nature and disposition of your child from the very beginning of its life; know yourself, and govern and be governed accordingly. Above all, take for your pattern the dear Saviour; study his life and imitate his character. Let the Christ life shine forth in your own life, and your holy example will be imparted to your children, and they will follow you as you follow Christ.—Mrs. M. V. Warren, in N. Y. Voice.
A TEMPERANCE STORY.
By Mrs. J. K. Barney
YEARS ago, needing new pledge cards, I took my Bible to find something that would be helpful to those who felt just as you do. Choosing a verse, I ordered my cards. On Saturday evening I was led to a gospel temperance meeting. The hall was upstairs and the windows open. The music came floating down to us on the street, and a hush seemed to have come upon everything around us, as the words, "Home, home, sweet home," rang out clear and distinct. Standing under the window, his face upturned, was a man with unmistakable signs, upon clothes, face, and form, of a drunkard.
I watched him, and as the melody ceased, his face went down into his hands and he groaned aloud. I put my hand on his arm and asked, "What is it, my friend?" He answered, "'Tis them words, ma'am, them words, 'Home, sweet home.' I had a home once, but I lost it, and everything else through drink."
I invited him to go to the meeting. He thanked me and said his clothes were not fit; but I finally conquered, by urging that it was a long flight of stairs and he could help me up. During the hour my thoughts went to him, and my words were for him. At the close I read over the pledge and asked him to sign it.
"O lady, I wish I could, but it's no use; I'd break it, right off, and I should not like to break your pledge."
"Listen," I replied; "here are some words just for you: 'I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.'"
"Where did you get that? Lady, would you mind reading it again?"
I opened my Bible to Isa. 41:13. He read and reread the verses, then said anxiously: "You see how my hand trembles, lady; do you suppose I could write my name if God held my hand?"
"Oh! yes, I am sure you could."
"Do you s'pose I'd ever take another glass of liquor if God held my hand?"
"Never, unless you took your hand out of the Lord's. He never lets go of anyone."
A new hope came into his eyes and a manliness to his face, as, straightening himself up, and holding out his right hand, he exclaimed: "I've tried a good many times alone; now, here goes for God and me, and we will see what we can do."
His name went down upon the pledge, and we knelt, asking God's help and strength. That was years ago, and he has kept his pledge. My friend, will you sign it to-day, and ask God to hold your right hand? May the Lord bless and keep you.—Mrs. J. K. Barney, in the Gospel Letter.
ROME AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS
By F. C. Kelley
[Written from Durazno, Uruguay, June, 1892, to the El Abogado Cristiano Ilustrado, Mexico. Translated from the Spanish by Brother F. C. Kelley.]
THE president of the Republic of Argentine in his last message to Congress referred in eloquent language to the shameful ignorance of the clergy of the State church (Roman Catholic), the parish priests, bishops, and religious orders, who, without number, fill the republic, and daily disgrace it by their perverse acts and intrigues against all law that does not meet their approval. Very seldom do you hear from the pulpit of the papist, in this or our neighbor republic, a purely scientific, historical, or literary discourse, that credits intelligence to its authors.
The national clergy of these countries appear only to know one book and part of another, i. e., “The Lives of the Saints” (by Butler), with an appendix of their wonderful miracles, and the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. The president, doubtless humiliated in spirit as a citizen and patriot, emphatically declared, in his present message, that it is necessary for the people of Argentine to have better educated ministers, who are better qualified to teach and consequently more worthy of being heard. It is now time that some voice should speak with authority respecting this important subject.
In Chile the political situation is one that promises no good to the nation. I could speak of a movement of the priests for the overthrow of President Mouatt. The following paragraph shows how trying must be the political situation to the hearts of all the true liberty and progress loving Chilians. The president of Chile will present at the opening of Congress a plan for a law to abolish the civil register. The Liberals, who control the actual government, are not strong enough to keep the power, and they have been obliged to yield to all the extreme demands of the *Conservatives. With intense feelings we realize188what is shown by the dark and threatening political horizon of this sister republic. We trust and hope that God will overthrow the wicked plans of these heartless men.
The Roman Catholic priest has been the curse of these South American republics, and is to-day their greatest reproach. It is strange that a people who have shown themselves so energetic and fearless against their strongest foes, should consent to enslave themselves to the feet of the church caste. They have wounded mortally all of their enemies save the principal one, the one who, first of all, ought to have been sacrificed on the altar of the sacred rights of a proud and free people. Happy will be the South American people on the day that they agree forever that no two words are more contradictory than priest and liberty; for where the priest rules and governs, liberty cannot rule and govern.
Throughout this beautiful republic you hear the voice of the Catholic priest speaking against the civil marriage. The priest opposes it because it affects his purse. Through the operation of this law he has lost many dollars. Before this there was no one to dispute him. It is not a question of principles, nor the finding of a reason; it is a subject of dollars and cents, and nothing more. Here is the cause of their tears and protests.
The Roman priest has a very poor memory, invariably forgetting that in these republics, at least, he is a public employe, a servant of the nation that supports and honors him. The nation pays him through respect to a constitutional article, but not to insult it at his pleasure, for the nation is more honorable than he. The Catholic priest ought to be the first to respect and honor the constitution of the country in which he lives, only to be supported by it. In these places, nevertheless, the priest is the first, cunning ingrate, to despise the Constitution of the republic that so generously allows him upon his soil. If Roman priests would speak against drunkenness and the games that yearly claim thousands of victims from among us, and of other vices a little less odious and detestable, against which the Catholic pulpits never boldly say a single word, as they do against the civil marriage, the Roman Church would not be the corrupt and useless body that it is at the present time in these countries.
The Papal Church does not educate the young. It seeks only to fill its churches with old men and women, the greater part of whom have passed the years of their youth in gross ignorance, and to whom the idea of a rational and a personal religious faith is the most foolish of all delusions.
Bishop Toro, of Cordoba, Argentine, recently made a journey to Rome with the object of obtaining from the pope certain privileges concerning the coronation of a miraculous image of the virgin that he found in the church of Santa Domingo. The bishop returned a few days since highly pleased with the success of his mission. How these crafty deceivers delude the minds of men with shameful and outrageous frauds, violating both the law of God and of reason! With what trifles do these pretended servants of the Highest bias the mind? When will men be undeceived and see these perfidious idolatries in the light of the truth of Christ? The people are superstitious, and, under the names of saints, worship a host of gods, and not the true God and his Christ. The inhabitants of these countries, with scarcely an exception, know nothing of the gospel that was preached by Christ and his apostles. The missionary of the cross is as necessary in this republic as in great China. This last declaration will appear, without doubt, strange to many, but it is not exaggerated; it is a most solemn truth.
WHAT IS MAN?
By Aaron Bachelor
MAN is not a mere piece of anatomical mechanism. He is what he is by force of his developmental privileges to the greatest degree, with only a few grand exceptions, where he has gloriously triumphed over his opportunities. The foundation for his success, both mentally and physically, is laid in infancy and childhood, and in the grand climax of his evolution from boyhood to manhood.
The immortal philosopher has wisely said, “A perfect man is the noblest work of God.” Food, air, and sleep are the three all important elements in infancy.
A wise providence in nature has come nobly to the rescue of thousands of helpless infants whom destiny had designed to fill a place in the great evolutionary system. Had this not been so, many an infant life would have been sacrificed from neglect or overdoing with the so-called “soothing sirups.” The wise mother must discard all patent stuffs if she would have her boy grow head and shoulders above others, as Saul of old, whom the prophet chose for his comeliness.
Man is a developed entity, by force of favorable surroundings. The simplicity by which the infant life is started into a healthy growth should be an index to the guide of developing manhood. The old adage, “Show to me a man’s company, and I will tell you his character,” applies equally to the matter of the food he is fed upon. Good, healthy, simple food is all that is required to make good tissue from which may evolve the brain of the statesman, the eye of an artist, or muscular capacity to champion the world. When the people learn the absolute necessity there is in providing good food, we shall have an honest supply, and every person engaged in the preparation of foods of the various kinds, will be jealous as well as zealous in placing on the market the very best.
Our bakeries will be pure and clean—not in damp, dark, musty cellars, as is the case now with more than nine-tenths that supply us with bread for our loved ones. It is a deplorable thing to know that the family supply must come from such sources; that the good old dough tray is banished from almost every household. Count the cost of a sack of flour, knead it into loaves of a given weight, then bake it a good, crisp brown. Mark the difference of your gain in money, then look at the ruddy faces and sparkling eyes of your children, and say if you do not think it pays for the trouble.
When we have learned the importance of pure food, we will have inspectors of our dairies; we will not only have good, clean milk, but will be assured that this life-giving liquid comes to us from healthy cows, which are properly fed and kept in clean places.
Our meat supply will also have to be inspected, not to allow the fatted ox to wade knee deep in its own excrement until every fiber of its tissue is saturated with the poison thus breathed. Our barnyard fowls will not be allowed to be scavengers, and then served up to us as after some French fashion which is objectionable to our sense of smell and repulsive to our taste. The simple things of life are the great things of life.
Undoubtedly, man is the noblest creation, and, realizing this to be true, we should demand laws for protection—laws to protect the youth of our land against all kinds of poisons in foods and drinks; for drink is food, though it come from the babbling brook, or is distilled from the rain cloud, or filtered through innumerable strata of rock and earth.
Let us take a stand for pure food of every kind, and we shall have pure thoughts and pure actions, and not live in fear of our fellow-men, though we walk in the darkest night. —Aaron Bachelor.
RESULTS OF PROHIBITION.
KANSAS, with prohibition and 100,000 more people than Texas, has but one penitentiary and 996 prisoners. Texas, with saloons and 100,000 less people than Kansas, has two penitentiaries and 3,000 convicts. The bank managers of Maine have just reported that, of the 661,000 people of that State, 146,666 have $59,278,452 deposited in the savings banks, so that prohibition cannot have ruined business. A glance at local option in operation in Illinois shows that the prohibition town of Pullman, with a population of 11,000, gets along admirably with a police force of but two constables in all. The Dakota Farmer says: “Notwithstanding the effort of the liquor dealers to the contrary, drunkenness has been almost wiped out; many a former moderate drinker has quit the habit, and, above all, a host of young men have started on a sober and industrious career, under three years’ influence of prohibition. The drink bill of the two Dakotas dropped off 70 per cent. the very first year, and has been growing materially less ever since, and no one has been made the poorer thereby but the saloon keepers, brewers, and distillers.”—Montreal Witness.
OATMEAL BAGS FOR THE BATH.
TAKE five pounds of oatmeal, ground fine, a half pound of pure castile soap reduced to powder, and a pound of powdered Italian orris root. Cut a yard of thin cheese cloth into bags four inches square, sewing them together on the machine and taking care not to leave any untied threads where a break may allow the contents to ooze out.
Mix the soap, oatmeal, and orris root thoroughly and fill the bags loosely. Sew up the opening in each and lay them away to use as required. They are used as a sponge, dipped in warm water, making a thick, velvety lather, and wonderfully softening the skin, while the orris imparts a lasting fragrance.
It will be remembered that all soap applications, even the purest, should be entirely rinsed from the skin. Hospital nurses are trained to wash patients first in soap and water, then in clear, very hot water to take off the soap. It is recognized that boiling water is one of the excellent mild disinfectants.—Selected.
The Dangers of Soothing Syrups
An Indian zenana missionary testifies that the brains of many of the children are so stupefied with the nightly dose of opium given when babies that it is almost impossible to teach them the simplest thing. And the same thing is done to far too great an extent in America by means of "soothing sirups."
Liquor Drinking and Social Status
The effect upon popular esteem of the results of liquor drinking is somewhat regulated by the social status of the localities in which it is indulged. Thus the Union Signal says: “Whisky causes ‘drunkenness’ in the Bowery, ‘alcoholism’ on Wall Street, and ‘heart failure’ on Fifth Avenue, N. Y.”
Mission Fields.
"Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days."—Eccl. 11:1.
SCATTER SEED.
In the furrows of thy life
Scatter seed.
Small may be thy spirit field,
But a goodly crop 'twill yield;
Sow the kindly word and deed—
Scatter seed.
Sun and shower aid thee now;
Scatter seed.
Who can tell where grain may grow?
Winds are blowing to and fro;
Doing good thy simple creed,
Scatter seed.
Up; the morning flies away;
Scatter seed.
Hand of thine must never tire,
Heart must keep its pure desire.
While thy brothers faint and bleed,
Scatter seed.
Though thy work should seem to fail,
Scatter seed.
Some may fall on stony ground;
Flower and blade are often found
In the clefts we little heed;
Scatter seed.
Springtime always dawns for thee;
Scatter seed.
Ope thy spirit's golden store,
Stretch thy furrows more and more,
God will give thee all thy need.
Scatter seed.
—Selected.
RELIGIONS OF HUNGARY.
THE recent religious statistics of Hungary contain some interesting data. Of the 17,000,000 inhabitants, 8,820,770 are adherents of the Roman Catholic Church; 2,632,303, of the Greek Oriental Church; 2,225,126, of the Reformed Churches; 1,667,980, of the United Greek; 1,204,030, of the Lutheran; 61,645, of the Unitarian; and 9,581, of other churches. The Jews number 725,222. Since 1850 the Roman Catholics have increased from 47.46 per cent. of the population to 50.84; the Greek Orientals have decreased from 17.88 to 15.17; the Reformed, from 13.53 to 12.83; the United Greeks, from 10.35 to 9.61; the Lutherans, from 7.64 to 6.94; while the Unitarians have increased from .35 to .36, and the Jews from 2.79 to 4.18. Of the total population, 7,500,000 are Magyars, 5,000,000 are Slavs, 2,500,000 are Roumanians, and 2,000,000 are Teutons. The Reformed and Unitarian Churches are made up almost entirely of Magyars; the Roman Catholics consist chiefly of Magyars, Germans, and Croatians, while the rest of the Slavs and the Roumanians belong to the Oriental Greek and the United Greek Churches. The Lutheran Churches consist largely of Magyars, while in Upper Hungary the Slovaks constitute a large element. There are few if any other lands under the sun in which there is a more polyglot Christianity than in Hungary.—The Independent.
ROMANISM HEATHENISM.
TRUE Romanism—salvation by works—is pure heathenism; Mariolatry—a distinctive feature of Romanism—is gross idolatry; when Romanism makes a man a "Christian," it leaves him a heathen, in a twofold sense: it causes him to become a "Christian" heathen, and willingly permits him to remain a heathen; as to the latter, the following description of the religious state of Haiti, taken from the Churchman, illustrates our meaning:—
"In that island of Haiti, after four hundred years of exclusive domination, that kind of missions to which 'his holiness' ascribes such a particular share of God's favor has left the population in heathenism to this day. A large portion of the islanders are not only heathen, but cannibals, in this year 1892. I saw the exiled President Gefrard, in Jamaica. 'I can scarcely believe, Mr. President,' said I, 'that cannibalism still exists in those mountains.' He answered me, 'Why, if it were not so, then I should not be here.' 'Cannibalism,' he continued, 'is powerful in Haiti. I publicly executed eighteen men on the Grand Place in Porto Prince because they were convicted of cannibalism; but the mountaineers arose and drove me to Jamaica.' The most enlightened man I met in Haiti, one who had for a long period been the minister of public worship, told me that even the baptized Haitians are largely heathen; that in the cathedral itself on Sunday and the feast days they still utter heathen prayers. They nominally conform to Roman rites, for they have a superstition which leads them to worship the devil; and while they imagine there is a white man's devil, they allow there is a black man's devil of the same character, but not to be served in the same way. They bring their children from the mountains for christening in the cathedral, because they suppose that pacifies the white man's devil. But then they offer human sacrifices to their own particular devil, and that saves them, as they suppose, from the special devil of their own creed. Poor souls! after four hundred years, during all which time Haiti has been almost exclusively under the charge of those to whom Leo thinks God gave the New World for the enlargement of the papal dominion, such is their condition!"
As we remarked above, a true heathen may be a good Catholic; for a good Catholic is a true heathen.—Lutheran Observer.