Earlier text: THE EDICT OF NANTESHerod Questions the Wise Men
“And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea; for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” The Wise Men Warned in a Dream
After the mission of the wise men had been accomplished, they were purposing to return, and bear the joyful news to Herod of the success of their journey. But God sent his angel in the night season to turn the course of the wise men. In a vision of the night they were plainly told not to return to Herod. They obeyed the heavenly vision. "And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt." THE TRUE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE.
1. WHEN the Philippians sent gifts to Paul to sustain him in the work of the gospel, what did he say about the acceptableness of their offering? "But I have all, and abound; I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God." Phil. 4:18. 2. How does God regard such offerings? Last part of the same verse. 3. What admonition is given with respect to such offerings? "But to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Heb. 13:16. 4. What is the meaning of the word communicate as used in this passage? — To share our means and blessings with others, and hence to help the needy. See Webster. 5. If such gifts are made from the heart, what will result to the giver? 6. Can ordinary sacrifices, however costly, atone for a lack of genuine kindness and Christian sympathy? "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 1 Cor. 13:3; Matt. 9:13. 7. What other sacrifices does God require? "And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing." Ps. 107:22. 8. What admonition does Paul give with respect to this kind of sacrifices? "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name." Heb. 13:15. 9. Which seems to stand first,—the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, or the sacrifice of means? Compare verses 15 and 16. 10. Could either be genuine without leading to the other? 11. What seems to be associated with the sacrifice of thanksgiving? — Prayer and the paying of vows. Ps. 116:17, 18. 12. What sacrifices seem to be particularly precious in the sight of God? "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Ps. 51:17. 13. Why is this called sacrifice? — Because it requires the giving up of one's own way, and to yield up the will is the hardest thing that anyone has to do. 14. What encouragement is given to those who are contrite and humble? "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isa. 57:15. 15. Will such Christians always be appreciated by their brethren? "For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord; but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." Isa. 66:2, 5. 16. Who promises to remember these humble ones that tremble at his word? Verse 2. 17. What does he say to the opposite class, who have no appreciation of this principle? "He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear; but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not." Verses 3, 4. 19. How was the opposite spirit illustrated by Mary? John 12:3. 21. What effect does this vindication of Mary and the accompanying reproof seem to have had upon Judas? Verses 10, 11. 22. What conclusion would we draw from this? — That the sacrifices of a heart subdued by grace, and broken by love, will constitute the costliest gift that anyone can bestow. The Wise Men Worship Jesus
After the wise men had left Jerusalem they again saw, to their great joy, the guiding star in the heavens, which directed them to the birthplace of our Saviour. "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." The wise men found no loyal guard to debar their entrance to the presence of Christ. The honorable of the world are not in attendance. In place of the people who should have welcomed with grateful homage the Prince of Life, he is surrounded with dumb beasts. Herod Opposes the Infant Savior
The glory of God attending the angelic host, had scarcely disappeared from the plains of Bethlehem when the malice of envious Herod was aroused in opposition to the infant Saviour. This king understood that Christ was to reign over a temporal kingdom, and he was utterly averse to the idea of a Jewish king. The chief priests and scribes had professed to understand the prophecies in reference to the appearing of Christ. They had repeated to the people the prophecies which relate to the second appearing of Christ in power and great glory, to put down all authority, and to rule over the whole earth. They had in a boastful, resentful manner, asserted that Christ was to be a temporal prince, and that every kingdom and nation was to bow in submission to his authority. The Jews’ Misinterpretation of Prophecy
THESE priests had not searched the prophecies with an eye single to the glory of God, or with a desire to conform their lives to the high standard marked out by the prophets. They searched the Scriptures to find ancient prophecies which they could in some way interpret to sustain their lofty pride, and to show with what contempt God regarded all the nations of the world except the Jews. They declared that the power and authority they were then compelled to respect and obey, would soon come to an end; for Messiah would take the throne of David, and, by force of arms, restore the Jews to their liberty, and to their exalted privileges. The understanding of the Jews was darkened. They had no light in themselves. They were seeing the prophecies through their own perverse understanding. Satan was leading them on to their own ruin. And Herod was determined to defeat the purposes of the Jews, and to humble these proud boasters, by destroying Christ as soon as he should be found. The Wise Men and Jesus’ Preservation
By Ellen G. White
The Lord moved upon the wise men to go in search of Jesus, and he directed their course by a star. This star, leaving them when near Jerusalem, led them to make inquiries in Judah; for they thought it was not possible for the chief priests and scribes to be ignorant of this great event. The coming of the wise men made the whole nation acquainted with the object of their journey, and directed their attention to the important events which were transpiring. God well knew that the advent of his Son to earth would stir the powers of darkness. Satan did not want that light should come into the world. The eye of God was upon his Son every moment. The Lord had fed his prophet Elijah by a miracle, when upon a long journey. He could obtain food from no other source. He rained manna from Heaven for the children of Israel. The Lord provided a way for Joseph to preserve his own life, and the life of Jesus, and that of the mother, by their fleeing into Egypt. He provided for the necessities of their journey, and for their sojourn in Egypt, by moving upon the wise men of the East to go in search of the infant Saviour, and to bear him valuable offerings as a token of honor. The Lord is acquainted with the hearts of all men. He directed the course of Joseph into Egypt, that he might there find an asylum from the wrath of a tyrannical king, and the life of the infant Saviour be preserved. The earthly parents of Jesus were poor. The gifts brought to them by the wise men sustained them while in the land of strangers.—Mrs. E. G. White, in Great Controversy, Vol. 2. In Season and Out of Season
ALMOST everybody is ready to work "in season"—as they look at seasonableness. Even Felix would have turned to the Lord at Paul's preaching—if he had found "a convenient season." There are Christians who rarely press the subject of personal religion on members of their own families, or on their friends and acquaintances, because it always seems to them that just then that subject would be "out of season." They would be talking about Christ and his salvation continually—or so they think—if only it were seasonable to do so. Paul understood this difficulty. His counsel to us is, therefore, that we do the Lord's work at one time or another. If we can't do it "in season," we had better do it out of season. Anyway, let us do it.—Selected. The Soul That Trusts in God
THE soul is strong that trusts in God. SNAKES AND BUTTERFLIES.
By Mary E. Wilkins
GEORGE STURTEVANT was sitting comfortably by the parlor fire, and he had just come to the most interesting part of a new book, when his mother entered. "George," said she, "I want you to put on your cap and run over to Mrs. Crosby's for me, and ask her if she is through with my sleeve-pattern." "Oh, dear!" said George, dolefully, "It's awful cold." "Nonsense, a stout little boy like you, telling about the cold! Put on your cap and mittens and run along." "I'm kind of afraid of Jack." "Jack is chained, he won't hurt you a bit; come, get your cap." "He wasn't chained yesterday. I saw him running around the yard, myself." "Mr. Crosby was with him. Run along, and don't talk any more about it." "I'm real lame where I tumbled down yesterday." "Lame, a boy who was out playing foot-ball an hour ago! Don't think up any more excuses. Get ready and run right over there. I must go down-stairs and see to my cake now." George sat still after his mother had gone. He looked injured. Uncle Ezra Sturtevant, who was George's grand-uncle and an old man, looked sharply at him over his newspaper. "Three snakes," he remarked in a meditative tone. "They ain't snakes," said George quickly, his round face turning red. "Oh! well, I thought they were." George sat a little while longer; then he rose slowly and left the room. Pretty soon his fur cap bobbed past the window. Uncle Ezra laughed. "There he goes," said a lady who was sewing on the other side of the room. "You started him pretty quick. How very clever children are in conjuring up bugbears." "George always runs when I say 'snakes,'" replied Uncle Ezra. "We have a little bargain about it. I told him a snake story the other day, and he has done a good deal better since then." Uncle Ezra laughed and hesitated. "Well, I'll tell you. It isn't very much of a story. Years ago there was a boy whom I knew who had this same habit which George has. Every one of his tasks and duties seemed to be guarded for him by a vigilant scarecrow of some kind. He had a brother who was just the reverse. No braver, more willing, and more cheerful boy ever lived than his brother, whom we will call Willie. The other was Tom. "One summer when Tom was about fourteen, and Willie twelve, a friend of their father's came to pay them a little visit, and remained till Monday, when he was to leave for New York, and Tuesday, take the steamer for Europe. He was a very wealthy man and had planned quite an extensive pleasure-trip. "The day after his arrival, the mother of these boys asked them to take some pails, and go up in the pasture and pick some blueberries. Willie started readily enough, but Tom had a thousand objections. He was tired, his head ached, the sun was too hot, there was a vicious cow in one of the fields he had to cross. However he finally went, but he lagged behind Willie and scolded all the way. "The visitor, whose name was Ames, Mr. Oliver Ames, was present when the boys were sent for the berries, and listened attentively to all that passed. He was present, too, when Tom returned in about half an hour with the bottom of his pail scarcely covered with berries. "When his mother asked him what he was home so soon for, he said he had seen an awful black snake under the bush where he was picking, and he didn't dare to stay there another minute. His mother asked him why Willie didn't come too, and he hardly knew what to reply; but he mumbled something to the effect that if Willie wanted to stay and pick berries in a pasture full of snakes he could. "Tom thought there was something queer about his mother's manner, and the first of the week he found out the reason. Willie, who had come home with his pail heaped with the most beautiful blueberries, went to New York with Mr. Ames, and the next day sailed with him for Europe. Mr. Ames had no family of his own, and on his first arrival had kindly offered to take one of his friend's sons to Europe with him, and the question which it should be had been a hard one to decide. "Finally Mr. Ames, who was a shrewd man, had hit upon this plan. 'Give the boys some work to do,' he said, 'and I'll take the one who does it according to my mind.' "So the plan was tried, and Willie went to Europe. Mr. Ames, who was a quizzical though a kindly man, gave Tom a little lecture before starting. 'Why, there would be no sense in taking you, my boy,' said he. 'If we wanted to go to England and see Westminster Abbey we couldn't because you might see a snake. And if we wanted to go to Switzerland and see the Alps, I don't see how we could, for you would be very likely to come across a black snake on the road, and then back we should have to go. This other boy won't see anything worse than butterflies.' "When Willie had come home on that day and they asked him what he had seen in the berry-pasture, he had stared and then said he hadn't seen anything but perfect swarms of beautiful butterflies. Never saw so many handsome ones together,' he said. "'No snake?' asked Mr. Ames. "Willie laughed. 'I told Tom there wasn't any,' he said. 'I went right over and looked in the bush, and there wasn't a sign of any. I almost filled my pail there.' "Tom was terribly disappointed and mortified, but he was not cured. He lived to be a man, and an old man, but he found many a snake under his bushes, which kept him away from good things. "Willie's journey to Europe with Mr. Ames proved to be the key to fortune for his whole life. His hopeful, willing disposition won the old gentleman more and more; he did a great deal for him while he lived, and left him his immense fortune at his death." Uncle Ezra had been telling the story in a precise way, now he spoke out earnestly. "I tell you what," said he, "when I think of what I have missed during my whole life by this miserable habit of hesitating and seeing obstacles to duties which I knew ought to be done, I feel as if I couldn't do enough to save George from it. I could tell you of failure on failure, and disappointment on disappointment, which I could trace directly to it. I'm going to help George kill the snakes under his bushes, if I can. I bought him a little bank, and I put in a dollar for every snake he kills, and take one out whenever he is scared away from anything he ought to do. You saw how quickly he went when I said there were three snakes. He knew that meant losing three dollars, and when there are dollars enough he is going to have a pony. He has set his heart on the pony, but he'll have to work pretty hard for it. Some of the dollars have gone out, poor little chap, but he has done a good deal better on the whole. Here he is now." George came in all rosy and panting. He had been running. "Well," said Uncle Ezra, "ears frozen, George?" George laughed and blushed, but he turned his handsome eyes frankly toward his uncle, "No, sir." "Didn't get very badly bitten by the dangerous dog?" "Got over your lameness?" Uncle Ezra counted some silver pieces out from his pocket-book. "Well, here's the bounty money for the three snakes," he said. And George took it and thanked him, and jingled it proudly into his bank.—Mary E. Wilkins. I HAVE a treasure which I prize;
Its like I cannot find;
There's nothing like it on the earth;
'Tis this—a quiet mind. 'Tis not that I am stupefied,
Or senseless, dull, or blind;
'Tis God's own peace within my heart,
Which forms my quiet mind. I found this treasure at the cross;
And there, to every kind
Of weary, heavy-laden souls
Christ gives a quiet mind. My Saviour's death and risen life
To give it were designed;
His love, the never-failing spring
Of this, my quiet mind. The love of God within my breast,
My heart to him doth bind;
This is the peace of Heaven on earth—
This is my quiet mind. I'm waiting now to see my Lord,
So patient and so kind;
I want to thank him face to face,
For this, my quiet mind.
—Selected. HOW ANIMALS BECOME EXTINCT.
It is stated that the quagga, the beautiful wild striped ass of South Africa, has suddenly ceased to exist. The bootmakers of London and New York wanted his skin for a particular kind of sportsman's boots, and he consequently passed away out of zoology. There may be a few left on the highest and wildest plateaus, but the Boers, tempted by the high prices, have extirpated the herds which only ten years ago existed in South Africa. That will be the fate of the elephant, too, and possibly of the crocodile. It takes whole provinces to supply ivory for one advertising firm in Oxford Street; the price is fourfold the price of a quarter of a century ago, and the beasts are hunted with a persistency which in no long time must be fatal. The Indian Government is making efforts to protect the Asiatic breed; but they will all be futile. Animals which when dead are exceedingly valuable, contract a habit of dying, and laws establishing close time are powerless when it is worth while to run the risk of breaking them. The crocodile's skin is used by shoemakers and by pursemakers, and so he will disappear. Whatever Europe wants, Europe will have; and if the fashion of turning tigers' claws into brooches had developed and spread to America, tigers would have become extinct. There will soon not be a bird of paradise on earth, and the ostrich has only been saved by private breeders.—Selected. Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother
"Honor thy father and thy mother." Health and Temperance.
By Theodore L. Cuyler
A PLAIN TALK ON TEMPERANCE.
As a prohibitionist I feel entirely confident that temperance reformers are committing a most serious error in giving such excessive prominence to the civil and political aspect of the reform. The temptation to do this is peculiarly strong. The drinking saloon confronts us on every side, as the visible embodiment of the drink curse; it flaunts its bloody flag in our faces, and it seems to be a very short and summary way of disposing of it, to pass stringent laws for its suppression. This temptation is made stronger by the specious assertion that negro slavery was removed by a political party. The simple truth is that the Free Soil party, by the election of Lincoln, drove the slave oligarchy up to the point of committing suicide by armed secession. If the rum oligarchy were now confined to a single section of the land, and if it should, in sheer desperation, fire on the flag, and attempt to destroy the nation's life, then it would speedily be laid in the same tomb with the defunct institution of slavery. But there is really a very slight analogy between the political conflict with the drink traffic, and the political conflict which was waged under the banner of "Free Soil, free speech, and free labor." Negro slavery was essentially a temporary civil institution, the creature of unjust civil law. The dram-shop is not a temporary institution created by statute; it is the creature of the drinking usages of society. Set it down as an incontrovertible truth that liquor saloons are not the creations of license laws, or of any other civil enactments. (The original purpose of requiring a license was to limit the number and curtail the mischief of dram-shops.) Drinking saloons do not owe their existence to a few lines on a statute-book; no, nor are they to be entirely and permanently uprooted by simply enacting a few opposite lines on a statute-book. If so, the problem would be very simple and manageable. The liquor traffic, whether it be conducted by the hogshead or the gill, whether in the marble hotel or in the vilest cellar, is the creature of the drinking usages. To fight dram-shops without any moral efforts to keep people from drinking intoxicants, would be as ridiculous folly as it would be to organize police forces and build jails without ever teaching a human being that it is a crime to steal. The only way to reach an evil is to go to its fount-head. The fount-head of liquor selling is liquor drinking. Deeper down than any civil enactments—whether high license, low license, or no license—lie the drinking usages, and every remedy is transient and superficial that does not reach them. I do not dispute that the saloon tempts thousands to drink intoxicants who might not be tempted otherwise; but it is also true that even the worst dram-seller does not open a saloon from sheer malice to kill off his neighbors. He opens it simply to make money by ministering to appetite, and by supplying his whiskies and wines to his customers, and the most effectual way to break up the liquor traffic is to get away its customers and starve it out. It is certain as gravitation that if any large number of persons in any community are determined to have intoxicants they will somehow manage to get them, even if we pile our prohibitory laws as high as the Brooklyn bridge towers. They will get them either by stealthy evasions of law, or by importing liquors for their own private use, or by some other process. Righteous and beneficial as are laws of prohibition when well enforced, yet to rely on law alone, without any moral efforts against liquor drinking, would be as insane as to dam up a torrent at its mouth while neglecting to dry up its fount-head. That fount-head, we repeat again, is the drinking usages, which demand, which create, and which maintain the hotel bar and the dram-shop. Prohibitory laws help us, and many good people claim that "high license" laws aid us also; but the one permanent cure for dram-selling is to break up the habit of dram-drinking. If nobody wants whisky, nobody will offer whisky. This is the happy case in the town of Bassbrook, Ireland, where four thousand sober, sensible people keep everything like a liquor shop out of their town. Prohibition is automatic in such a community. By this time my readers will understand why—even as a prohibitionist—I insist that it is fatal folly for us temperance reformers to direct our efforts entirely, or even chiefly, in the line of civil enactment or political action. Votes and laws are the product of human convictions of duty; neither votes nor laws are efficient without conscientious convictions behind them. To awaken, to solidify, and to maintain these convictions, is the sure key and the only key to permanent success in the great conflict against the bottle, whether that bottle stand on a private table or on the counter of a gin-shop. We must address ourselves, therefore, to the individual consciences of people, old and young, and ply them with arguments and persuasions to let the bottle alone. The best days the temperance movement ever saw were the days in which its chief effort was to make people conscientious abstainers from every kind of intoxicants, to make them unwilling to enter a drink-shop, or to let the drink from the shop enter them. The temperance reform is not a political movement; it is a grand moral and social reform, which only invokes the aid of civil law to accomplish its beneficent results. Right here comes in the prodigious power and responsibility of the Christian church. Drunkenness and grog-selling are sins; it is the province of God's church to lay the ax to the root of all sins. The church has no more right to blink these sins than it has to blink blaspheming, adultery, falsehood, or dishonesty. Nor can minister or Christian people shirk their duty and relegate this vital question to the politician and the policeman, without treason to God. The bottle damns souls! Let the pulpit, therefore, make no truce with it; let conscientious parents banish it from their tables and social gatherings; let every boy and girl be instructed to practice total abstinence. Prevention of drinking is vastly safer, stronger, surer than prohibition of selling. It goes to the root, because it cuts up the drinking usages. I rejoice also that temperance school-books are being introduced into public and private schools, to warn every child against the serpent of alcohol. This, too, goes to the root; save the children and you in time save the nation. Brethren and sisters, in this glorious reform, let us use civil law as a powerful auxiliary; but let us not forget that deeper down than legal penalties lie conscience and custom. When conscience is reached and customs are reformed, the reform is permanent. Above all we need God's help, God's gospel, and God's almighty Spirit. Death to the bottle is the only sure death to the dram-shop; and the bottle can only be broken by appeals to the consciences, hearts, and habits of our fellow-men. You may build only a political castle in the air, if you will. I, for one, prefer to build solid results on a solid rock.—Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D., in Independent. THE city of Damascus is one of the oldest cities, if not the oldest city, in the world. Its history reaches back into the misty regions before the time of written history. It is said by Josephus to have been founded by Uz, the son of Aram, and we have no reason to doubt the statement. The name given to this district in the Old Testament is "Aram-Damesk," or Aram of Damascus. In the time of Abraham, Damascus was already a noted place; the steward of his house was Eliezer, of Damascus. Though not in Palestine, yet the history of Damascus was again and again connected with that of the children of Israel. Who that thinks of Damascus fails to call to mind the little Hebrew maiden who had been taken captive by the marauding hosts of its king, and who was the means of causing Naaman, the captain of the forces of the king of Syria, to take a peaceable journey into the land of Israel to be healed of his leprosy by the prophet of the Lord? The mention of Damascus, too, reminds us of the prophet Elisha, and the supernatural warning which he gave to the king when the armies of Benhadad issued forth for the subjugation of the kingdom of Israel. And last, but not least, Damascus was the scene of the conversion of Saul, the persecutor, who afterwards became the chiefest of the apostles. The city of Damascus stands in a plain at a distance of about one mile and a half from the base of Anti-Lebanon. The plain has an elevation of 2,200 feet above the sea, and though surrounded with arid mountains and uncultivated plains, it is a perfect picture of beautiful vegetation and fertility. So lovely is it with its verdant groves and gardens that, according to the faithful, Mahomet is said at one time to have refused to enter it, exclaiming, "I seek not my paradise on earth, but in Heaven." Unbelievers, however, have another version of this story, which is to the effect that Mahomet well knew that Damascus was too well defended for him to effect its capture with the troops he then had under him, and that he was astute enough to put the best possible face on his retreat; but it afterwards fell into the hands of the Moslems, and has since remained under their power. For nearly three centuries Christianity was the predominant faith, but the alternative, "the Koran or the sword," well-nigh exterminated it. At the present time the population consists of from 150,000 to 200,000 souls, of whom only some 20,000 are Christians. Before the year 1860 the Christians were more numerous, but in that year a terrible uprising of the Moslem population, aided by the Druses, took place, and at least 2,500 of the adult male Christians were murdered in cold blood, and many of the women and girls were seized by the murderers and condemned to a life worse than death itself. The Christian population is, to a very large extent, merely so in name and form; hence, of late years, an effort has been made to evangelize them, in common with the Moslems and the Jews. A Protestant mission was commenced in the year 1843 by two missionaries, one from the Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the other from the Church of Scotland; but for some years past the missionaries have been under the direction of the former church. There are now two ordained missionaries, and a medical missionary who works in conjunction with them and who labors under the auspices of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society.—Christian World. Set a Watch Before My Mouth
"SET a watch, O Lord, before my mouth." —The English language contains 114,000 words.
—Several cases of small-pox have been discovered in Chicago.
—It is said that cable-cars are to be introduced into London.
—Owing to cold wet weather, the crop outlook in Great Britain is very bad.
—An abundant supply of natural gas has been obtained at Findlay, Ohio.
—Another large war vessel was launched at Chatham, England, on the 7th inst.
—The Czar of Russia receives the largest salary of any ruler—$10,000,000 annually.
—Eight men were killed by a dynamite explosion near Altoona, Penn., on the 4th inst.
—Lord Lansdowne, Governor-General of Canada, owns, it is said, 120,616 acres of land in Ireland.
—A teamster and nine horses were burned to death in a stable at Redwood City, one day last week.
—Pennsylvania has paid $90,000 for the destruction of 180,000 hawks and owls in the past two years.
—An explosion of fire-damp on the 7th inst. in a German coal mine, caused the death of fifty-three persons.
—Queen Victoria’s jubilee is to be celebrated with imposing ceremonies in Westminster Abbey on the 20th inst. —It is said that there are 20,000 homeless people in Michigan on account of the recent destructive fires in that State.
—The great gale of May 7–10 on the New Zealand coast resulted in several disastrous wrecks. Several lives were lost.
—Sixty-five thousand elephants are destroyed in Africa annually. The amount of ivory obtained from them is 1,875,000 pounds.
—It is computed that the annual birth rate of the world exceeds the death rate by about 1,100,000. Sixty-seven persons die every minute.
—A cyclone swept the country thirty miles north of Jamestown, Dakota Territory, a few days since, doing considerable damage to crops and houses.
—A water-spout in Somerset County, Pa., a few days since, destroyed property to the value of $150,000 and rendered at least 200 people temporarily homeless.
—The Executive Committee of the Prohibition party of New York has decided to hold a State convention in Syracuse, August 25 and 26, and will nominate a full ticket.
—Last week, severe earthquake shocks in Turkistan destroyed several towns and killed a great number of the inhabitants. The telegraph wires were broken in many places.
—News was recently received at Des Moines, Iowa, that Rev. Dr. Reid, who left that place last winter to become a missionary in Central Africa, has been killed and eaten by cannibals.
—The cost of training, maintaining, and furnishing the 9,847,084 soldiers of the standing armies of European Continental Powers amounts to the enormous sum of $3,240,000,000 yearly.
—In the case of an American fishing schooner, the Admiralty Court at Halifax decided a few days since that an American vessel is entitled to buy bait, the same as to repair damages, and to procure ice, the same as water.
—It is estimated that there are in this country 10,000,000 families, and that the number of males over the age of 21 years is 13,000,000; females of like age, about 12,000,000; children of both sexes number about 25,000,000.
—The number of passengers annually carried between different points in the city of London, is stated to be 310,520,000. Of these 70,000,000 ride in omnibuses, 115,520,000 on underground railways, and 120,000,000 on street-cars.
—Recent violent hail-storms have done immense damage in the Temesvar and Bazias districts in Hungary. Thunder-storms on the 4th inst. in South-western Germany resulted in the loss of several lives and great damage to crops.
—There is no longer any doubt that the steamer Sir John Lawrence, with 730 passengers, has been lost. The larger part of the passengers were native ladies, on route to the Juggernaut in Orissa, to celebrate the Juggernaut festival.
—The largest vineyard in the world is owned by Senator Stanford, of California. On a 30,000-acre ranch he has 3,500 acres planted in bearing vines. The vineyard is divided into 500-acre tracts, and most of the work is done by Chinese.
—Another Indian outbreak is reported in Arizona. Several persons have been killed and a number of horses stolen. There is great excitement in some parts of the Territory and the people threaten to rise en masse and rid the county of the murderous Apaches.
—The manufactories of Birmingham, England, which hold the first rank in the pin industry, are said to produce about 37,000,000 pins per day. The output of other pin factories in this country is about 17,000,000 per day, thus making a grand total of 54,000,000 pins for England alone.
—The Kentucky distillers have decided to produce no more whisky till October 1, 1888. There is now in bond in the State, whisky to the amount of 39,000,000 gallons, besides 5,000,000 gallons in foreign ports owned by Kentucky men. This quantity is said to be sufficient to last three years.
—A mill for the production of Russian iron is soon to be built at Freeport, Penn. It is said that there are only three people outside of Russia who know the secret of manufacturing this superior quality of iron. Men in the mills in Russia who understand the process are never allowed to quit the mills.
—Mrs. Annie Boyd, of Grand Rapids, Mich., has secured a $9,500 verdict against the saloon-keeper who sold liquor to her husband before he committed a murder. If saloon-keepers were required to pay this roundly for all the crimes which are caused by their traffic, their profits would not be nearly so large as they are, and there would be fewer men engaged in the business. —It now appears that the Hungarian floods have been even more disastrous than at first reported. One dispatch says that fully 50,000 people have been ruined by the flood. Quite a number of lives have been lost, whole herds of cattle have perished, and thousands of acres of agricultural lands have been inundated and the crops ruined.
—It seems that the shameless traffic in young girls carried on in London, has not yet been fully suppressed. One man and three women were arrested the other day, charged with keeping a house of ill-repute and with having procured for their patrons scores of girls from 10 to 15 years of age. That such things are possible in a civilized country, is a shame that can be wiped out only in the fires of the last day.
—Five boys, whose ages range from nine to sixteen, were drowned in the Maquoketa River, Iowa, one day last week. Three of them, while in bathing, plunged off a sand bar into the water beyond their depth, when another boy, seeing that they were drowning, plunged in to rescue them. Another boy who had his clothes on, noticing the failure of the first boy, also plunged in and all were drowned together.
—During a circus performance at Neschtin, Austria, June 4, a storm arose and a portion of the roof of the circus structure was blown off. The lamps hanging from the roof were broken, and the blazing petroleum poured down upon the heads of the people below. There were 2,000 spectators, and a fearful panic arose. In the midst of the tumult one of the lightly-built walls of the structure fell in, and the whole building immediately collapsed and a large number of persons were burned and many trampled to death, and 300 others were more or less injured.