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About The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1897)
K s My Fellow Laijorer.i jn By H. RIDER HAGGARD. & B > CHAPTER IV. > fl S nf li J sl the conclusion that * B n/n * ne sooner we did H [ jX/y so the better ; more > B jA / especially as the P Va/ introduction of a K L\ new factor into our * T } relationship was to B V m y u naccustomed r j .mind in a certain sense improper and > B irksome , although by no means un- V pleasant. Also it wasted time acd * B 'tended to direct our attention from tis > B vast undertaking to which we were > B pledged. Accordingly , within a very * flt few days of the occurrence already de- HVn scribed , I visited a register , and hav- T > ing , as it seemed to me , paid several B unucccssary fees , provided myself with Hp a license. On my way back I walked T ' down Fleet street , thinking amiably > B -of getting married and Dr. Johnson , * B and intending to take the omnibus at K 'Charing Cross. As I went I happened > B to look up , and my eye fell upon a not - t B .ticc to the effect that a certain well- > B known life assurance company had its Ky • offices within the building opposite. V Then it was that the idea first oc- Bf curred to me that I ought to insure K' my life , so that , should anything happen - pen to me , Fanny might have somc- > B thing to keep her from poverty. As K * it was , she would have absolutely fl nothing. All that I had , and that my * flL wife had brought with her , was strictly 1 settled upon the boy John in such a K way that I could not even give my H subsequent wife a life interest in it , B or a part of it. I stopped there in the H street , and having given the matter J P a few moments' consideration , came * fl to the conclusion that it was my duty Bv to provide for Fanny to small extent > B say two thousand pounds. L Upon this decision. I crossed the K road-way , and , entering the office , B\ some inquiries from a clerk. As it B happened , the doctor attached to the Bp company was at that moment in at- * B # tendance and disengaged , so thinking Kf that I could not do better than get a p disagreeable business over at once , 1 • B sent ud mv card and asked to see mm. JB \ The messenger returned presently , B | with a request that I would "step up , " EH ? which I accordingly did , to find myself , * B to my astonishment , in the presence > B of an old fellow-student of my own , B with whom I had in former days been > B tolerably intimate , but whom I had Ra not seen for years. We greeted each a BP\ other cordially enough , and after a few k \ minutes' talk I told him the business I * B had in hand , and he began his medical HK examination with the series of stock B questions which doctors always put * E- upon these occasions. Pjp • The only point upon which he dwelt * Kjp at all was insanity , and he was so flF persistent upon this matter that I per- Bf ceived he had heard some of the B [ rumors about me being mentally deB - B § ranged , which my friends and relations fl ? had so materially assisted to spread. fl However , I got through that part of B $ the business , and then I undid my 4 shirt , and he proceeded with the phy- B sical examination. First he applied Bw the stethescope to my heart , and Bfl quickly removed it , evidently satisfied. BT Then he placed it over my right lung W\ and listened. While he did so , I saw jVli his face change , and a thrill of fear 6 * shot through me as it suddenly came to fl niy mind that I had experienced some B ? > trouble there of late , of which I had Bit , taken no notice , and which had , in- B j deed , quite passed out of my mind. B ; Next he tried the other lung , and | placed the stethoscope on the table. KL "What is the matter ? " I asked , keep- fl& ing as calm a face as I could , for I WjB could tell from his look that there was Hfv something very wrong. BF "Come , Gosden , you are a medical Bf man yourself , and a clever one , and W\- there is no need for me to tell you WjP about it. " WL "Upon my word , " I answered , "I Rv know nothing of what you mean. I IIB liave not bothered about my own Jf N health for years ; but , now I think of it , | J [ I have had some local trouble on the B t chest , last winter especially. What is R s it ? It is better to know the worst. " IB "Our rule here , " he answered dryly , fc "is not to make any communication to WM the person examined ; but , as we are flh brother practitioners , I suppose I may Wm " dispense with it , and tell you at once iJ | ihat I cannot recommend your life to board to be insured Bp the upon any terms. That is what is the matter with iB yon , old fellow , " and he went on , in ly terms too technical for me to write B down here , to describe the symptoms of B one of the most deadliest , and yet R most uncertain , forms of lung disease , \ in short to pass sententrjf death up- B | on me. B I do not think I am a coward , and 1 $ i hope I took it well. The bitter irony B \ of the whole thing lay in the fact that W while I was in active practice , I had I made this form of disease a special t . study , and used to flatter myself that I could stop it , or at any rate stave it off indefinitely , if only I could get at it in time. I might have stopped my own , if I had known about it. Ah ! who shall heal the physician ? "Well , there you are , Gosden , " went E • on my friend ; "you know as " much about it as I do ; you may live three years , and you may live thirty , but i the odds are against you lasting five. I You know what an uncertain thing it is. There is only one thing certain L .about it , and that is , that it will kill F you socner or later. I speak plainly I because we are both accustomed to face ' ' ' • j < " < iArtwb > * i y < 'uv ' # " " " ' " " : - " ttesc sort of fact3. Perhaps you had better take another opinion. " ! I shook ray bead. Now that my at tention had been called to it , no opinions could help me. He was per- i \ fectly right , I might go very shortly , or I might live till well on into mid dle life. As the event has proved , I have lived , but I am not far from the end of my tether now. "Are you of opinion , " I asked , "that my form of disease is likely to prove ! hereditary ? " , I knew wihat his answer would he , but I put the question as a forlorn hope. "Of course. I should consider that It ; would certainly be hereditary ; and , , what is more , it Is extremely probable : that ] your wife would contract it also. But why do ask ? You ; you are not go ing to get married again , are you ? " "I am engaged to be married. " "Well , " he replied , "of course it is f an awkward thing to talk to a man about ' , but if you take my advice , you will be a little more honorable than most people are under the circum stances , and break the match off. " "I am quite of your opinion , " I said , , "and now I v/ill bid you good-day. " "Well , good-bye , Gosden. I don't think it will be of any use my making ; a report to the board unless you wish it. Don't worry yourself , old fellow , , and keep your chest warm , and you may see fifty yet ! " In another minute I was in Fleet : street again , and 'felt vaguely astonish ed that it should look just J.he same i as it did a quarter of an hour before. . Most of us have experienced this sensa tion when some radical change of cir • cumstance has suddenly fallen upon U3. It seems curious that the great hurrying world should be so dead to i our individuality and heedless of our most vital hopes. A quarter of an hour before , I was a man with a pros • pect of a long and useful , perhaps a most eminent career. Also I was just ; going to be married to a congenial wife. Now I was , as I then thought , doomed to an early grave , and as for the wife , the idea had to be abandoned. I was in honor bound to abandon it : for her sake , and for the sake of pos sible children. Well , I walked to Charing Cress , and took the omnibus as I had intend ed. I remember that there was a fat woman in it , who insisted upon carry • ing a still fatter pug dog , and quar reled with the conductor seriously in consequence. All this took place in the month of December , and by the time i I srnt. home it wns lipffinnir. - tn nvnw darc. ! I went straight into the study : Fanny was there , and the lamp was lightsd. When I entered she flung down her pen , and jumping up , came forward and kissed oe ; and , as she did so , I thought what a splendid look ing woman she had grown into/with her intellectual face and shapely form , and somehow the reflection sent a sharp pang through me. Now that I knew that I must lose her , it seemed to me that I loved her almost as I had loved my dead wife , and indeed I have often noticed that we never know how much we value a thing till we are callD'i up on to resign it. Certainly I noticed it now. , "Well , dear , " she said , "have joi ; got it ? Why , what is the matter/ with you ? " . . ' • > "Sit down , Fanny , " I answered , "and I will tell you , only you must try tcfi bear it as well as you can. " • She seated herself in her calm ; de-j termined way , although I could see that she was anxious , and I began at the ' beginning , and went straight through , my story without skipping a word. As soon as she understood its drift Her • face set like a stone , and she heard me to the end without interruption Qr movement. "Well , Geoffrey , " she said , in a low voice when at last I " , had done , "ami , , ' what is to be the end of it all ? " v "This : that our marriage cannot' , come off and death ! " ' "Why cannot our marriagecdme , off ? " * f < "I have told you why , dear. A man afflicted as I am has no right to sen'd , . his affliction down to future genera- ; tions. People are fond of calling'thef inevitable result of such conduct * th'd decree of Providence , but it * " is the cause of most of the misery of the world , and as medical men know jivell enough , a wicked and selfish thing .o' do. " V ' "The world does not seem to think so. One sees such marriages everv day. " j ' * "Yes , because the world is blind , and mad , and bad. " \ ' "I don't agree with you , Geoffrey , " she answered , with passion. "Our lives are our own , posterity must look after itself. We have a right to make the best of our lives , such as they are , without consulting the interests of those who may never exist. If they do exist , then they must take their chance , and bear their burdens as we bear ours. All this talk about the fu ture and posterity is nonsense. What will posterity care for us that we should care for it ? We cannot affect it one way or the other ; it is hopeless to expect to turn Nature out of her path. We are nothing but feathers blown vbout by the wind , and all we can do is to go down where the wind blows us , and when we fall , 'we fall as softly as we may. " I looked up in astonishment. I had no idea that Fanny held views as merciless , and , opposed to all pure altruism as they were , in a sense , un answerable. Indeed , I had heard her express notions directly contrary , and at the moment was totally at a loss to account for the change. Of course , however , the explanation was easy enough. Theory had come into con flict with interest , and , as is often the case , even in the most highly developed people , it was so much the worse for the theory. "I am sorry to hear you speak so , dear , " I said. "I hoped and thought that you would have supported mo in a very painful resolution. The blow is hard enough to bear , even with your help ; without , it is almost uni endurable. " She rose from her chair , and then for the first time I realized the depth of her emotion. Her beautiful eyes flashed , her bosom heaved , and she slowly crushed the paper she held in her hand to shield her face from the fire , into a shapeless mos3 , and then threw It down. "You have no heart , " she said. "Do you suppose it is nothing to me , who was going to marry you within a week , to lose my husband and to be obliged to fall back again into this half life , this very twilight of a life ? Oh ! Geof frey , think again , " and she stretched out her arms toward me , and looked at me , and spoke in accents of im passioned tenderness. "Think , " she went on , "can you not give up your scruples for me ? Am I not worth straining a point in your conscience ? There is nothing in the wojld , Geof frey , that a man can profit by in exchange - change for his love. Soon this dis ease will take a hold of you , and then you v/ill grow weak , and miserable , and incapable of enjoyment. Live now while you can , and leave the consequences - quences to Providence , or rather to the workings of those unchanging rules which we call Providence. Look at me : I am beautiful , and I love you , and ray intellect is almost as great as your own. Don't throw me away for a theory , Geoffrey. " ; All the time that she was speaking she drew slowly nearer to me , her arms outstretched and her great eyes glowing and changing in the shaded light. And now the arms closed round me , and she lay upon my heart and gazed into my face , till I thought that I should be overcome. But , thank Heaven ! somehow for conscience' sake I found the resolution to hold to what I knew to be right. I think it was the recollection of my dear wife that came over me at that moment , and induced a sudden feeling of revulsion to the beautiful woman who lay in my arms , and who did not scruple to resort to such means to turn me from my duty , H $ l it not been for the thought , I am sure that being but a man , and therefore - ; fore weak , I should have yielded and then there would have been no possibility - i bility of further retreat. As it were , I with a desjperate effort , wrenched myself - : self free from her. I "It is of no use , Fanny , " I cried , in I t despair. "I will not do it ? I think that it would be wicked for a man in my condition to get married. This dis tresses me beyond measure ; but if I yielded to you I should be doing a shameful thing. Forgive me , Fanny , it is not my fault , I did not know. It is hard enough , " I added , with a na tural burst of indignation , "to be sud denly doomed to a terrible death with out having to go through this agony , " and with a sudden motion I flung the wedding license into the fire. She watched it burn , and then sunk back in the chair , covered her face in her hands and said no more. In this position she remained for nearly half an hour. Then she rose , and with astern ' stern , cold face that it almost frighten- el me to look upon , returned to her work , which was now once more the chief bond between us ; nor was the ? subject of our engagement alluded to 'again for many months. Nobody had known of it , and nobody knew that it had come to an end. And so it died 'aW went the way of dead things into w.hat seems to be forgetfulness , but is in * truth the gate-way into those new and ' • endless halls of perpetuated life on whose walls evil and unhappy rec ords of the past , blazoned in letters of fire , are the lamps to light us down from misery to misery. ( to be continued. ) \i CICILIAN LOVE CHARMS. Some of the Most Curious anil Topala * I Ones. | The love charms of Sicily are many and curious. One , very popular and considered very powerful , is to put in to an eggshell a few drops of the blood of the longing lover , says Macmillan. The shell is exposed to the sun for three days and to the dew for three nights. It is then placed on hot ashes until calcined , when the whole is reduced to a fine powder and administered se cretly in a cup of coffee or a glass of wine to the object of affection. Anoth er charm is for the witch to undress at midnight and tie her clothes up in a bundle , which she places on her head ; then , kneeling in the center of her room , she pronounces an incanta tion , at the end of which she shakes 'her ' head. If the bundle falls in front of her it is a good sign ; should it fall behind her the charm will not avail. Yet another is worked in the follow ing manner : Pieces of green , red and while ribbon are purchased in three different shops , the name of the per son to be charmed being repeated , men tally , each time. The shop-keeper must be paid with the left hand , the ribbon being received in the right. When all the pieces aie bought they are taken j to a witch , who sets out to find the person to be charmed. On finding him or her the witch mutters to herself , , "With these ribbons I bind you to such a one. " Then she returns the ribbons to the purchaser , who ties them be neath his or her left knee and wears them at church. Too lo slbIc. Knicker "We had to discharge enr pastor because he mispronounced a word. " Eocker "For such a trifle ? " Knicker "Yes. He said the near dc- ; parted had gone to "the undiscovered j ' country from whose burn no traveler returns. ' " Judge. The Bashi Bazouks seem to be mere ly a scmewhat idealized set of ruffians. TALMAGE'S SEBMON. MAGNETISM i OF" CHRIST LAST SUNDAY'S SUBJECT. from ' the Following TYxt : "Kts iTumo bhuiL Me CiiilodVoailorfnl" IhhIuIi , Chapter IX , Vormi 0 Au Utiusii.il View of the Savior. prophet lived in J a dark time. For MHE three thou sand years the world had been get- t&ffi jffi ting worse. King- % rrj&wij ] doms had aris- n5 > 3pK | | en and perished. As j | | Pthe captain of a ' 7vV % vessel in distress 'V w i sees relief coming across the water , so the prophet , amid the stormy times in which he lived , put the telescope of prophecy , to his eye , and saw , seven hundred and fifty years ahead , one Jesus advancing to the rescue. I want to . show that when Isaiah called Christ the Wonderful , he spoke wisely. In most houses there is a picture of Christ. Sometimes it represents him with face effeminate ; sometimes with a face despotic. I have seen West's grand 1 sketch of the rejection of Christ ; I ] have seen the face of Christ as cut on ' an emerald , said to be by command of ' Tiberius Caesar : * and yet I am con vinced that I shall never know how Jesus looked until , on that sweet Sab bath ' morning , I shall wash the last sleep from my eyes in the cool river of heaven. ' I take up this book of divine photographs I , and I look at Luke's 3ketch = , at Mark's sketch , at John's sketch : , and at Paul's sketch , and I say. with ' Isaiah , "Wonderful ! " I think that you are all interested in the I story of Christ. You feel that he is i the only one who can help you. You have I unbounded admiration for the commander i who helped his passengers ashore ; while he himself perished , but have I you no admiration for him who rescued i our souls , himself falling back into i the waters from which he had saved us ? Christ was wonderful in the mag netism of his person. After the battle of Antietam , when a general rode along the line3.alth.ough the soldiers were lying down exhausted , they rose with great enthusiasm and huzzaed. As Napoleon returned from his captivity , his first step on the wharf shook all the kingdoms , aud two hun dred and fifty thousand men joined his standard. It took three thousand troops to watch him in his exile. So there have been men of wonderful mag netism of person. But hear me while I tell you of a poor young man who came up from Nazareth to produce a thrill such as has never been excited by any other. Napoleon had around him the memories of Austerlitz and Je na , and Badajos ; but here was a man who had fought no battles ; who wore no epaulettes ; who brandished no sword. He is no titled man of the schools , for he never went to school. He had probably never seen a prince , or shaken hands with a nobleman. The only extraordinary person we know of as being in his company was his own mother , and she was so poor that in the most delicate and solemn hour that ever comes to a woman's soul she was obliged to lie down amid camel drivers grooming the beasts of burden. I imagine Christ one day standing in the streets of Jerusalem. A man de scended from high lineage is standing beside him , and says , "My father was a merchant prince ; he had a castle on the beach at Galilee. Who was your father ? " Christ answers , "Joseph , the carpenter. " A man from Athens is standing there unrolling his parchment of graduation , and says to Christ , "Where did you go to school ? " Christ , irswpjR. "I never sraduated. " Aha ! the idea of such an unheralded young man attempting to command the at tention of the world ! As well some little fishing village on Long Island shore attempt to arraign New York. Yet no sooner does he set his foot in the towns or cities of Judea than every thing is in commotion. The people go out. on a picnic , taking only food enough for the day , yet are so fascinat ed with Christ that , at the risk of starv ing , they follow him out into the wil derness. A nobleman falls down flat before him , and says , "My daughter is dead. " A beggar tries to rub the dim ness from his eyes and says , "Lord , that my eyes may be opened. " A poor , sick , panting woman pressing through the crowd , says , "I must touch the hem of his garment. " Children , who love their mother better than any one else , struggle to get into his arms , and to kiss his cheek , and to run their fingers through his hair , and for all time put ting Jesus so in love with the little ones that there is hardly a nursery in Chris tendom from which he does not take one , saying , "I must have them ; I will fill heaven with these ; for every cedar that I plant in heaven I will have fifty white lilies. In the hour when I was a poor man in Judea they were not nshnmed of me. and now that I havn I come to a throne I do not despise them. Hold it not back , oh. weeping mother ; lay it on my warm heart. Of such is the kingdom of heaven. " What is this coming down the road7 A triumphal procession. He is seated , not in a chariot , but on an ass ; and yet the people take off their coats and throw them in the way. Oh , what a time Jesus made among the children , among the beggars , among the fishermen - men , among the philosophers ! You may boast of self-control , but if you had seen him you would have put your arms around his neck and said , "Thou art altogether lovely. " Jesus was wonderful in the opposites and seeming antagonisms of his nature. You want things logical and consistent , and you aay , "How could Christ be God I and man at the same time ? " John l says Christ waa the Creator : "AH I things were made by him. and without t him was not anything made. " Matthew says that he was omnipresent : "Where > two or three are met together in ray name , there am I in the midst of them. " Christ declares his own eternity : . "I am Alpha and Omega. " How can he J be a Hon , under hia foot crushing king doms , and yet a lamb licking the hand 1 that slays him ? At what point do the 1 throne and the manger touch ? If Christ was God , why flee into Egypt ? Why not stand his ground ? Why , in stead of bearing a cross , not lift up his 1 right hand and crush his assassins ? Why stand and be , spat upon ? Why sleep on the mountain , when he owned 1 the palaces of eternity ? Why catch i fish for his breakfast on the beach in i the chill morning , when all the pome granates are his , and all the vineyards i his , and all the cattle his , and all the > partridges his ? Why walk when weary , and his feet stone bruised , when he s might have taken the splendors of the ! sunset for his equipage , and moved I with horses and chariots of fire ? Why beg a drink from the wayside , when out : of the crystal chalices of eternity he ! poured the Euphrates , the Mississippi , and the Amazon , and dipping his band [ In the fountains of heaven , and shak - ing that hand over the world , from the tips of his fingers dripping the great : lake ? and the oceans ? Why let the i Roman regiment put him to death , when he might have ridden down the i sky followed by all the cavalry of I heaven , mounted on white horses of ; eternal victory ? You can not understand. Who can ? You try to confound me. I am con founded before you speak. Paul said it was unsearchable. He went climb ing up from argument to argument , and from antithesis to antithesis , and from glory to glory , and then sank : down in exhaustion as he saw far above : him other heights of divinity unsealed , and exclaimed , "that in all things he 1 might have the pre-eminence. " Again : Christ was wonderful in his ! teaching. The people had been used to i formalities and technicalities ; Christ upset all their notions as to how preaching ought to be done. There was this peculiarity about his preaching , the people knew what he meant. His il lustrations were taken from the hen calling her chickens together ; from salt , from candles , from fishing tackle , from the hard creditor collaring a debt or. How few pulpits of this day would have allowed him entrance ? He would have been called undignified and fami liar in his style of preaching. And yet the people went to hear him. Those old Jewish rabbis might have preached on the sides of Olivet fifty years and never got an audience. The philoso phers sneered at his ministrations and said , "This will never do ! " The law yers caricatured , but the common people ple heard him gladly. Suppose you that there were any sleepy people In his audiences ? Suppose you that any woman who ever mixed bread wa3 ig norant of what he meant when he com pared the kingdom of heaven with leav en or yeast ? Suppose you that the sunburned fishermen , with the fish- scales upon their hands , were listless when he spoke of the kingdom of heav en as a net ? We spend three years in college studying ancient mythology , and three years in the theological sem inary learning how to make a sermon , and then we go out to save the world ; and if we can not do it according to Claude's "Sermonizing , " or Blair's "Rhetoric , " or Kames' "Criticism , " we will let the I world go to perdition. If we save nothing else , we will save Claude and Blair. We see a wreck in sight. We must go out and save the crew and nassenRers. We wait until we set nn our fine cap and coat , and find our shin ing oars , and then we push out meth odically and scientifically , while some plain shoresman , in rough fishing smack , and with broken oar lock , goes out and gets the crew and passengers and brings them ashore in safety. We throw down our delicate oars and say "What a ridiculous thing to save men in that way ! You ought to have done it scientifically and beautifully. " "Ah ! " says the shoresman , "if these suffer ers had waited until you got out your fine boat , they would have gone to the bottom. " The work of a religious teacher Is to save men ; and though every law of grammar should be snapped in the un dertaking , and there be nothing but awkwardness and blundering in the mode , all hail to the man who saves a soul. soul.Christ Christ , in his preaching , was plain , earnest and wonderfully sympathetic We cannot dragoon men into heaven. We cannot drive them in with the butt- end of a catechism. Wc waste our time in trying to catch flies with acids in stead of the sweet honeycomb of the Gospel. We try to make crab-apples do the work of pomegranates. Again : Jesus was wonderful in his sorrows. The sun smote him. and the cold chilled him. the rain nelted him thirst parched him , and hunger ex hausted him. Shall I compare his sorrow row to the sea ? No ; for that is some times hushed into a calm. Shall I corn- par it with the night ? No ; for that sometimes gleams with Orion , or kin dles with Aurora. If one thorn should be thrust through your temple you would faint. But here is a whole'crown made from the Rhamnus of Spina Christi small , sharp , stinging thorns. The mob makes a cross. They put down the long beam and on it they fas ten a shorter beam. Got him at last. Those hands.that have been doing kind nesses and wiping away tears hear the hammer driving the spikes through them. Those feet , that have been go ing about on ministrations of mercy 1 i c ! battered against the cross. Then tboy j lift It up. Look ! look ! look ! Who will. I * help him no-rr ? Cctct. men of Jems- r alem ye whoso dead ho brought to' J life ; ye whose sick he healed ; who will' ' j help him ? Who will seize the weapons ! of the soldiers ? None to help ! Having j carried such a cross for us , shall we refuse - fuse to take our cross for him ? Shall Jesus bear the cross alone , And all the world go free ? No ; there's a cross for everyone , And there's a cross for me. 5 You know the process of Ingrafting.j You bore a hole In a tree , and put In * the branch of another tree. This tree of the cross was hard and rough , but into the holes where the nails went there have been grafted branches of the j Tree of Life that now bear fruit for j all nations. The original tree was blt- ter , but the branches ingrafted were sweet , and now all the nations pluck the fruit and live for ever. • Again : Christ was wonderful In his victories. First over the forces of nature. The sea Is a crystal sepulchre. It swallowed the Central America , the President , and the Spanish Armada as easily as ' any fly that ever floated on It. The Inland - ' land lakes are fully as terrible In their wrath. Galilee , when aroused In a , storm is overwhelming , and yet that sea crouched In his presence and licked his feet. He knew all the waves and i winds. When he beckoned they came. ' When he frowned , they fled. Th * e1SeI of his foot made no Indentation on the solidified water. Medical science has wrought great changes in rheumatic limbs and diseased blood , but when tho' muscles are entirely withered no hu-I man power can restore them , and when. a limb is once dead , it is dead. But1 here is a paralytic his hand lifeless. ! Christ says to him , "Stretch forti Ujy' hand ! " and he stretches it forth. I In the Eye Infirmary , how many dts- eases of that delicate organ have been cured ! But Jesus says to one born blind , "Be open ! " and the light of heaven rushes through gates that have never before been opened. The frost or an axe may kill a tree , but Jesus smites one dead with a word. Chemistry can do many wonderful things , but what chemist , at a wedding , when the refreshments gave out , could nhnnffp n nnil nf wntpr fnfn n nnaVr f wine ? What human voice could command I a school of fish ? Yet here is a voice fl that marshals the scaly tribes , until I in the pace where they had let down I the net and pulled it up with no fish I in it , they let it down again , and the B disciples lay hold and begin to pull. ( B when , by reason of the multitude of fl fish , the net brake. fl Nature is his servant. The flowers fl he twisted them into his sermons ; the fl winds they were his lullaby when he fl slept in the boat ; the rain it hungfl glittering on the thick foliage of the fl parables ; the star of Bethlehem it fl sang a Christmas carol over his birth ; fl the rocks they beat a dirge at his fl death. fl Behold his victory over the grave ! B The hinges of the family vault become fl very rusty because they are never fl opened except to take another in. There fl is a knob on the outside of the sepulfl care , but none on the inside. Here fl comes the Conqueror of Death. He entfl ers that realm and says , "Daughter of fl Jairus , sit up ; " and she sat up. To fl Lazarus , "Come forth ; " and he came B forth. To the widow's son he said , "Get B up from that bier , " and he goes home fl with his mother. Then Jesus snatched | up the keys of death , and hung them fl to his girdle , and cried until all the H grave-yards of the earth heard him. H " 0 Death ! I will be thy plague ! O H Grave ! I will be thy destruction ! " fl * * * 1 It is a beautiful moment when two * B persons who have pledged each . M other , heart and hand , stand in church , M and have the banns of marriage pro- M claimed. Father and mother , brothers M and sisters stand around the altar. The M minister of Jesus gives the counsel ; the M ring is set , earth and heaven witness M it ; the organ sounds , and amid many M congratulations they start out on the J m path of life together. Oh that this M might be your marriage day ! Stand up , M immortal soul. The Beloved comes to M get his betrothed. Jesus stretches forth B his hand and says , "I will love thee M with an everlasting love. " and you B respond , "My Beloved is mine , and I B am his. " I put your hand in his , henceforth - B forth be one. No trouble shall part you B no time cool your love. Side by side B on earth side by side in heaven ! Now B let the blossoms of heavenly gardens B fill the house with their redolence , and B all the organs of God peal forth the B wedding march of eternity. Hark ! B "The voice of my beloved ! Behold , he B cometh leaping upon the mountains , B skipping upon the hills. " B A Gam Game In Ohio , M The latest advertising "fake" to M strike this city , says the Ashtabula , JJ Ohio , News , is the chewing gum game. IB The makers of this gum put a coupon B .ejirinsr one letter of thf aluhabet in * B each 5-cent package of the gum , and B advertise that a3 soon as any one gets B the letters that make certain words | they will give him a present of a watch , fl bicycle or something of that kind. L. | | H. Smith , the teamster for Messrs. M Richards Bros. , wholesale grocers , is | the first lucky purchaser of this kind of fl gum so far , for he has succeeded in acfl quiring the letters that make the words B that entitled him to any $100 bicycle l fl in the market. He has more than flB enough of the letter "s" to win the bifl cycle , and if he had one "k" would be fl entitled to ? 200 worth of diamonds. So B intense is the interest manifested by B some of the gum chewers that one of B the trolley car conductors Is said to have H offered § 25 for the letter "w , " which. B he needs to complete the words necesfl * sary to win a prize. Th w's , d's and H e's seen : to be the scarce letters. j fl