TALMAGE’S SERMON. •THE POWEROF EXAMPLE" LAST SUNDAY’S THEME. Onlden Tuili “And Ahlmulrch Took nn Ait In HI* Hand end Cat Down • Hough from the Tree* end Laid It on His Shoulders”—Jud. Is, 48. BIKE LECH Is a name maladoroua lu Bible history, and yet full of prof itable suggestion. Buoys are black and uncomely, but they tell where the rocks are. The snake’s rattle Is hideous, but It gives timely warn ing. From the piazza of my sum mer home, night by night, I saw • lighthouse fifteen miles away, aot placed there for adornment, but to tell mariners to stand off from that dangerous point. So all the Iron bound coast of moral danger Is marked with Saul, and Herod, and Rehoboam, and Jezebel, and Ablmelech. These bad people are mentioned in the Bible not only aa warnings, but Decause mere were sometimes flashes of good conduct in their lives worthy of Imitation. (Jod sometimes drives a very straight nail with a very i>oor hammer. The city of Shechem had to be taken, and Ablmelech and his men were to do It. 1 see the dust rolling up from their excited march. I hear the shouting of the captains and the yell of the beselg ers. The swords clack sharply on the parrying shields, and the vociferation of two armies in death grapple Is hor rible to hear. The battle goes on all day; and as the sun Is setting Ablme lech and his army cry: "Surrender!” to the beaten foe. And. unable longer to resist, the city of Shechem falls; and there are pools of blood and dissevered limbs, and glazed eyes looking up beg glngly for mercy that war never shows, and dying soldiers with their head on the lap of mother, or wife, or sister, j who have come out for the last offices of kindness and affection; and a groan rolls across the city, stopping not, be cause there Is no spot for It to rest, so full Is the place of other groans. A elty wounded! A city dying! A city 1 dead! Wall for Shechem, all ye who know the horrors of a sacked town. As I look over the city, I can find only one building standing, and that Is the temple of the god Berlth. Some sol diers outside of the city In a tower, finding that they can no longer defend Shechem, now begin to look out for their own personal safety, and they fly to this temple of Berlth. They go with in the door, shut it, and they say: "Now we are safe. Ablmelech baa taken the whole city, but he cannot take this tem ple of Berlth. Here we shall be under the protection of the gods.” O Berlth, the god! do your best now for these ref ugees. If you have eyes, pity them. If you have hands, help them. If you have thunderbolts, strike for them. But how shall Ablmelech and his army take this temple nf Berlth and the men who are here fortified? Will they do It with sword? Nay. Will they do It with spear? Nay. With battering ram, rolled up by hundred-armed strength crashing against the walls? Nay. Ablmelech marches his men to | a wood In Zalmon. With his axe he hews off a limb of a tree, and puts that limb upon his own shoulder, and then he says to his men: “You do the same.” They are obedient to their commander. There Is a struggle as to who shall have axes. The whole wood Is full of bend lng boughs, ana tne cracKiing ana tne hacking, and the cutting, until every one of the host has the limb of a tree cut down, and not only .that, but has put It on his shoulder Just as Abimelech ■bowed him how. Are these men all armed with the tree branch? The re ply comes "All armed." And they j inarch on. Oh, what a strange army, with that strange equipment! They come up to the foot of the temple at Berlth. and Abimelech takes his limb of a tree and throws it down; and the first platoon of soldiers come up and they throw down their branches; and the aacond platoon, and the third, until all around about the temple of llerlth there Is a pile ot tree branches. The Shech etnltes look out from the window of the temple upon what seems to thum child ish play on the part of their enemies. But soon the (lints are struck, and the ■parks begin to kindle the brush, and the flame comes up all through the pile, and the red elements leap to the caae meut. and the woodwork begins to blase, aud one arm of flame la thrown up on the right side of the temple, and another atm ol flame ti throwu up on the left side of the temple, uutll they elasp their lurid palms under the will night shy. and the cry of "Klre1" with lit, and "Kirs’" without, announces the terror, and the strangulation, and the doom of the Hhrchenuiea. and the com plete overthrow ot the temple ef the ptil Herlth then there went up g shout, long and loud, from the stout lungs and swarthy chests ef AbltastecH end hie men. as they stood amid the gehee sad the duet crying Victory! victoryr Nee I teem tret trom this subject, the telly ef depending spun any one term ef tactics is seythlng we have to do ter this world es for tied Lmeh ever the oeoponry ef aide* times levs Dm b4tu» •%•*, iitwf|fDiii, n4 iImv ■ee e single weapon with whteh A him •tosh sit hie mew could have gained saefe complete triumph It le we ensy thing to tehe e temple thus armed I have seow e house ehere durigg H e »>sn aaf has Site I t whole rwgttwoat hew after __^ i were 1 aside the map set<1 lore wore let h*ce A hi mete- h gp. they sorrowed this temple, and they rapture It with- i out the loss of a single man on the part of Ablmelech, although I suppose some of the old Israelltlsh heroes told Ablm elech: "You are only going up there to be cut to pieces." Yet you are willing to testify to-day that by no other mode j —certainly not by ordinary modes— I could thattemple soeaslly.sothoroughly have been taken. Fathers and moth ers, brethren and sisters In Jesus Christ, what the Church most wants to | learn, this day, Is that any plan Is right, j Is lawful. Is beat, which helps to over- ' throw the temple of sin, and capture this world for God. We are very apt to stick to the old modes of attack. We put on the old-style coat of mail. We come up with the sharp, keen, glit tering spear of argument, expecting In that way to take the castle; but they have a thousand spears where we have ten. And so the castle of sin stands. Oh, my friends, we will never capture this world for God by any keen sabre of sarcasm, by any glittering lances of | rhetoric, by any sapping and mining , of profound disquisition, by any gun- ; powdery explosions of Indignation, by sharpshootlngs of wit, by howitzers of mental strength made to swing shell j five mllps, by cavalry horses gorgeously caparisoned pawing the air. In vain i all the attempts on the part of these 1 ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light horse men and grenadiers. My friends, I propose a different style of tactics. Let each one go to the for- j est of God's promise and Invitation, and hew down n branch and put It on bis shoulder, and let us all come around these obstinate Iniquities, Hnd then with this pile, kindled by the fires of holy zeal and the flames of a conse crated life, we will burn them out. What steel cannot do, fire may. And I announce myself In favor of any plan of religions attack that succeeds any nlan of religious attack, however radi cal, however odd, however unpopular, however hostile to all the convention alities of Church and State. If one style of prayer does not do the work, let us try another. If the Church music of to-day does not get the vic tory, then let us make the assault with a backwoods chorus. If a prayer-meet ing at half past seven In the evening does not succeed, let us have one as early In the morning as when the angel found wrestling Jacob too much for him. If a sermon with the three au thorized heads does not do the work, then let us have a sermon with twenty heads, or no heads at all. We want more heart In our song, more heart In our almsgiving, more heart In our prayers, more heart In our preaching. Still further, I learn from this sub ject the power of example. If Abim elech had sat down on the grass, and told his men to go and get the boughs, and go out to the battle, they would never have gone at all, or If they had, It would have been without any spirit or effective result; but when Abimelech goes with his own axe and hews down a branch, and with Ablmelech's arms puts It on Ablmelech’s shoulder, and marches on, then, my text says, all the people did the same. How natural that was. What made Garibaldi and Stonewall Jackson the most magnetic commanders of the century? They al ways rode ahead. Oh, the overwhelm - ing power of example! Here Is a father on the wrong road; all his hoys go on the wrong road. Here is a father who enlist for Christ; his children enlist. I saw In some of the picture galleries of Europe, that before many of the great works of the masters the old masters—there would be sometimes four or live artists taking copies of the pictures. These copies they are going to carry with them, perhaps to distant lands; and I have thought that your life and character are a masterpiece, and It Is being copied, and long after you are gone It will bloom or blast in the homes of those who knew you, and be a Gorgon or a Madonna. Look out what you Bay. Look out what you do. Eternity will hear the echo. The best sermon ever preached Is a holy life. The best music ever chanted Is a consistent walk. If you want others to serve God. serve him yourself. If you want others to shoulder their duty, shoulder yours. Where Abimelech goes hts troops go. Oh, start out for heaven to-day, and your family will come after you. and your business as sociates will come after you. and your social friends will Join you. With one branch or the tree or lire for a baton, raarahal just aa many a.* you can to gether. Oh, the Infinite, the teml-ont nlpotent power of a good or bad exam ple! Still further. I learn from thin sub ject the advantage of concerted action. If Abtiuelech had merely gone out with a tree-branch the work would not have l»ecu ai compliahed, or if tt u, twenty, or thirty men had gone but when all the axea are Itfud and all the sharp edges fall, a ltd all then* men carry each bla tree branch down and throw It about the leiutde, ibe victory la gained th* temple falls My friends where there Is one man tn the Church of Ood nt thla day shouldering bla whole duty, there are a great utsny who never lift an ase or swing n bough It seems to me as If there eere ten drone* In every hive te one busv bee as though there were twenty ealtore sound asleep In tn* ship's hammocks to four men on th* Sdorsav deck It seems as If there were •fty thousand men belonging te *he r* serve corps sad only one theusae t “live combatants Oh, we nil wan' •or beats te get ever la the gulden sends, hat the moat of us are mated either tn the prew or m the stem wrapped tn ear striped shawl, heldtag n hip handled sunshade While ether* am blistered tn the heat and pull until the aar lush* groan and the hinds* band till they snap oh yen reltgteu* l*epy beads asks up! feu have lale an ten# *• ee# piece that tbe sat* an t caterpillars bate begun te creel ever rwwt Whai de yee se«* mr brother •bout a living vies pel made te storm the world? Now, my Idea of a Christian Is a man on Are with zeal for God; and if your pulse ordinarily beats sixty times a minute when you think of other themes, and talk about other themes, If your pulse does not go up to seventy* flve or eighty when you come to talk about Christ and heaven. It Is because you do not know the one, and hava a poor chance of getting to the other. In a former charge,one Sunday,I took Into the pulpit the church records, and I laid them on the pulpit and opened them, and said; "Brethren, here are the church records. I And a great many of you whose names are down here are off duty." Some were afraid I would read the names, for at that time some of them were deep in the worst kind of oil stocks, and were Idle as to Christian work. But If ministers of Christ to-day should bring the church records Into the pulpit and read, oh, what a flutter there would be! There would not bn fans enough In church to keep the cheeks cool. I do not know but It would be a good thing If the min* later once In a while should bring the church records In the pulpit and call the roll, for that Is what I consider every church record to be—merely a muster-roll of the Lord's army; and the rending of It should reveal where every soldier Is and what he Is doing. Still further, I learn from this sub lthe ilnm-.r of false refuses. As soon as these Bhechemltes got Into tho temple, thoy thought they were safe. They said: "Berlth will take care of tts, Ablmelech may batter down everything else; he can not batter down this temple where we are now hid." But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. I suppose every person In this audience this moment Is stepping Into some kind of refuge. Here you step In the tower of good works. You say: "I shall he safe In this refuge." The battlements ore adorned; the steps are varnished; on th* wall are pictures of all the suf fering you have alleviated, and all th# schools you have established, and all the fine things you have done. Up In that tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not tho tramp of your unpar doned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. You are kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the suffocation. Oh, may you leap In time, the Gospel declaring; "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be Justified.” “Well,” you say, "I have been driven out of that tower; where shall I go?” Step Into this tower of Indifference. You say: "If this tower Is attacked, It will be a great while before it Is taken.” You feel at ease. But there Is an Ablm elech. with ruthless assault, coming on. Death and his forces are gathering around, and they demand that you sur render everything, and they clamor for your overthrow, and they throw their skeleton arms In the window, and with their Iron fists they beat against th* door, and while you are trying to keep them out you see the torches of Judg ment kindling, and every forest Is a torch, and every mountain a torch, and every sea a torch, and while the Alps, and Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn Into a Jive coal, blown redder and redder by 1 the whirlwind breath of a God omnipo- 1 tent, what will become of your refuge of lies? "But,” says some one, “you are en gaged in a very mean business, driving us from tower to tower.” Oh, no! I want ! to tell you of a Gibraltar that never has 1 been and never will be taken; of a I wail lUtU 1.1 u samuii; assuuii can m;aiu, of a bulwark that the Judgment earth quakes cannot budge. The Bible re fers to It when It says: “In God Is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh! fling your self Into It. Tread down unceremon iously everything that Intercepts you. Wedge your way there. There are enough hounds of death and peril after you to make you hurry. Many a man has perished Just outside the tower, with his foot on the step, with his hand on the latch. Oh! get Inside. Not one surplus second have you to sparer Quick! quick! quick! WELL KNOWNS. Dr. Felix Vulplus, who died In Wei mar the other day. was the nephew of the wife of Goethe, the poet. He was 73 years old. Ex-Speaker Crisp was not born In this country, which explains his temerity In wandering to considerable distances from his cyclone cellar. Mrs. Elisabeth Cody Stanton and oth ers are preparing to write a volume of comments on text* of the Bible usually considered us hostile to woman In her (alter day aspirations. John Itogt-rs' statue of Abraham Lin coln, which has been set up In the Man chaster feneo Ik 1. monh-o ant a,stried a man named Crist, hr whom she had two sons. Chan * and Lout* the present repreaenla In* of the great ikiniiii... w *g > harle* r'rlet until, for commercial r»e “ ««, he assumed the heller known heme Mil) seven tear# ago the tret reeieurent twnrfng the name of leh pi eaten we* wg* hvd the is twee I titter* bank et Meter I *•■ *, la owe* * >'*, > end ike nm mu mg* reaitee (mj.owu DAIRY ANI) POULTRY. NTERESTINC CHAPTERS FOR OUR RURAL READERS. kor« ul Farmer* Op«r>t« Thin Depart mrnt of th« Farm—A Fow Uinta ns to thw Cart of l.lva Mock and Poultry. baervatlon lead* u* to believe that *even-tentba of the fancy poultry breeder* of thla country live In town. By town we mean city, village and hamlet. The atralght out farmer fanclera are very few Indeed. Home — in fact, a large per cent of the town people who keep fine fowl* have aubur ban home*, but the range la generally ineaaured by feet and not by acrea. We believe fully 50 per cent of all the poul try fanclera keep their fowla on or dinary town lot.*' UMiially on the back end of the lot In pen* of amall »i7.e. nf- i_ ___i I..-- mi too. We have fowl* In town on an ordi nary lot In pone from 15 to 20 feet ■t|uare. The town chicken* really look better than the connlry chicken* In their large *l/.ed granny run*. Why? because In the country we depend on he gras* In the run* for green food; at this Hca*on It g< !* old and tough, the fowl* can't eat It and hence they have no green food. In town we grow little patches of oat*, rye and iniiHtard, pull It while young, fresh and tender, and feed It to the fowl* dally. Result:, bright combs and eye*, smooth plumage, eggs, thrift and profit. Marly In the Reason we planted corn and sunflower scatterlngly In our cultl vatable spots, and It Is around and about the corn and the sunflower* that we grow the green stufT. Chleken* like such coverings and will work about In them all day. We throw millet seed In there for which they scratch. We need a United States law which ■hall place filled cheese in the same category with oleomargarine, licensing the manufacturers producing It, plac ing a small tax on each pound manu factured, ar.d holding up It* identity until It reaches the coni utter.—W. A. Henry, University of Wisconsin. Protect Vour Trail*. Protect your trade by not selling scrubs to anyone. Kill and sell for poultry everything not worth $3 per head or more. If every breeder of thoroughbred fowls would do Ibis we should bear less about hucksters and dishonest dealers. Can a man who pretends to breed thoroughbred stock afford to use birds worth less than $3 each? Would he not he better off and sell far more bird* If he did not use a bird worth less than $6. and from (hat to $20 each for females, and $10 to $50 for males? The men who stand the best and sell the most stock are the breeders who use none but the best, and do not put Into their own pens birds they would sell for less than $5 each. Suppose all the first-class hr.. m ituM(I rnriiiifii't to kill every specimen they raise not worth the retail price of $6; the effect would t>e this, that the merit and excellence of the thoroughbred market would do much higher than to-day. Kvery acrub you sell, no matter what the price, stands In the way of a purchase of a better one. The men who now buy a dozen scrubs would put the same amount of money Into a less number of better birds; and you as a breeder would receive more money and a better profit, and stop the propagator! from scrubs, whose influence is lowering the average standing of the breed, and the evil effect upon your trade which comes from having these scrubs pointed out as corning from you; for If you have an enviable reputation, rest assured your name will be used by the second party to persuade the third to buy from umong these low grades. J believe one better wring the necks of culls and give them to the poor than to sell them alive - It Is policy.—Poultry Monthly. Our Font*r Mothrr* At a dairy meeting In New York, re ment Station recently purchased twen ty-four young cattle for use In feeding experiments. The cattle were such as could be obtained In the vicinity. There are better cattle <;nd meny wot s'" on for Motion. The best mutton sheep la ths sheep which has a long body, round barrel, and Is hardy and early In maturing. It should also be plump and solid not merely fat In those portions of ths carcass wnere tn« nesi muuuu is ed. The wool sheep may be very dif ferent. He Is "cultivated" for bis out side, while the mutton sheep Is grown for bis Inside, Mutton Is a great (llsh In "inerrle Kngland," though not quite so national as roast beef; but It hat long been popularly appreciated there, and now Is constantly growing In fa vor on Ibis able of the water. The great drawback In America has been the poor quality of mutton offered. Butchers call anything that belonged to the sheep family "spring lamb," ut terly regardless of Its age and tough ness, and thus fostered a distrust of mutton for table use, J'roperly pre pared It Is a delicious meat delicate and tender; hut do not select ten year | old animals as candidates for popular favor. The strong and sinewy mut ton so often put on the market as spring lamb, has made Inexperienced house keepers suspicious of everything "sheepish," and has caused sheep to he raised for wool rather than for food. The tide Is turning now, for the good ENGLISH BRED BULL ROMEO. _ —- _ Sometimes the chicks eat It, and often they cover It up; we wet it down at night, and In a day or so they have a fresh green sprout Instead of a seed. We let the chicks in on the green In tended for them, but that grown for the fowls we pull and feed In the pens. Green stuff Is the basis of health and vigor In both fowls and chickens, and. mind you. It cuts a big figure In the feed bill. It cuts It down about half, for from a peck of seed we can grow several bushels of sprouts. The green that we grow for the old fowls we gather or pull over three or four times before reseeding, taking sare not to pull up the roots. Hens will lay and chickens grow i and thrive In the back yard to the city residence if they have their "cases" of green.—Poultry Journal We I.ima Hy Fraud, In 1880 the United States exported cheese to the value of $12,170,000. In 1894 the United States exported cheese to the value of $7,180,000- a decrease in exports In fourteen years of 40 per cent. In 1880 Canuda exported cheese to the value of $3,900,000, In 1894 Canada exported cheese to the value of $15,600, 000 an Increase In fourteen years of ; nearly 400 per cent. In Canada the manufacture of filled ■ and skimmed cheese Is prohibited by law, backed up by strong public sent!- | incut. From the hum,drat cheescmaker tku lilulu ui ant'orriiiiMnl iillitlltlH itM* uerglea of I he people have bceu bent toward honeat, wholevoute eheeae and world-wide market* In thla country, in marked conlraal with Canada, many people have been working to produce cheaper cheeee and not better cheer*. V.liluu our own , «tate trade haa been greatly Injured In , >aat year* by aklmmed chawaa and more recently by filled chec»» Tbla ba» now j M'«u atopped by law. Illtnota uianu '.ulurea enurmou* tjuuiillllra of tilled her** each winter, branding much of it m Wlaconatn good*, tbua ataaltug what ahould be a good nam* and break ing down our markatn with a fraud | product Naw York and Wlacooaln are lb* great «b**a»-*ip«rting atalaa- Wt** on •in la by nature lb* greatant chaeaa •tala in the Colon ma la •« by th# nat ural adaptation uf lb* aoll to nutrltloua gta*a**. the pure water* and the cool uigbta tn aumnia* ttwa Oar remmoowaalth baa hot million* •f ootUia bet auae of the laaaea* of onr own people lb tbe mailer of high uual liy and honeat good*, and no* that re formation haa com* *U our good ar t# will tount for Util*. »o long an other * s, London Dally. Wisconsin Dairy tttatlsllcs. A phe nomenal increase lu the dairy Industry In Wisconsin during ths past ten years la shown by the state census returns for test'), now being compiled. The census returns show there ere uow In the sluts 1.334 cheese fsciurtaa, valued at |»4P,5J|, end TVS creameries, valued at |l.44tl,?uT Ths greater number of these have beeu erected during the past ten years, Tbs entire number of cattle and calves on hand, tueludlbg cows lu |»»4, was t.441.kSS, valued at IVk.tMlv.&uk.u. mis year the number uf milch cows I years bid end aver in the stats is kij.uag, valued at 111,443.144, and ths cattle and valves. Including milch runs, number 4 I 343.43T, valued at lak.mw.TM In lid ths number uf pounds uf chess* report id wss 13.4!k.»ou. valued at I3.M4,41131, • hit* this year the number uf pouuds reported was U.fMllt, and the value M viI.Imj m IM4 the number uf pound* uf butler rspufled was j« j|o 431. valued at |A.t4M,4»9to This year th< m-iubef v»f pounds reported was T4,. Sto.flM Slid ths value lit,IIP,If!