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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1897)
t My Fellow Laborer. ]! t> ; •««« : Z By H. RIDER HAGGARD. £ . CIIAITKll V.—(CONTINI Kl.,1 "The work must take care of Itself. t Geoffrey. You must discover the Be- ; crct of yourself; or perhaps you had better |i.!t ihe whole thing In the lire and go buck to practice, At any rate, It hast served my turn, und I i*avc done with It!" "I don’t, understand you!" I answer ed, sinking Into u chair. "Perhaps If you are not in too groat a hurry you will explain a little." "Of course I will, when I have poured out your lea. There now, listen, and I will give you a lesson in human nature, which, with all your bruins, you very much want, Geoffrey. I have been In this house for fourteen years, and I will begin by telling you that from the day that I came In till to-day when i go out, you have never understood me iu the least. Yon have always looked upon me as a simple-minded woman of intellectual capacity, and with a genius ifor mat hematics, and no alms beyond the discovery of scientific secrets. Now, W I will tell you. When I first came to this house us a girl of fourteen, I fell in love with you. You need not look astonished young girls sometimes do that sort of thing. You were good looking In those days, and very clever, «s you are now; and then you were reully und truly a gentleman, and one sees so few gentlemen—I always think they are Ihe scarcest people in the world! "Well, 1 nursed my secret passion and held If. so tight that neither you . nor your wife even guessed It. Kven A iu those days I could form a clear opin ion, and I saw that she would not live long, and that the time would come when I should step Into her shoes. Ho i ui u yuu uri wan i/vihub, w strengthen my hold over her, sud wait ed. la due course the lime came. Vou were a long time before you proposed to me after her death and your head was bo full of your work that I believe yould would have been longer, had I not, by means that were Imperceptible to you, kept continually turning your mind into that channel. Even then you did not Jove me ns I wanted to be loved; but 1 knew (hat this would come After marriage. And then came the crash, and the sudden appearance of an obstacle against which no scheme of m'ne could prevail, overwhtrimeA apd confused me, fUling me with a sense of Impotfjpce that I havs never expert* diced before or slnoe. If you could know, Geoffrey, what a flood of un utterable contempt, rushed into my mind, as i heard you maundering on about your acniplcs and posterity! It drowned my passion. I felt that I was . well rid of a man who could In cold blood give me op to satisfy what he was pleased to call bis conscience! But perhaps you will never quite know or understand how near I went to killing you that night!” Here I started—the whole thing was like a nightmare. Fanny laughed. "Don't be frightened,” Fanny went on; "there’s nothing more melodramat ic to come. I am glad to say that pru dential considerations prevailed! Well, after that fiasco, I reviewed the posi linn a twl rl oloem i nn/l lo ulm1 /, t) . I «/ from habit, partly on account of .John —partly, indeed chiefly, because I was still foolish enough to believe in the Secret of IMe business, and foresaw that when it did succeed my name would be made, and that I should then, bucked as 1 am by my personal ap pearance and capacities, be able ut marry whom 1 liked, or, if I preferred it, not to marry, but to follow any ca reer In life that might recommend its elf to me. “At last, however, the end came. I lost all faith in our work, and saw that you and 1 had only been making fools of ourselves; and consequently 1 do termined to sever a connection that could not bring me credit or pro fit,eith er now or in the future, anil, being a woman, the only way that I could po*~ Hlbly sever it with advantage was by marriage. Kw n. long time I could not fall in with anybody rich enough, when at last a happy accident brought the man within my reach b) the way, J had thought of him for severut years and. of course, 1 took my chance, and married him before auybody could In* Y l erf ere. What Is more, I actually per suaded him to enter Into an engage ment to settle four thousand a year to inv separate use; so you see J (.hull in reality be totslly independent of the tuau!" “And what do you mean to do with jrotirsell now?" I asked, feebly. "Ho* I mean to bask In the sunshine and drink the wtue of lire to know what pleasure and power mean, to live and become rich aud great, and avenge myself upon everybody who Has ever alighted er Injared me! Oh. ye«. | •halt do It. imf I shall use even iwat j miserable little Joseph whom I just 1 now had ttm pleasuie of promising to love, honor and obey, um a scauu to advance tuyasll, He is a pour crea ture, hot sharp enough take » member of I'mluwent you know "That reminds me, ke ie wetting for m« at his club, he was afraid to uau hac k and fit<f jm#a Ml I MHMM H |Utng Weil. |«Mu»i Ay* ti«H>!Vr*v I A»|n tAlt | v«m wilt i Aim A lAMli »l tut . *Mi AliA#t**4t*4 It ill. A Mil I |$«# lui il# Ini i)ia« m mt ImV in Itilfml m tlv lumh trf <»%»* •UMHIiIM ili! Im i| MV tt« Ml 4A ‘HAM I AAttMf till A l! Im Am aAI* (• *i*il iA* imt a )umm i*** mra** |tt« |«MM fci— I A*! I AM M'MI| Hnma H I* v«f| tuM AaI I a! ****** ft*I AM IAommA I luVAl |Ml *§vit At I til Am mi imau|f 1*499 Aft* At Awl I AM ||Ia4 Hu lilt AfNNtC Alt Aa |4M# A IIA |MM UlU|| | AAA tfllf* 1 dreary enough, because I know that I ahall never meet a man like you again, and my minil leave* you hardened and braced and polished by contact with your bright Intellect, and by the con stant study and application you have Instated on till It hna become a second nature to me. I shall inlss you, Geoff rey, but not so much as you will mist me. You will be miserable without me, and no other woman can ever All my place, because I do nut believe that you can And any who I* my equal In Intellectual resource. You sec what happens to people who IndiiRc In scruples! Are you not sorry that you did not mnrry me now?” "Fanny,” I answered, solemnly, for by this time I comprehended the whole horror of the position, ”1 thank the 1’rovldenee which preserved me from Joining my life to that of a woman so wicked as yourself!” "Really, Geoffrey, yon are quite en ergetic! I suppose- that you are piqued at my going. Well, I must be going, but before | go I will lay down a llttlcj axiom for your future guidance; I fear you will think It cynical, but. the truth Is often cynical. ‘Never trust u woman again. Remember that she always has a motive. If she Is under twenty-five, seek for It In her passions; after that In her self Interest.* ” At this moment her face changed, and as It did I heard the tap! tup! of poor John’s crutches as he ciime down the passage. The door opened and the boy entered a feeble, undersized lad, with a plnched-tip white face; and a pair of beautiful blue eyes. ”(!ousln Fanny," he said (he al ways called her cousin), as he- entered, “where are you? I have been looking for you everywhere. Why have they been taking away your big box? Yoci are not going away to stay without me, are you?” "Your cousin is going away for good, John,” I said; und next moment I re ue/ittoil it fi.e It ucou ileouilflll I /1 the look of agony that came upon the. poor lad's face. He loved Fanny with all the strength of his sensitive and exaggerated nature, and for year* had scarcely been able to hear her absence, even for a day. "Oh, no! no!” be screamed, hobbling up to her and catching hold of her dress In lit* hands. "Don’t say you're going, cousin! You can't go and leave me behind." "Geoffrey," she said In a choked voice, "let me take the boy with me. He Is my weak point, I love him as though he were my own. Del me take him. He shall be looked after!” "1 had rather see him dead!" I an swered, sternly, little guessing, bow soon 1 should be taken at my word. She Mooped down und kitted the lari, arwl then turned and went swiftly al most at a run. He seized his crutches and limped down the passage after her at an astonishing pace, calling her by name as he went, till presently one of the crutches slipped, and he fell help less upon the stone flooring, and lay there, still screaming to her through the hall door, which she slammed be hind her. When 1 reached him he was in a fit! The whole thing formed the most horrible, and in its way the most tragic scene that I ever saw; and I often dream of it even now. And here I may add that my poor boy never recovered from the shock. He lingered three months and then died In hls sleep, ap parently from pure inanition. Well, It was a merciful release from a life of almost constant pain! That was the last time that I ever saw Fanny Deneliy, or rather Fanny Hide-Tbompson. CHAPTER VI. HEX John ha<I temporarily recov ered under the treatment, that I had applied, seeing thut 1 could do nothing else for him. I gave him a sleeping draught, and as soon as it had taken effect, I went down stairs Inio the study In a very strange state of mind. I felt as though I had re ceived some dreadful physical shock. I had believed in and trusted Fanny as 1 bad trusted no other woman on earth, except my dear wife, and the lurid light in which she now suddenly revealed herself after these long years positively staggered and blinded nte! Anti yet, after it ail, I was astonished to tint! that I remained load of the wo man and missed her dreadfully. In deed, It was a year or more Is-tore I got over the feeling, and then 1 only did it by the exercise of great self-con trol. I had growu to depend upon her mt entirely that he: help and society s>-< med a necessity lo me. quite alone as 1 was in the world Indeed had It not been for my own rather welt-de veloped pride, I do nut think I should ev.-r hove got over it. Hut this came to the revrue. I could not bear lo re flect that I was iaisiimlual aud so cially bound to the chariot wheels of a woman who had fur year* lawn making g usd of w*. and who was after al). iny inferior And wi by degrees I did get over It; but It has left its uiarh on me tee, II has Ml it* tttsrk’ And then li was os that same disas trous mot sing that a *ug«l*r happened, so strangely and opportunely, that I have at limes been status! isi IlSeet to attribute U to the direct tnterierwnce Sf ItuiMi-ull-il power k ps | us* out out with thinking I turned to w noth mote from habit then anything else, t think only to be wave sums ov er* sum- hi ttys re*.-.-non that there tai i was heipwws The work tumid out go on without the MsxiylWM and whs was to dw them sow that f awny had deserted me t mu *t mi and It Would he the tash of nan to isoA anybody sieo, feu we see «lever iov the under sVeUdrbf o' them t* froww with thw experience. Besides, this I could never afford to pay a man of the necis.iry ability. It appeared, therefore, that there was an end of niy search for the Secret of Mfe. to which I had d< voted the hes: years of my pre< arlotis ixl'l cure. It was all hut labor los . nod would benefit neither myself nor man kind. This conviction rushed upon me ms I stood there by the pile of pa pers, then for the llrsr time | quite broke down under the srciimulated w< Ight of sorrows, and, putting my bands bofoie my face, I sobbed like n child! The paroxysm passed, and with It passed, too, nil my high ambitions, f must give It up, and go hack a fail ure to what little practice I could get until sin h time a* the end came. ClIAlTKIt VII, S I stooped to Rath er up the various papers, I noticed that on the table before me lay a great sheet of Fan ny's i alciilatlons, which she had been employed upon the previous night. The top of the sheet was covered with two dense armies of figures and sym bols, marching this way and that, hut toward the bottom they thinned out wonderfully, till there remained two little lines only of those that had sur vived the crooked ways of ma'hematl cul war. (evidently she had laid down her pen (as she sometimes would) Just before (he termination of the prob lem, which I was aware she had been engaged on for several days, I knew hut little of the higher mathematics, hut I could see If the left-hand line were subtracted from the right, the difference would he the result sought for, provided the problem bail been worked out without error. 1 took a pencil and did this Idly enough. The first time I made a mistake, but even with the mistake the result was suf fblently startling to make me run my eye*. I did It again, and then sank hack Into the chair behind me with a gasp, and trembling ae though 1 had unwittingly raised a ghost! And no wonder. For there before me wa* the Key to the great Secret for which we hud been wearily seeking eo many year*! There wa* no mistake about it! I knew what. It ought to be, and what conditions It must fulfill; and there It wa*, the last product of wore* of sheet* of abstruse calculation* based upon law* that could not He. There It wa*! She bad stopped Just abort of It, aod at. length I had tri umphed! the fast, obstacle to sue****, complete, absolute succes*, wa* gone! I had wrung the answer to the great question which torments the world from the stony heart of the almighty taw that govern* It! “If she had known thl*, Fanny would not have gone!” I said aloud, and then, what between one thing and another, I fainted! Iro ur, r.onii.vi so.) A Sparrow’s Hide In m fly Wheel. Bird* have all sort* of queer adven ture*, hut perhaps what wa* the odd eat one of recent day* Is that which be fell a sparrow at Anderson, Ind. It flew Into a knife and bar manufactory, and, getting too near a small wheel, wa* sucked In. The workmen noticed It go Into the wheel, but knowing that the cylinder wa* revolving at a speed of 130 revolutions a minute, took It for granted that the bird was killed. When the factory *hut down at noon the mpir were astonished to hear a gen tic chirp from the wheel, and lu, there was the sparrow au well as ever. They ! found that the bird had clung to the ! strengthening rod of the wheel, and was In a seml-dazed condition. They picked him up and put him on a table, and thence, after collecting his wits, the little bird flew to freedom. The wheel in which the bird rode made ! 31,000 revolutions while It was upon it, 1 and so the tiny feathered creature I traveled seventy-three and eighi | tenths miles iu the embrace of a fly 1 wheel. A Qawr-lnaklss Word. Supposing that you had been born blind, ami after living many years shut out front the beautiful things of tne world, some skilled surgeon should give to you your sight, wouldn't you have some marvelous experiences? says ttie Chicago Record. An old man who t ad iieeit born blind bad bis sight thus re stored to hint At Unit he started \i8. Irmly and was afraid of the strange thlngti around him, the hugeness of bis room and Us contents. One of the fl;st things lie saw at (he window was a Hoik of sparrows. "What ure they?" asked the pby sit lun “I think they are tramps, w» tne reply. A watch was then shown to him ami In knew what It wna, probably br<aus« he heart) It lick latter, on seeing tha Hallo- of a lamp hr tried to pick It up, not having the slight**! Idea ef itg tsaiurt A vtrewl Help Mrs. IHioratun it has brrtr a hard winter ioa am M> three grown grin have been very little help to me The l<unr thing* its not strong enough to -to ik" waihtng and thsy haven t • butts* good enough to apply t#r any worh IMstrlrl Vieilor Hot yon MV they has# rkk relalivea don I they both aft*t them Mr* IksHSiil itsf lyi tlnty their nuiih, ma'am only thetr moral# tloahan iknwist ttsmi lesaaey. Vsasi -tike ve gm i am > ook that * a wonder I’vtms-iubenk hkst'i the mat tor ntth hat* ' Abe# been tn tee htotae IV t* weeks and ISO one ha* heard her sar * hat make n h*Pt >ka rids* - Von hers ptaieeman TALM AGE'S SERMON. "NARROW ESCAPES" LAST SUNDAY'S SUBJECT. Ifrnlit »f.« I fellow lrt|( Ini. .1 if* tlV, tO: *1 A in f 'm .tilt'll U lift | lid* Milii tit M' 1 rrl!»** I lid* T«*l w*» It Mfljr lid* A(»f»ll«ul l«i Our 1.1»d * In 'I lilt Agt* of tff OH hud It hard. || What with boll*, ,,.j( /_|| and bereavement*, 'r y and bankruptcy, / /ll and a fool of a ^ wife, he wlatied he . ’I ( waa dead, and I do / / jfj not blarne him. / lila fleah waa gone /jK\ anti hi* bonce were y 'dry. Ill* teeth wasted away until nothing but th< enamel »eemed left, lie erled out, "I am eytaped with the *kln of my teeth.1' There ha* been some difference of opinion about thl* pa**agc Ht. Jo* rorno and Bcbulteni, and Doctor* flood and Poole and Hume* have all fried their force pa on Jot)'* teeth. You deny my Interpretation, and *ay, "What did Job know about the enam el of the teeth?” ID knew everything about tt. Dental aurgery la almoat a* old a* the eurth, The mttmmle* of Kgypt, thouauud* of year* old, are found to-day with gold Ailing In their teeth. Ovid, and Horace, and Holo mon, and Mo*e* wrote about tt'ene Im portant factor* of the body. To other provoking complaint*, Job, I think, ha* added an exa«perat.lng toothache, and putting hi* hand again*! the Inflamed face, he *ay*, "I am escaped with the «kln of my teeth.’’ A very narrow ccrape, you ^-ay, for Job'* body and coul; hut there are t lx ,1.. i.m ii.t.i. mo L Iiil I u u narrow escape for their soul. There wax a time when the partition between them and ruin was no thicker than a tooth's enamel; but, as Job finally es caped, so have they. Thank God! thank Cod! Paul expresses the same Idea by a different figure when he rays that some people are "saved ax by fire," A vessel at M<a is In flames. You no to the stern of the vessel. The boats have shoved off. The flames advance; you can endure the heat no longer on your face. You slide down on the side of the vessel, and hold on with your fingers, until the forked tongue of the firs begins to ll'k the back of your hand, and you feel that you must fall, when one of the life-boats cornet- back, arid the passengers say (hey think tb»-y have room for one more. The boat swings under you you drop Into It you arc saved. Ho sum'- men are pursued by temptation until they are partially consumed, but aftrr all get off "saved as by fire." But 1 like the figure Of Job a little better than that of Paul, bo-ause the pulpit has not worn It out; and I want to show you If God will help, that some men make narrow escape for their souls, at.d are saved as "with the skin of their teeth," It Is as easy fur some people to look to the Gross ax for you to look to this pulpft. Mild, g< title, tractable, loving, you expect them to become Christians. You go over to the store and nay, “Grandon Joined the church yester day." Your business comrades say, "That Is Just what might have been expected; he always wh« of that, turn of mind." In youth, this person whom I describe was always good. He never broke things. He never laughed when it was Improper to laugh. At seven, he could eft an hour In church, per fectly quiet, looking neither to the right hand nor the left, but straight Into the eyes of the minister, at though he understood the whole dis cussion about the eternal decree*. He never upset things nor lost them. He floated into the kingdom of God so gradually that it is uncertain just when the matter was decided. Here is another one, who started in life with an uncontrollable spirit. He kept the nursery in an uproar. His mother found him walking on the edge of the house-roof to see if he could balance himself. There was no horse that he dared not ride- no tree he could not climb. His boyhood was a long series of predicaments; his man hood was reckless, his mid-life very wayward. Hut now he Is e.inverted, and you go over to the store i.nd say, ••Arkwright Joined the church yester day." Your friends say, "it is not possible! You must be Joking" You say, “No. I tell you the truth. He joined the church ." Then they reply, "There is hope for any of us tf old Arkwright has become a Christian!' In Other words, we will admit that It 1* more dlllettll for some men to ac cept the Gospel than for others. I may be preaching to some who has* rut loner from churches, and Hi | hire, and Sundays, and who have no i Intention of becoming Christiau< themselves, and yet yon may And yourself escaping, before you lews# this house, a* "with the skin of your teeth." I do not espwet t* waste this hour. I have seen hunts go »lf from Cape Mar »t l>>na lira to h and drop their Mei». sad after t«kn« tins* ashore, putting it. the nets without | having caught a single n«h. It was I not a good dst nr th« • had not the | right kind of | i,et Hut We t ape*' t.o i such eveurwtae to The Water is | full of A»h. the wind I* In the ugh; ill# ■#!.-#| tht f I# *' MittM i■ - «J *. . fc* . Jilt n ir J 1 iH tfc t> »*» !mm •♦*4 I Hbwi («| t tft •#$* | « ium, w<U ll§lv t i W 4'?«'!- •'4 *tf*- twill ftvUtdlil i! ti *« f jv* • i »t-tjf iii ft ji « I -f* t„> ihmh I * f *«4r i» 1-4 H* t < #*4> il|k tMn » H% * §t fftn <• ie| \M. H, k # 49 I, if h#V &*%• I come to your present state, I know not. There are two Rates to your nature; j j the gate of the head, and the gate of the heart. The gate of your head Is I locked with bolts and bars that an ' tichongei could nut break, hut the | gate of your In art swings ezsily on Its j hinges. II I assaulted your body with weapons you would meet me with weapons, and it would he sword-stroke j for swoid-stroke. and wound for wound, and blood for blood; hut If I | | come and knock at the door of your ! house, you open It, and give me the heal seat in your parlor. If I should conie at you now with an argument, you would answer me with an argu ment; If with sarcasm, you would an- j ! swrr me with sarcasm; blow lor blow. stroke for stroke; but wheu I come . ar.d knock ut the door of your heart, you open It and say, "Come In, my brother, and tell me all you know about Christ and heaven,” Listen to two or three questions: Are you as happy us you used to he ; when you believed In the truth of the | Christian religion? Would you like to havi your children travel on In the j road lu which you are now traveling? j You hud a relative who professed to j j he a Christian, and was thoroughly ! 1 consistent, living and dying In the faith of the Ooapel. Would you not like to live the same quiet life and die the aarne peaceful death? I hold In my hand u letter, seut me by one who has rejected the t'hrls ian reli gion. it says; "I am obi enough to know that the Joys and j leasurea of life are evanescent, and to realize the fact that It must, be comfortable In old | age to believe In something relative j : to the future, and to have faith in | some system that proposes to suve. i ! ' am free lo confess that I would he happier If 1 could exercise the sim ple and beautiful faith that i* possess ed by many whom I know. I am not willingly out of the church or out of 1 the faith. My state of uncertainty Is ; one of unrest. Hometlmes I doubt my ! ,___. .... .. ' bed as the dosing scene, after which 1 there In nothing. What shall 1 do that I have not done?" Ah! scepti cism Is a dark and doleful land. last . me say that this Htbl* Is either true or false. If It be false, we art as well < off as you; If It be true, then which of j ua Is safer? I-et me also ask whether your trouble j has not been that you tonfouuded . ! Christianity with the Inconsistent [ \ character of some who profe. ... It? You j arc a lawyer. In your profession there 1 arc mean and dishonest men. Is that anything against the law? You are a ! doctor. There are unskilled and eon- i templlhle men In your profession. Is that anything against, medicine? You are a merchant. There are thieves and j defrauders In your business. Is that anything against merchandhe? He- j hold, (hen, the unfairness of diarglng upon Christianity the wickedness of Its dbciples. We admit seme of the charges against those who profess re llgion. Some of the most gigantic j swindles of the present day have been earrled on by members of the church. There are men standing In the front rank In the chin Chet, who would not ; he trusted for five dollars without good collateral security. They leave their business dishonesties: In the vesti bule of the church as they go in and i sit at the communion. Having con i eluded the sacrament, they get up. wipe the wine from their lips, go out, and take up their sins where they left ; off. To serve the devil is their regu lar work; to serve Cod a sort of play \ spell. With a Sunday sponge they ex pect to wipe off from their business j slate all the past week's inconsisten such a man's life an a specimen of re ligion than you have to take the twisted Irons and split timbers that lie on the beach at Coney Island as a specimen of an American ship. It is time that we draw a line between re ligion and the frailties of those who , profess it. Do you not feel that the Bible, take it all in all, is about the best book that the world has ever seen? Do you know any book that has as much in It? Do you not think, upon the whole, that its intiuencc has been beneficent? I come to you with both bunds extend ed towards you. In one band I have the Bible, and in the other band I have nothing. This Bible In one band ■ I will surrender forever Just as soon 1 as in my other band you can put a ! book that is belter. I invite you back into the good old fashioned religion of your fathers—to ! the Uod whom they worshipped, to lb*; Bible (hey resd. to the promises on j | which they leaned to the cross on which they bung their Herns1 expeeta i tior.s. You have not teen happy a day ! since you swung off. you will not be happy a minute until you swing 1 tack. If, with til the influences 'storable for a right l‘.ta, men make to man) 1 mte’akcr, hue much harder is il when, for instance, tome appetite thrusts its iron grapple into the roots of the tongue, aad pails a mat down with heads u! dssirartloa? If, uadsr each dr> unistances he break assy there will ire ao sport lit the under tak leg, ao i holiday eajoymeat, hat a struggle in , whtfh th* wrssi’era move fr <m side to side aad heal, aad twtsi aad stiik 1 for an ->ppurtuait> to get la a heat ter stroke uattl with one Haul effort in whl<h th* at use lee sr* die traded aad the veins ecaed sal aad the Hood sin>ts, the t**rthr MW falls asder the ha** of the tutor seeeptd at last a* with th* skia of his teeth ‘ The eh i Ileum* bound frogs <>uUeh* burs to Ikusuk was tailing us whea 11a# aua “a the iooh-uwt saw something that he pt sMsoua4 e vessel lot lean up I hers See Sc meththg an It that Me kill ilk# * sea gut), hat was tlhrsiif found ta ha a waving hsndhsrehiaf ta the • a, i i || < •• 11 ■ (| gg . .« wreck, anti found that It waa a cap sized vernal, and that three men had beeu digging their way out through the boltoiii of the nhlp. Warn the v-ael i upal/.ed they had no mean* of escape. I h> captain took hie prnknlfe and dug nwny through the plunk* until hia Knife broke. Then an old nail waa. found, with which they attempt'd to he rape their way up out of the dark neea, each one working until hla hand waa well-nigh paralyzed, and he sank hack faint and alck. After lung and fcdioiia work, the light br< n hrough the hot lorn of the ahip A handker chief waa holaled. Help came. They were taken on board the vcxael and laved. Irld ever men rorne ko wu. it watery grave without dropping Into-lt? How narrowly they cicaped cacnped only "with the akin of their teeth." There are men who have been capalzed of evil puhilona, and cape.lzed mld oi >-un, and they are a I huuaand mil* a away from any ahorc of help. They have for yean been trying to dig the.ir way out. They have been digging, away, and digging away, but they can never be delivered unlen now they will holal aome signal of distress. However weak and fieble It. may lie, Christ will aee it, arid bear down upon th* helph •* craft, and take them on Iroard; end It will be known on earth and In heav en how narrowly they cicaped, "es caped ai with the skin of tbelr teeth." There are othera who In attempting to come to Hod. mu*t run let ween c great many bualneia perplegitle*. If it loan go over to builneia at ten o’clock In the morning, and come away at three o’clock In the afternoon, he haa aomu time for religion; but how aball you find time for religion* contempla tion when you arc driven from stiririao to aumet, and have been for five year* going behind In bualneaa, and are fre quently dunned by creditor* whom you cannot pay, and when from Monday morning until Saturday night, you aro. dodging bills that you cannot meet? You walk day by day In uncertainties that have kept your brain on fire fur the past three years. Home with Jess business troubles than you have go.ie crazy. The clerk has heard n noise In the back counting-room, and gone in, and found the chief man of the firm a raving rnanalc; or the wife has heard the hang of a pistol In the hack parlor, and gone In, (fumbling over the dead body of her husband a suicide. Thera> are men pursued, harrassed. trodden down, and scalped of business perplexi ties, and which way to turn next they do not know. Now God will not l<* hard on you. He knows what obstacles are In the way of your being a Chris tian, and your first effort In the right direction he will crown with success. I)o not let Satan, with cotton bales, and kegs, and hogsheads, and counters, and stocks of unsalable goods, block up your way to heaven. Gather up all your energies. Tighten the girdle about your loins. Take an agonizing look Into the face of God, and then say, "Here goes one grand effort for life eternal,” and then bound away for heaven, escaping "as with the skin of your teeth ” This world Is a poor portion for your soul, oh, business man! An Kastern king had graven on his lomb two fin gers, represented as sounding on each other with a snap, and under them the motto, "All Is not worth that.” Apl clus Goellus hanged himself because bla steward Informed him that he had only eighty thousand pounds sterling left. All of this world’s riches make but a small Inheritance for a soul. Robespierre attempted to win the ap plause of the world; hut when be was dying, a woman came rushing through the crowd, crying to him, "Murderer of my kindred, descend to hell, covered with the curses of every mother in Prance!” Many who have expected the plaudits of the world have died un der Its Anathema Maranatha. Ob. find your peace in God. Make one strong pull for heaven. No half way work will do it. There sometimes comes a time on Khipboard when every thing must be sacrificed to Have the passengers. The cargo is nothing, tbfr rigging nothing. The captain puts the trumpet to bis lip and shouts. “Cut away the mast.” Some of you have been tossed and driven, and you have, in ycur effort! to keep the world well night lost your soul, l.'ntil you have decided this matter, let everything else go. Overboard with all those other anxieties and burdens. You will have to drop the nails of your pride, and cut away the mast. With one earnest cry for help, put your cause into the hand of him who helped Paul out of the breakers of Melita, and who. above the shrill blast of the wratbieet tem pest that ever blackened the sky or shook the ocean, can hear the faintest tmplora'.ioe for mercy. I shall close this sermon feeling that some of you. who have anttdi>c<| your case as hopeless, will take to art again, and that with a blood-red ear* neatness. »u*.b as you have never ex perienced before, you will *:«rt for the gets! land of the (loupe! -at last to *<>ok bark »aylug "What 4 great risk I tan' Almost lost, lot Hsved' lost got through end no more* IN-sited by the skin of my teeth,” • rv.Ui tl I hre-MnWllV. He* J H Ibiio .ta of Wat hens, Kan-, d u.-svid tile i oggirfatloi, .u Ivy «*.*h ' vdtns them tu a wheat Held di.*.t>d an*' worked with them in dnitritg i .llR.*r R.,p|.lejf*- » wheat \Y it* H g;*# gurlster who had already come**:****! the imU«j noticed a storm approach* lag ke slowly toted bur upon Hi • end sold, II;ethten | htlww ,a «• *■ - * > tpiag iM hot a hen * y min le * one* m g op and x*.ght*M tteppieye r wheat Is in lives** oe will * Nwm Iks stia w end help him . is* k II ” I MM HOwtW A Wells* l » X I v uvv,* ,*» hi | e Osh# in her arms n*|e<1 ** *»*w ii.e relvtoed i*%*h Mi fr**M of an spm**a<e* troin to renews her pet top ids* and Ike tkild am die. hot the ,»#•*. peied t* :* of Mm* hiosnehold *» ,*»4 e.thwot *k« lean of n stogie »n>l Ml h* * **•* ivutel appewdago Ike hay* *4 j*;* ., deeds are net y*» passed