TALMAGfi'S SERMON. “MEN AND WOMEN NEEDED/* LAST SUNDAY’S SUBJECT. “Who KnowHIi Whether Thou Art Come to tlio Kingdom for Hu«li * Tlmo a« ThU" Ivitlu-r, Umpter IV. Verne 14. -~ 8THER the bcauti fill was the wife of Abasuerus the abominable. The time had como for her to present a petition to her In famous husband in behalf of the Jew ish nation,to whteb she had once be longed. She was afraid to undertake the work, lest she should lose her own life; hut her cousin, Mordecal, who had brought her up, encouraged her with the suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that, pe culiar mission. "Who knoweth wheth er thou art come to the kingdom for such a tlmo as this?" Esther had her God-appointed work. You and I have ours. It is my busi ness to tell you what style of men and women you ought to be in order that you meet the demand of the ago In which God has cast your lot. So this discourse will not deal with the tech nicalities, but only with the practica bilities. When two armies have rushed Into battle, the officers of either army do not want a philosophical discussion about the chemical properties of hu man blood or the nature of gunpowder; they want some one to man the hat terles and take out the guns. And now. when all the forces of light and •darkness, of heaven and hell, have plunged Into the fight, It is no time to give ourselves to the definitions and formulas and technicalities and con ventionalities of religion. What we want Is practical, earnest, concentrat ed, enthusiastic and triumphant help. In the first place, In order to meet the special demand of this age, you need to be an unmistakable, aggressive Christian. Of half-and-half Christians we do not want any more. The church of Jesus Christ will he better without them. They are the chief obstacle to the church’s advancement. I am speaking of another kind of Christian. All the appliances for your becoming an earnest Christian are at your hand, and there Is a straight path for you into the broad daylight of God's for giveness. You muy this moment he the bondmen of the world, and the next moment you may be princes of the Lord God Almighty. You remem ber what excitement there was In this country, years ago, when the Prince of Wales came here—how the people rushed out by hundreds of thousands to see him. Why? Because they ex pected that some day he would sit up on the throne of England. But what was all that honor compared with the honor to which God calls you—to he sons and daughters of the Lord Al mighty; yea, to he queens and klug3 unto God. "They shall reign with hlui forever and forever." 1 was once amid the wonderful, be witching cactus growths of North Car olina, I never wag more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and yet when I would take up one of these •cactuses and pul! the leaves apart the beauty was all gone. You could hard ly tell that It had ever been a flower. And there are a great many Christian people In this day just pulling apart their Christian experiences to gee what there Is in them, and there is nothing left In them. This style of self-examination Is a damage instead of an advantage to their Christian character. I remember when I was a boy 1 used to have a small piece in the garden that I called my own, and 1 planted corn there, and every few days 1 would pull it up to see how fast it was growing. Now, theie are a great many Christian peo ple in this day whose self-examination merely amounts to the pulling up of that which they only yesterday or the day before planted. Oh. my friends. I " .* V a ill lj* tlun character, plant It right out of door* In the great Held of Christian usefulness, and though storms may come upon It. and though the hot sun of trial muy try to consume It. It will thrive until It become* a great tree. In which th* fowl* of heaven may have their habitation. I have no patience with there (tower-pot Christians. They keep themselves under shelter, and all their Christlau experience in a siualt, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant It Itt the great garden of the Lard, so that (be whole atmos phere could he aromatic with their Christian u*«fulur**. What we waul In the church of God Is more strength of piety. The century plant la won derfully suggestive and wonderfully beautiful, but I never tooh *t it with out thinking of lu parsimony It let* • hole genvrntlun* go by before It put* forth uue blossom, so I have really more admiration when I see the dewy | • earn in the blue eye* of the violet, for they com* every spring My Chris tun friend*, time la going by *w rap Idly 'hat we can not ilutd la ho idle VMli, tt you waul to be guatihed to mart the duties which this age tie j m tad* of you you must, on one hand aeoid reckless tenauel**m and on the Hiker hand. put sil*h too mack to thing* beegua* they are old The alt t« full of pew plans, new prwjeeta, pew tpwnrtwn of gwternmen* pew ibewtugtea •»t t am amated '«* w* hew *>• mawt Christian* want only n >v*l«» tp wrd- r M rev rnmewd a tklpp k-y are wnkappr Mew plan* seen | l*i. ethiegL pkihmupkWal religion* • vwAiianihr, Iras* AtUait* long swowgk tw make a line r*'**kiag ftwo* the Geraaan ewlveremee te Great halt {i Lake City. Ah. my brother, do not take hold of a thing merely because it is new! Try It by the realities of the Judgment Day. But, on the other band, do not adhere to anything mere ly herause It is old. There Is not a single enterprise of the church or the world but has sometime been scoffed at. There was a time when men de rided even Bible societies, and when a few young men met In Massachusetts and organized the first missionary so ciety ever organized in this country, there went laughter and ridicule all around the Christian church. They said the undertaking was preposterous. And so also the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried out, "Who ever heard of such theories of ethics and government? Who ever noticed such a style of preaching as Jesus has?" Kzekle] had talked of myste rious wings and wheels. Here came a man from Capernaum and Gennessaret and He drew Ills Illustrations from the lakes, from the sand, from the moun tain, from the lilies, from the corn stalks. How the Pharisees scoffed! How Herod derided! And this Jesus they plucked by the heard and they spat In Ills face, and they called Him “this fellow!” All the great enter prises In and out of the church have at times been scoffed at, and there huve hern a great multitude who have thought that the chariot of God's truth would fall to pieces If It once got out of the old rut. And so there ate those who have no patience with any thing like Improvement In church architecture, or with anything like good, hearty, earnest church singing, and they deride any form of religious discussion which goes down walking among everyday men, rather than that which makes an excursion of rhetor ical stills. Oh, that the church of God would wake up to an adaptability of work! Wp must udmlt the simple fact I that the churches of Jesus Christ In this day do not reach the great masses. | There are fifty thousand people In Kd- j ililmriZ’h wild Miivpr thn flrmtipl. There are one million people in Lon- ! don who never hear the Gospel. The great majority of the Inhabitants of i this capital como not under the Im mediate ministrations of Christ’s truth, and the Church of God in this day, in stead of being a place full of living epistles, known and read of all men, is more like a dead-letter postofOce. ‘‘Gut," say the people, “the world is going to be converted; you must be pa tient; the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of Christ.” Never, unless the church of Jesus Christ puts on more speed and energy. ' Instead of the church converting the ' world, the world is converting the church. Here Is a great fortress. How shall it be taken? An army comes and sits around about ft, cuts off the supplies, and says; “Now we j will just wait until from exhaustion and starvation they will have to give up.” Weeks and months, and perhaps a year pass along, and finally the fort ress surrenders through that starva tion and exhaustion. Hut, my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be taken in that way. If they are taken ! for God It will be by storm; you will j have to bring up the great slegu guns I of the Gospel to the very wall and j wheel the flying artillery into line, and when the armed Infantry of heaven shall confront the battlements you will have to give the quick command: “Forward! Charge!” Ah, ray friends, there is work for you to do and for me to do in order to this grand accomplishment. I have a pul pit. I preach in it. Your pulpit Is the bank. Your pulpit is the store. Your pulpit Is the editorial chair. Your pul- I pit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the | house of scaffolding. You pulpit Is the \ mechanics’ shop. I may stand in my i place and, through cowardice or | through self-seeking, may keep back \ the word I ought to utter; while you, 1 with sleeve rolled up and brow be- j sweated with toil, may utter the word ' that will jar the foundataions of | heaven with the shout of u great vie- ! ivjij. «/ii, utigui uii irci mat the Lord Almighty is putting upon us the hands of ordination! - 1 tell you, every one, go forth and preach this Gospel. You have as much right to preach as 1 have or any man living. Medley Vicars was a wicked man in the Kugllsh army. The grace of God came to him. Me became an earnest and eminent Chrlsllun. They scoffed at him aud said: "You are a hypocrite, you are as had as ever you were.” ' Still he kept his faith In Christ, and after a while, finding that they could not turn him aside by calling him a hypocrite, they said to him: "Oh. you , are nothing hut n Methodist!” This did not disturb hint. Me went on per- j forming his Christian duty until he had formed all his troops Into a lllbls class, and the whole encampment was shaken with the presence of God. So Mavetork went Into the heathen tem ple in India while the Kngltsh army was there and put a candle Into the hand of each of the heathen gftds that stood around la the heathen temple, sad by Ihe tight of Ihoaa candles held up by lha Iduls Uen Havelock preach »d righteousness, temperance, and lodgment to coma And who will say »u earth or In heavan that Havelock ksd not the right to preach* In the Minister's hunt where I prepared for railage there worked a man hr Ihe same of Petes t'swy Me could neither read nor write hut he was a man of d-d Often theologians would elop In >he house grave thewtugiaae and at lamtiy prayer Peter Cray w mid he railed upon to lead, and all Ihoaa wla* men sat around wonder struck at hi* i -el gtous *•- iea tear la IrtNad, about iff ta gag la ad yt Keaaa about ninety del*. aad Ip Nr- ' serta only etaty Aar* | IT TBAVKLS ON LAND. A QUEER STEAMER TO DE FOUND IN DENMARK. It Kiiiit on Tito Lnkca and tl>* I»tlimr.a l!«tw«0n i’MMmigrra Du Not DUfia* •»*rk rrluelple of thfl (tout — Two Hiu^ntiuBi. In Denmark they have a boat which travels both on land and water. J. W. Smith writes of this curiosity In the Strand Magazine: This might be called the crocodile of boats, for she seems as much at home on land as In water. She comes up out of the water, as shown In tfcir first illustration, crosses a narrow strip of land on a little railway, and descends into the water again with ut most grace of motion. During her short career of three summers, she has safely carried over forty thousand peo ple, most, of whom have been Intensely attracted by the novelty of the thing. Kor the Swan Is, I believe, the only Itoat of her kind In the world. To see her. you must go to Denmark. A half-hour by rail northward from Co penhagen will bring you to a little vil lage named l.yngby, which lies on the edge of one of three beautiful lakes. These are greatly beloved by the Co penhagenltcs, who use them for recrea tion. The likeness Is even more evi dent after you have boarded one of the little steam launches which ply from l.yngby to Krederiksdal ucross Lake l.yngby for this launch, sometimes with two or three crowded and stocky barges In tow, soon enters a pretty lit tle creek, which winds and twists like the upper reaches of the Thames. The trip to Krederiksdal takes about half an hour, and costs half a kroner— slightly more than sixpence. As the amphibious boat lies by the landing stage at Krederiksdal ready to take her passengers on board, she looks much the same as other boats. If. for a mo ment, we may call attention to the Swan discharging her passengers at rreueriasuai, we may note inis simi larity, except that the Swan Ih slightly broader, with her lines full fore and aft, in order to allow a framework for the wheels. Wheels? Yes, most cer tainly, for how else could she go over the rails on the Fiskebaek, out of the water and In again? It Is In regard to the double use of wheels and propeller that the Swan Is unique, and If a little technical language Is pardoned, the construction may be easily explained. There is plenty of time to do it, for the boat is now on her way across bake Fure—or, as the Danish call It, the Fure So—and it will be over an hour before she rides on the railway at Fiskebaek. The boat, then, is 46 feet long, 9 feet 6 inches beam, and draws 3 feet to 3V6 feet of water, according to the load. Seventy passengers can be comfortably carried, and, at a pinch, she will take eighty-four. With a full load she weighs 15 tons, anil when emp ty 11*6 tons. Parallel with the pro peller shaft 1b another shaft, one end of which runs to within 10 feet of the bow, and these two shafts are connected with each other "by chain gearing, like the two wheels of a bicycle. The end of the second shaft is connected near the bow by bevel gears, to a little shaft at right angles, and on this shaft are keyed the two little wheels which carry the boat across the rails. Another pair of wheels is to be found at a like dis tance from the stern, but these are not driven. These are used to keep the boat on the rails, and, with the help of a brake, from going Into the water too quickly. The wheels are about 18 inches in diameter, and carry two flanges, the bearing surface being a lit tle wider than the rails upon which they run. So much for the heavy descrip tion. It is. however, always necessary, although I daresay that two-thirds of the 40,000 people who have sailed In the Swan have thought of little else except the mere fact that they were sailing In n boat on wheels. The in terest of the passengers in this ‘•mere fact" Is always shown as the Swan ap proaches the end of her trip across the Fure So. They crowd to the bow, ex pecting every moment to see the how rising out of the water, as if it were a whale that had suddenly decided t-> ionic to the surface. Hut the trlek is not done with sky-roekei quickness; instead, the boat gradually nears the shore, where a little dork has been eon- > atrueted of piles rammed down into the | mud. It is a V-shaped arrangement tapered down until It Isouly two turtles , wider than the boat at its widest part. | That ia to say, there remains Imt one ; inch on each side of the parallel «leafs or fllleta which rim along the side of ! the boat. Aa the hunt lits tightly, there is no chance for It to wobble, and pas- ( etigers are tuu< h safer ou It than they i 1 would Ims on a 'bus or an electric car. When the narrowest part of this V- | 1 shaped dock Is reached, the Swan en 1 ‘ers a small parallel dock of equal width and mum onward slowly until the front wheel* on tha keel touch the | I tails, which, for this purpose have been j i Till! «W4N C* Hlug, A Cincinnatian but lately returned from England tellH of a rather novel in novation In the way of locks anti keys, or to speak more correctly, key. At a country place he visited he was sur prised to see his host unlock the gate way of the place with a small key that In some mysterious way was produced from a large seal ring he wore. Yet the ring was not large enough to lte conspicuous by reason of Its size or style. As he expressed some surprise in the matter, his host said; "This is a master key. You see, it slides under the set in the ring, and occupies no space whatever. It will unlock every lock about the place, even my dressing bag, my trunk, my bond box and wine cellar." He was asked as to the ar rangement in general; whether one key, Bay of the butler, would unlock the front door. "Not at all." he replied. •The locks are all arranged In suites. The butler ran unlock all the doors that ire In his department, and the house keeper can uulock the linen closets and ather doors under her supervision, but she cannot get into the butler's do main. And in every other department about the place from end to end every me has his or her key, but I have nnly the master key. All of the doors ipen to me. My valet can open my Iressiug case and closets, but he can not get a bottle of wine. Of course, lie arrangement In a seal ring is uov »l, but It is very handy for me. In lie first place, 1 cannot lose it. and in he second place, everything opens to ne without asking a question Cincin nati Enquirer. sh« WanttMl I’roof. Tramp Madam, have pity on a lour man out of employment, I have lot tasted food for two days." laidy -- What la your occupation?" Tramp— ■| was formerly a teacher of stage laming" lady—"Well, take this ax md go around to the wood pile and iee If you have forgotten how to do he spill.'* An Oklahoma lawyer named Crank uss petitioned the court to change his lame DISCOVERIES IN SCOTLAND. Hp#<'lmeitM of (:e|>lml*i|>la Fonnd la S CIIIT at Oallnnarh. (Scottish Letter.! The district in and around Oban ras in recent years yielded antiquarian and geological discoveries of peculiar scien tific value and importance. In 'he course of excavation for building pur poses about two ypars ago a large pre historic cave, containing a collection of animal and human remains and sev eral specimens of beautifully shaped Implements of stone and bone, was dis closed In a central part of the town of Oban, ami more recently a find of con siderable interest. If of lesser Import ance, was made at (Sallannch, the ad joining estate of Patten Maedougall. It was only thp other day that a num ber of urns of baked clay werp un earthed on the borders of the burgu boundary, and that has now been fol lowed by a fresh discovery, and ont; which Is believed to be most signifi cant of all, in a rocky cliff on the hill behind the town. In the month of June last a slight subsidence occurred In the cliff, and the fallen rocks hav ing come under the notice of an officer of the geological survey, who Is at present mapping the district, and who ■ame to the conclusion that they con tained fossliiferous remains, they were subjected to investigation by a special ist The surfaces of the rocks boro well defined ripple marks, and rain lilts, while worm pipes were as dis cernible as they are In the sand on til* seashore at the present day. No def inite fossil forms were brought to light with the exception that a gray layer of shale at the base of the cliff yielded si few fragmentary specimens of cephal aspla. A further examination of the rocks, however, has now been begun, and the results are already of the most satis factory character. A large number of more perfect specimens of cephalaspla have been produced, and, though none of them are complete, they conclusive ly mark the geological age ot the rocks In which they were Imbedded. Sir Archibald Qelklc has always believed that the purple shaft and conglomerate strata of Western Argyleshire belong to the lower old red sandstone age, and while he regarded the somewhat in definite forms discovered In June as confirming this opinion, the more re cent specimens place It beyond doubt. So far the specimens embrace only the heads of cephalaspfs, but several of them are particularly well defined. In one case the outlines of the head are almost perfectly preserved, and the eyes are distinct and prominent enough to look uncanny. Cephalaspla Is clas sified as one of a peculiar and extreme ly ancient breed of palaeozoic fishes, limited to upper Silurian and lower old red sandstone; It belongs to a group of fossil fishes which are among the vety earliest to appear In the geologic if record. Though confined to the lower old red In Britain, cephalaspla survived up into upper old red sandstone times In Canada. The present discovery .s not only of outstanding lmuortaneo geologically, us fixing the age of tho old red outlier of Oban, but It enables it to be correlated with the same form ation In other parts of Scotland. With the exception of some worm trails and pipes in quartzite discovered and de scribed some years ago by the duke of Argyll, these older raetamorphic rocks on which the old red sandstone rests have never to now yielded any fossils, aud in the ubsence of these Invaluable aids the geologist Is largely left in darkness. Hugh Miller has describe! the Highlands as a picture set In a frame of old red sandstone. At Oban the frame and picture can be seen tn contact. Wu»l Persia. Persian wool Is going to Russia, France aud the I’nlted Rules. Our import of thst commodity Is made via Marseilles, a small portion only of that clipped from the millions of sheep In the country Is used there, and that in** for the manufacture of carets Vh* chief centera of carpet mansfar lortes are Mustaaabad. Koraasas. 1‘hliai and KudUlas, taw house in ■iuntanabad employ tag more (has Id,IK) wortimes IM k(4 TIM < i«*> *.ll UIA hum fcu Bunt ! u»«n» • Mh uwh m m**" u«< Miiu ll IIM| »•* UlMM M*t tfc*»« Ml M'MM *fc* M* |>*»**t*g M» gw t* Ifc* te M|| **11*4 .... ■ ''Afi&j&'M'y- .■ V mfL 4.