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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1900)
KEEP BOYS ON FARM. PROPAGANDA STARTED BY A CHICAGO MAN. William If. Thompson lldlarr* That thr (environments or the Old Homestead Am Host for the Youths of Our Land* A new propaganda to keep boys on the farm has been started by William H. Thompson of Chicago, president of the National Live Stock exchange. Mr. Thompson knows what farm and tow n life are. He was reared in the country and has won success in the city, and tie believes the average farmer’s son would be better off if he stayed on the farm. He admits that many country lioys win fame and fortune in the cities, but he argues that for every suc cessful one there is a horde that bare ly make both ends meet. But Mr. Thompson goes beyond existing cona tions. He believes farmers can do much better than heretofore, and he looks to education as the means of improv ing their condition and making the farm more attractive for the boys. hi discussing the problem Mr. Tiiompron says: “The try for the past 50 years has been ‘To the city.’ That was bene ficial for a time, and a sign of prog ress. but we ought now to raise tin.1 cry ‘To the country.’ The country is deserted by the lioys, and the city can not provide remunerative labor for all v. ho come. For the serial peace of our WILLIAM H THOMPSON, country the tide must change and flow back again. For the betterment of oar commercial interests some of our young men should turn their attention to the farm and the raising of prod uce. Among the large number of suc cusEful farmers you will find a small percentage whose sons have chosen the farm life. Their early school days on the farm were spent in reading of men and events thef had nothing to do with country life. Soldiers, statesmen, law yers, ministers, bankers, and even pol iticians figure upon every page of their district school readers. Scarcely was mention made of any man who had led a successful life on the farm. “The farmer’s children are as a rule the natural farmers of the country. What they become in after life is de termined by their early education. At fnc district school the farmer’s son lays the foundation for his future, and his ideas are largely influenced by reading books treating on men and objects which seem to him to he of on outside world. Why not change thi3? Let his books speak of some of cur great men who have been farmers ti.d there are thousands of them. Let him study the things he comes in con tact with every day. Let him be taught he can improve his condition by adopting improved methods of pro duction. This will make him more in terested in farm life and more con tented. It will fire his ambition to ex cel in his father’s calling. It will make him a better man, a better farmer and a hetter citizen. It will keep many hoys in the country and relieve the cities of their congestion. There will lie more ground cultivated and better results. The strains of live stock will be improved and the farmer will get more money. In every way such a change will bp a benefit to the farmer boys and to the country at large." Mr. Thompson presented his propo sition in an address before the Na tional Live Stock exchange, and lie is urging agricultural and live stock papers to carry on a crusade along the lines he has mapped out, l lr*t rublhlim of ClmuiTr. The first collected edition of Chau cer's works was published by Pynson, who issued the first of the three parts in 1525. In 1532 there followed an edi tio by Thynne, and others appeared in 1561, 1598, 1502 and 1587. to say noth ing of tbat whii ii came from the house of Llntot in 1721. which has the dis tinction, in the opinion of scholars, of being the worst ever printed. The name of Thomas Tyrwhitt is justly re membered in connection with Chaucer and this by reason of the scholarly edition of the "Canterbury Tales.’ 1775-8, to which he added information notes and a glossary. Not until Or Furnivall produced his six-text volume in 1SC8, was T.vrwhitt's work, as a whole, superseded. New York Post. The Sound* of Animal** VoIim. The roar of a lion can be heard far ther than the sound of any other liv ing creature. Next comes the cry ol a hyena and then the hoot of the owl Aft r these the panther and the jackal The donkey ran be heard fifty times farther than the horse, and the cat ten times as far as the dog. Strange as it may Beem. the cry of a hare can be heard farther than that of either the cat or ihe dog. THE ‘WHITE DEATH.” I Itoiuarknlilv MUt In tli« Kmklrt Wlileh Oft in rratn Fatal. Of all the natural phenomena pe I culiar to the Rocky Mountain region none is more strange or terrible than j the mysterious storm known to the in ! dians as "the white death.’’ Scientific ! men have never yet had an opportun i ity of investigating it. because it j comes at the most unexpected times I and may keep away front a certain lo | cality for years. W« Il-read men who have been through it say that It is j really a frozen fog. But where the i fog comes front is more than any one J can say. This phenomenon occurs I most frequently in the northern part of Colorado, in Wyoming and oeca ; slonully in Mont' na. About two years ago a party of three women and two 1 men were crossing North Park in a wagon in the month of February, j The air was bitterly cold, but dry as | a bone and motionless. The sun shone ' with almost startling brilliancy. As the live people drove along over the crisp snow they did not experience the lea.-t cobl, but really felt most com fortable, and rather enjoyed the trip. Mountain peaks fifty milts away could in seen as distinctly as the pine trees by the roadside. Suddenly one of the women put her hand up to her face and remarked that something had •stung her. Then other members of the party did the same thing, although there was not an insect in sight. All marvelled greatly at this. A moment later they notietd that the distant mcur.talns were disappearing behind a cloud of mist. Mist in Colorado in February? Surely there must be some mistake. But there was no mistake, because within ten minutes a gentle wind began to blow, and the air be came filled with fine particles of some thing that scintillated like diamond dust in the sunshine. Still the peo ple drove on until they came to a cabin where a man signalled them to stop. With his head tied up in a bundle of mufflers, he rushed out and handed the driver a piece of paper on which was written: “Come into the house quick, or this storm will kiil all of you. Don't talk outside hare.” Of course no time was lost in getting under cover and putting the horses in the stables. But they were a little late, for in less than an hour the whole party was sick with violent toughs and fever. Before the next morning one of the women died with all the symptoms of pneumonia. The ethers were violently ill of it, but managed to pull through after long sickness. INGRATITUDE To the Great Servant* of (lie Common weal in Ancient tlreere. Probably the early Greeks and par ticularly the Athenians were least grateful to their great men. There was a predisposition to fickleness and to hasty judgment in the Greek char acter, as well as a strong jealousy of any individual who seemed likely to attain a preponderating power in th-’ state: and their political and judicial system unfortunately supplied no com pensating check. Their leaders were thus sacrifi ed alike in good and evil fortune, and a list of those who fell victims would be a long one. Aristides (the “Just”), Miltiades. Themistodes, Socrates and Timotheos are a few of the great men who ended their lives in unmerited exile or by judicial mur der. Sometimes after defeat there was | a general butchery of the unlucky leaders. The Carthagenlans were also noted for their ingratitude to geat servants of tlie commonweal, a*d this, no doubt, helped to handicap them in i thp struggle with Home, where a wiser policy was pursued. Spain, amongst, moderns, has been most neglectful of the just claims of her great men. The caprice and pride of a court may be as stupid, if not so violent, as a jealous ; and tickle mob. A UNION PRINTER 52 YEARS. Thomas .1. Mattingly, an employe of , the government printing office at | Washington, I). C., has been a union printer 52 years. He was horn in Vir ! ginia in 1827 and began his trade at the age of 10 and learned to be a press man as well as compositor. He joined I Columbia Typographical Society in 1S48 on attaining his majority, and has THOMAS J. MATTINGLY, since carried a union card. Mr. Mat | tingiy has been a proofreader in the government printing office for the past 23 years, and he read proof on the en tire publication of the Rebellion Ree j ords, the printing of which covered a j period of about 13 years, and attained | a knowledge of that stupendous eom j pilatlon possessed by no other employe | of the government office. He enjoys | good health, ami good-humoredly con j aiders himself still one of "the boys." Up to date it is estimated that 1,000 deer have been killed in the Maine woods the present season, the hunters being mostly from other states. TALMAUK'S SERMON. DEPLORES PREVAILING SPIRIT OF UNREST. The T >* Sourre «F Vwliilnm* and Ilappiiieii* I* a Cliriatlan l.lfc—The Online of UUeoiitent Five I Spiritual Condition. (Copyright, IPCO, Louis Klopsch, N. T.) VVushiugton, Nov. 3(5. t> row an tin unual text I)r. Talmag^ in this dis course rebukes the spirit of unrest which characterizes so many people and shows them the happiness and usefulness to be found in stability; text, Jeremiah ii.. 36, "Why gaddrst thou about so much to change thy way?" Homely is the illustration by which this prophet of tears deplores the va [ dilation of the nation to whom he wrote. Now they wanted alliance with Egypt, and now with Assyria, and now with Babylon, and now they did not know what they wanted, and the behavior of the nation reminded the prophet of a man or woman who, not satisfied with home life, gois from place to place gadding about, as we say. never settled anywhere or in any thing. and he cries out to them. "Why gailti :-f thou about so much to change the way? Well, iiie world has now as many gad-ahouts as it had in Bible times, and I think that that race of people is more numerous now than it ever was. Gad-abouts among occupations, among religious theories, among churches, among neighborhoods, and one of the greatest wants of the church and the world is more steadfastness and more fixedness of purpose. Ei&imIih* Your Tem|H*ru merit* While seeking divine guidance in your selection of a lifetime sphere ex amine your own temperament. The phrenologist will tell you your mental proclivities. The physiologist will tel; you your physical temperament. Your enemies will tell you your weikn >s s. If you are, as we say, nervous, do not become a surgeon. If you are coward ly do not became an engineer. If you are hoping for a large and permaaen: income, do not seek a governmental position. If you are naturally quick tempered, do not become a minister of the gospel, for while any one is disad vantaged by ungovernable disposition there is hardly any one who cm such an incongruous part as a mad minister. Can you make a line sketch of a ship, or a rock or house or face? Be an artist. Da you find yourself bumming erdences, an'! , do the treble clef and the musical bars drop from your pen easily, and can you make a tune that charms those that hear it? Be a musician. Are you born with a fond ness for argument? Be an attorney. Are you naturally a good nurse and especially interested in the relief of pain? Be a physician. Ar“ you in terested in all questions of traffic anil in bargain making? Are you apt to be successful on a small or large scale? Be a merchant. Do you prefer country Mfe, and do you like the plow, and do you hear music in the rustle of a har vest field? Be a farmer. Are you fond of machinery, and are turning wheels to you a fascination, and can you follow with absorbing interest a new kind of thrashing machine hour after hour? Be a mechanic. If you enjoy analyzing the natural elements and a laboratory could entertain you all day and all night, be a chemist. If you are inquisitive about other worlds and interested in all instru ments' that would bring them nearer for inspection, be an astronomer. If the grass under your feet and the foliage over your head and the flowers which shake their incense on the sum mer air are to you the belles lettres of the field, be a botanist. f ollowing GoiTk Call. Last summer a man of great genius died. He had the talents of twenty men in surgical directions, but he did not like surgery, and he wanted to be a preacher. He could not preach. I told him so. He tried it on both sides of the sea, but he failed, because ha turned his back on that magnificent profession of surgery, which has ir. our time made such wonderful achieve ment that it now heals a broken neck and by the X ray explores the temple of the human body as if it were a lighted room. For forty years he was gadding about among the professions. Do not imitate him. Ask God what you ought to he, and he will tell you. It may not he as elegant a style of work as you would prefer. It may cal lous and begrime your hands and put you in suffocating atmosphere and stand you shoulder to shoulder with the unrefined and may leave your overalls the opposite of aromatic, but remember that If God calls you to do <!'*>> thing you will never be happy in doing something else. All the great successes have been gained through opposition and strug gle. Charles Goodyear, the inventor, whose name is now a synonym all the world over for fortune addtd *o fortune, waded many years chin deep through the world's scorn and was thrust in debtor's prison end came with his family to the verge of starva tion, but continued his experiments with vulcanized rubber until he added more than c?n be estimated ‘o the world's liealtn and comfort, is \\-dl as to his own advantage. Columbus and John Fitch and Stephenson and Rob ert Bruce and Cyrus W. Field and 500 others were illustrations of wh.it ten acity and pluck can do. “Hard pound ing." said Wellington a* Waterloo, "hard pounding, gentlemen, but we will see who can pound the longest.” Yes. my friends, that is the secret, nut flight from obstacles in the way, but “who can pound the long t.” The child had It right when attempting to carry a ton of coal, a shovelful at a time, from the sidewalk to the rcllar. and some one asked her, "Do you ever expect to get all that roal in with that little shovel?'* And she replied, “Yes. sir, If 1 work long enough." By the help of God choose your calling and stick to it. The gadabouts are failures for this life, to s.iy nothing of the next. Spiritual Condition So also many are unfixed in regard to their spiritual condition and day | after day and year after year go gad ding about among hopes and fears and anxieties. They sing with great em phasis that old hymn which we have i all sung: I 'Tis a point I long to know; Oft it (Buses anxious thought; Do 1 love the l^ord or no? j Am I his. or am I not? Why do you not find out whether ' you are his or not? There are all the broad invitations of the gospel. Ac cept them. There are all the assur ances. Apply them. There are all the hopes of pardon and heaven. Adopt them. There is the King's high way. Start on it. Traveling any road, you are not satisfied until you have found out whether it is the right, or the wrong road, and you climb tip in the darkness to read the words on the finger board at the roadside to see if it be the right road, and if it be the wrong road you cross over to the right road. If you are on the sea, you want to know into what port you will run or upon what rocks you are in danger of crashing. This moment you hate all the information pointing to the road that terminates at the gate of the Golden City and the voyage that anchors in the haven of eternal rest. Why go on guessing when you have all the facts before you? You ought to know by examination of chart and compass and thermometer in what luuiuae ana longltiule you are sailing, whether in the aretie or the tropics. A tnaii wiio does not know whether or not lie is a Christian is like a man who ;’oes not know whether he is a mil lion.lire or a pauper. Better go to the : cords and find out. The Scriptures ■ re the records. If you cannot there >eud your title, it is because you have : o title, and you ought to begin anew. Start a new prayer, sing a new song, opt .1 a new experience. So. alas, there are those who gad bout among particular churches. No pastor can depend on them for a sin gle service. At some time when he has prepared a sermon, after ;.ll pray er and all research, putting nerve and muscle and brain and soul into its every paragraph, these intermittent I attendants are not there to hear it. While an occasional absence is ex- • tisanle for the gratification of some wish to hear that which is consecrat e! j o: religiously oratorio in some other j pulpit, when the pastor of a church with his eye calls the roil of attend- , anee, by your presence in the old place practically answer, saying: “I am here to get the benefit of all the use ful thoughts you may utter and of all the hymns that you may give out and of all the prayers you may offer, i. a soldier of Jesus Christ, am in my own place in the company, in the battalion, in the regiment, and when you command 'March!' i will march, and when you command 'Halt!' i will : halt, and when you order 'Ground arms!’ 1 will ground arms.” One*!* Home. Among the race of gadabouts are j those who neglect their homes in or- j dor that they may attend to Institu tions that are really excellent and do not to much ask for help as demand it. 1 am acquainted, as you are, with women who are members of so many boards of direction of benevolent in stitutions and have to stand at a booth ! in so many fairs, and must collect ' funds for so many orphanages and preside at so many philanthropic meetings, and are expected to he in so many different places at the same , time that their children are left to the i care of irresponsible servants, and if the little ones waited to say their prayers at their mother's knee they would never say their evening prayers j i t all. Such a woman makes her own . home so unattractive that, the husband spends his evenings at the clubhouse or the tavern. The children of that house are as thoroughly orphan as any of the fatherless and motherless little ones gathered in the orphanage for which that gadabout woman is toiling so industriously. By all means let Christian women foster charitable in stitutions and give them as much of their time as they can spare, hut the first duty of that mother is the duty she owes to her home. Hired help is a great advantage to the homestead that can afford it, and we have all had in our homes a fidelity on the part of such employes as will I stir our gratitude as long as life shall j last. How they watched in time of sickness and always gave the medicine : at the right time, and but for their vigilance there ere members of our i families now living who would long ago have disappeared from the home ’ 'drele. Blessed the ships that brought those employes to our shores! And who will ever do justice to those who were affectionately called and I be lleve are still called the “mammies” of th< south? 1 have had governors and sen: tors of the United States with | tears in their eyes talk to me about , those old colored women of the south who rocked them In their cradles and hound up their wounds when they got hurt, and wept with them at graves, i and looked in from the hall door at 'he weddings, and greeted them home from college or from the wars with motherly endearment. Ask thosj | who know them best about these old ; "mammies." We have ail had in our ' employment those so near aud dear 1 to us that we went to them In child hood and told them all our griefs and all our Jo>-3. and they sympathized with copious tears and resounding ; laughter. Tile Mistake of .Mothers. But no one can take a mother’s place, and it is an awfui mistake that that mother makes who sacrifices home duties for any church meeting, however important, or any hospital, however merciful, or any outside bone ficencp. however glorious and grand. Not understanding this, we mistake when we try to give statistics as to liow many Christians there are in our churches in the world. We understate the facts. We look over our church audiences on the Sabbath or our weekly service and conclude that they represent the amount of piety in that neighborhood. Oh, no! There are many most consecrated souls that are not found in * hurdles. Look into those houses with large families of children and little or no hired help. For much of the year there is same one ill, and a special guardian care is requisite. How much time can that mother give to churches and prayer meetings when most of the family are down with scarlet fever or have colds that threaten now one kind of disease and now another? That moth er watching at home as much pleases the Lord as the mother who at church takes the sacrament or in the mission school tells the waifs of the street how they may become sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. That mother at home is deciding the destiny of the state by the way she leads that boy into right thinking and acting and is deciding the welfare of some future home by the example she is setting that girl, and though the world does not appreciate the unobserved work heaven watches and rewards. On the other hand, you have known women who are off at meetings humanitarian and philanthropic, planning for the destitute and the outcast, while their own children went unwashed and un kempt, their garments needing repairs, their manners impudent and them selves a general nuisance to the com munity in which they live. inf iMurimiimn or '-i;tnuni. One bad habit those gadabouts, mas culine or feminine, are sure to g t. and that is of scandal distribution. They bear so many deleterious things about others and see so much of wrong behavior that they are loaded up and loaded down with the faults of others, and they have their eyes full, and their ears full, and their hands full, and their mouths full of defamation. The woman who is endowed of gossip can so easily untie her bonnet strings and sit down to spend the afternoon. A man can afford you a cigar as a re tainer if you will patiently hear all he lias to say about those who cannot pay their debts, or are about to fail, or are guilty of moral mishap, or have aroused suspicion of embezzlement. .Ml gadabouts are peddlers, who un pack in your presence their large store of mix vomica and nightshade. Such gadabouts have little prospect of hea ven. If they got there, they would try to create jealousy among the different ranks of celestials, and make trouble among the heavenly neighbors, and start quarrels seraphic, and would be on perpetual run. now down this street and now up that, now in the house of many mansions, and now in the choir of the temple, and now on the walls, and now in the gates, until they would be chased down and push ed out into the pandemonium of back biters and slanderers after Jeremiah had addressed them in the words, “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?" Practical Sngi;c»t joint. Now, what is the practical use of the present discourse? This: Where at-, so many have ruined themselves and ruined others by becoming gad abouts among occupations, among re ligious theories, among churches, among neighborhoods; therefore, re solved that we will concentrate upon what is right thought and right be havior and waste no time in vacilla tions and indecisions and uncertain ties. running about in places where we have no business to be. Tife is so short we have no time to play with it the spendthrift. Find out whether the Bible is true and whether your nature is immortal, and whether Christ is the divine and only Savior, and whether you must have him or he dis comfited, and whether there will probably ever be a more auspicious moment for your becoming his adher ent. and then make this 12 o'clock at noon of November 25, 1900, the mo3t illustrious minute that you will ever have passed since the day of your birth until the ten millionth cycle of the coming eternity, because by com plete surrender of thought and will and affection and life to God through .lesus Christ you became a new man, a new woman, a new soul, and God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, and all angeldom, cheru bim and seraphim, and archangel be came your allies. fliinc**' Italics Well Painted. A Chinese belle on special occasions will entirely bedaub her face with white paint, adding rouge to the lips and cheeks in such profusion that she looks more like a painted mask than anything human. Her eyebrows are blackened with charred sticks and art d or narrowed in accordance with tier idea of beauty. Opens Public School* to Oirlit. Andorra " little republic in the Pyrenees, /.as marked the end of the century by opening its public schools to girls for the first time. The French government contributes $200 to the schools' support 'THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. LESSCN X. DEC. 9 —MARK lO: 46-52. A Glance i\t the Journey of Jeem Toward Jerusalem— lllind liar 11 metis* tl»» Beg gar— A Parable of Salvation—Paral lel*. 40. "As hr* went out of Jericho.” Luke says*. "as he came nigh unto Jericho. That Is, simply "while he was in the vi cinity Of Jericho.” * Blind Bartimaeus. the son of Tiinaetis. Bar son. Ilarti ineua means son of Tinneus. but was used as a pro pro name, like our Johnson or Thomson. "Sat by the highway side. Because there many people would see his need, and especially now as the . crowds were thronging In this main thor | otighfar* to Jerusalem. "Begging In ' those days there was almost nothing a ! blind man could do to earn a living. 47. "And when he heard.” (See Luke 11*: 37.) "Suddenly and unexpectedly* some times our greatest opportunities come to us*."- -Glover. The blind man heard a great multitude going past the place where he was begging, and iiiquir* d what it meant (Luke*, and was told “that it was Jesus of Nazareth." "He had heard oi' hint before heard of healings wrought by him. of blind eyes opened, «>f dead men raised. "He began." ‘ Immediately, as soon as he beard this, and continued go to do until he gained his end."—Alex ander. "To cry out." "For God loves to hi entreated, lie loves to be compelled, he loves to he even vanquished by our persevering Importunity."—fch Gregory. "Jesus, thou sou of David." That is, the Messiah who was to come, and one of his works was to he the opening of the eyes of the blind tseer Isa. 2i»: 1*'. 42: 7). "Have mercy on me." The emphasis naturally falls on tin word me; for Ber timeiis. hearing that it was Jesus, and knowing his own disadvantage from his blindness in the crowd, fears ho may b« overlooked. "Blit he cried the more a great deal. * It was tin* one opportunity of his life; It was now or never with him; it was sight now* or lifelong dark ness; it was a case almost of Ufe or deal h. 4i*. "And Jesus stood still.” Whatever others might do, Jesus m ver refused to listen to a call for help. "And com manded him to b« called He sets thus** to calling rite man who had just been hindering him. "They call the blind man." No doubt cheerfully and gladly, now that, they know it is the will of the Master "Be of good comfort" (or "eheer"». "rise; he called!i thee.” They knew now that tin blind man would see. and would cheer him as if ills sight were certain. 30. "And li>. caning away bis gar ment..I'his was Ids cloak, or mantle; which 1- often used by the poor at night for u coveting, and which the law of Moses gave th« in a special claim to, that il should not he kept from them over night when it was given as u pledge.”— Jacobus. “Itose.' "Sprang up” In K. V. It< dltl not hesitate; another proof of his faith. "And came to Jesus.” Guided by the now favoring crowd. 61. "And Jesus . . . satd unto hint, What will thou that l should do unto thee'.'” ”H as well as the rest knew exactly what h< sought, but. for the sake ef othi i - iu need, and for the sake of the in.in himself. Christ will elicit a still clearer prayer, and make the noble faith ot the man shine forth." K. Glover. "The blind man said onto him. laird." Bet ter. "Kab’ioni," My Master, as in the R. V. "That I might receive my sight." Tills was the one great thing he de sired, for enfolded within it lay rich and countless blessing!. No earthly gift was of value ii-aide this. 32. "And Jesus said unto Him.” At the same time touching ids eyes (Matt. 20: 34). as a means of eummunicutiiiK the power, as an aid to the blind man's faith, and to show that the healing came from him. "Go thy way.” Not neces sarily a command to depart, but a token that Ills prayer was granted.—SchafT. He could go wherever hi would without any guide. At the same time lie had much to learn about seeing. When a blind man lirst sees he cannot tell distances, he has no perspective, he cannot tell a landscape from a Hat picture. “Thy faitli hath made thee whole." Complete, sound, nothing wanting to perfect physical man hood. 'He had shown his faith, by call ing on .Jesus, by recognizing him as the Messiah, by perseverance.” l.lkr Bartimeus, the sinner is blind, poor, helpless to cure himself, deprived of the lurgest and fullest life. He some times, like aomt of the l.aodlceans. may way, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;’’ and not know that he is "wretched, and mis erable, ami poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3: 17). The sinner is blind to his best good, to the great spiritual realties of heaven and hell, to true holiness, to the possibilities in his soul, to the joys and glories of a religious life, to the highest motives to eternal life. He thinks sometimes that he is broad, but spiritual blindness narrows, and restricts, and darkens the soul. The sun and stars are hidden. He loses the Ideas of distance and the relation of things. He cannot through life alone In safety. Note one point of difference. Bartimeus' blindness was a misfortune. The sinner shuts and blinds Ids own (‘yes. The first step toward a better life is the realization of his true condition und needs. Bartimeus heard others telling about the blessings of sight, and speak of things of which he had but faint con ception. He heard them going around freely where he could only grope. He realized his situation, not fully, but enough to make him long for sight. Jesus had been preaching and healing for three years all around him, but he had not realized It enough to go far to seek him }'•, t now lie learns that Jesus is about to pass by. And it was the last time. There was great excitement; crowds were gathering around Jesus and making him known to those who would otherwise have taken no notice of him Excitement In a community, a roused und intense interest Is often necessary to wake up the souls of men who have been indifferent. So Jesus of Nazareth often passes l)> where we are. lie comes near by tbe presence of bis Holy Spirit, es pecially in times of revival. In public worship, in prayer meetings, in private devotions, in his providences. In tlie con version of friends, in sickness, and in many other ways. Every one. doubtless, has some special opportunity, and life and death are in the balance. Sheep Kaocliei for Simth. The discovery that sheep flourish la Patagonia and Tlerra lei Fuego has led to the stocking of enormous and very profitable ranches. A FEW IF 5. If envy was dead— If people would only think—• If life's concert could be played with fewer discords— If civilization meant contentment more than desire— If there was more rubber in heels and less in necks— If a square 'man could more often get round the world— If one moral law for both sexes were the social rule—