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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1889)
-Si mi-. . SBi'HP-!tir'3fl!Ss-f - --. f 't -flK -V-' 4 :M f'l to K I F.t S-1 FS v i., .R?l La & ' n? H J PERILS OF THE SEA. Sermon By Rev. T. DeWitt Tal mage at BrindisL The Peril Encountered By Thou Who Go Down to the Sea In Ship The Chris tiaa Life a Voyage Itrnet with Peril The Haven Ahead. The following sermon was delivered by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmago at Brindisi, while on his trip to the Holy Land, and after a week spent among the historic localities of Italy. His text was: And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land. Acts xxvii., II. Having visited your historical city, which we desire to see because it was 'the terminus of the most famous road of the ages, the Roman Appian Way, and for its mighty fortress overshadowing a city which even Hannibal's hosts could not thunder down, wo must to-morrow morning leave your harbor, and after touching at Athens and Corinth, voyage about the Mediterranean to Alexandria, Egypt. I was reading this morning in my New Testament of a Mediterranean voyage in an Alexandrian ship. It was this very month of November. The ves sel was lying in a port not very far from here. On board that vessel wero two distinguished passengers; one, Josephus, tho historian, as we have strong reasons to believe,; the other, a convict, one Paul by name, who was going to prison for upsetting things, or, as they termed it, "turning tho world upside down." This convict had gained tho confidence of the captain. Indeed, I think that Paul knew almost as much about the sea as did tho captain. Ho had been shipwrecked three times al ready; he had dwelt much of his life amidst capstans, and yardarms, and cables and storms; and ho knew what he was talking about. Seeing the equi noctial storm was coming, and perhaps noticing something unscaworthy in the vessel, he advised the captain to stay in the harbor. But I hear the captain and the first mate talking together. They say: "We can not afford to take tho ad vice of this landsman, and he is a minis ter. He may bo ablo to preach very well, but I don't believe lie knows a niarlincspikc from a lull tackle. All aboard! Cast off! Shift the helm for headway! Who fears the Mediterra nean?" They had gone only a little way out when a whirlwind, called Euro elydon, made the torn sail its turban, shook the mast as you would brandish a spear, and tossed the hulk into tho heavens. Overboard with the cargo! It is all washed with salt water, and worth less now; and there are no marine in surance companies. All hands ahoy, jnd out with the anchors! Great consternation comes on crew and passengers. The sea monsters snort in the foam, and the billows clap their bands in glee of destruction. In a lull of the storm I hear a chain clank. It is the chain of the great apostlo as he walks the deck or holds fast to the rig ging amidst tho lurching of the ship the spray dripping from his long beard as he cries out to tho crew: "Now I ex hort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you. but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, Whose I am, and Whom I serve, saying: 'Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought liefore Caesar;' and, lo. God hath given thco all them that sail with the." Fourteen days have passed, and there is no abatement of. the storm. It is midnight. Standing on the lookout, the man peers into the darkness, and, by a flash of lightning, knows they must be coming near to some country, and fears that in a few moments the vessel will bo shivered on the rocks. The ship flies liko chaff in the tornado. They drop tho sounding line, and by the light of tho lantern they see it is twenty fathoms. Speeding along a little further, they drop the line again, and bj the light of the lantern they see it is fifteen fathoms. Two hundred and seventy-six souls within a few feet of awful shipwreck. ' Tho managers of the vessel, pretend ing they want to look over tho side of the ship and undergird it, get into the small boat, expecting in it to escape; but Paul sees through the sham, and he tells them that if they go off in the boat it will lie the death of them. The ves sel strikes! Tho planks spring! Tho timbers crack! The vessel parts in the thundering surge! Oh, what wild strug gling for life! Here they leap from plank to plank. Here they go under as if they would never rise; but, catching hold of a timber, come floating and panting on it to tho beach. Here, Strong swimmers spread their arms through the waves until their chins plow the sand, and they rise up and wring out their wet locks on the beach. When the roll of the ship is called, two hundred and seventy-six people answer to their names. "And so," says my text, "it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land." , I learn from this subject: Ilrst, that those who get us into trouble will not stay to help us out. These shipmen got Paul out of Fair Havens into the storm; but as soon as the tempest dropped upon them they wanted to go off in the small boat, car ing nothing for what became of Paul and the passengers. Ah, mo! human nature is the same in all ages. They -who get us into trouble never stop to help us out. They who tempt that .young man into a life of dissipation will be the first to laugh at his imbecility and to drop him out of decent society. Gamblers always make fun of tho losses of gabblers. They who tempt you into the contest with fists, saying: "I will back you," will be tbo first to run. Look over all the predicaments of your life, and count the names of those who have got you into those predicaments, and tell me the name of one who ever "helped you out Thoy were glad enough to gee you out from Fair Havens, but when, with damaged rig ring, you tried to get into harbor, did they hold for you a plank or throw you a rope? Not one. Satan has got thou sands of men into trouble, but he never got one out. Ho led them into theft, but be would not hide the goods or bail 4Hti the defendant The spider shows the fly the way over the gossamer bridge into the cobweb, but it never shows the fly the way out of tho cobweb over tho gossamer bridge. I think that thero were plenty of fast young men to help the prodigal spend bis money; but when be had wasted his money in riotous liv ing they let him go to the swine past ures, while they betook themselves to some other now-comer. They who took Paul out of Fair Havens will bo of no help to him when he gets into the breakers of Mclita. I remark again, as a lesson learned from the text, that it is dangerous to re fuse the advico of competent advisers. Paul told them not to go out with that ship. They thought ho knew nothing about it. They said: "Ho is only a minister!" They went and the ship was destroyed. There are a great many people who now say of ministers: "They know nothing about the world. They can not talk to us!" Ah. my friends, it is not necessary to bavo the Asiatic cholera before you can give it medical treatment in others. It is not necessary to have your own arm .broken before you can know how to splinter a fracture And we who stand in the pulpit and in the office of a Christian preacher, know that thero are certain styles of belief and certain kinds of behavior that will lead to destruction as certainly as Paul knew that if that ship went out of Fair Havens it would go to destruction. "Ro joicc, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in tho days' of thy youth; but know thou that for all these things God will bring theo into judgment." We may not know much, hut we know that. Young people rcfuso tho advico of parents. They say: "Father is over suspicious, and mother is getting old." Rut those parents have been on tho sea of life. Thoy know where tho storms sleep, and during their voyage have seen a thousand battered hulks marking the place where beauty burned, and in tellect foundered, and morality sank. They aro old sailors, having answered many a signal of distress, and endured great stress of weather, and gono scud ding under bare poles; and the old folks know what they aro talking about Look at that man in his check the glow of internal fires. His eye flashes not as once with thought but with low passion. His brain is a sewer through which impurity floats, and his heart the trough in which lust wallows and drinks. Men shudder as the leper passes, and parents cry, "wolf! wolf!" Yet he once said tho Lord's Prayer at his mother's knee, and against that in iquitous brow once pressed, a puro moth er's lip. J Jut he refused her counsel. He went where euroclydons have their lair. He foundered on tho sea, while all hell echoed at the roar of tho wreck: Lost Pacifies! Lost Pacifies! Another lesson from tho subject is that Christians are always safe. There did not seem to be much chance for Panl getting out of that shipwreck, did there? They had not in those days, rockets with which to throw ropes over founder ing vessels. Their lifeboats were of but little worth. And yet notwithstanding all the danger, my text says that Paul escaped safe to land. And so it will al ways be with God's children. They may be plunged into darkness and trouble, but by the throne of the eternal God, I assert it, "they shall all escape safo to land." Sometimes there comes a storm of commercial disaster. Tho cables break. The masts fall. Tho cargoes aro scattered over the sea. Oh! what struggling and leaping on kegs and hogs heads and corn-bins and store-shelves! And yet, though thoy may have it so very hard in commercial circles, the good, trusting in God. all como safo to land. Wreckers go out on the ocean's beach and find the hulks of vessels, and on the streets of our great cities there is many a wreck. Mainsail slit with banker's pen. Hulks abcam's end on insurance counters. Vast credits sink ing, having suddenly sprung a leak. Yet all of them who aro God's children shall at last, through His goodness and mercy, escape safe to land. Tho Scandi navian warriors used to drink wine out of the skulls of the enemies they had slain. Even so God will help us, out of the conquered ills and disasters of life, to drink sweetness and strength for our souls. You have, my friends, had illustra tions in your own life of how God de livers His people. I havo had illustra tions in my own life of the samo truth. I was once in what on your Mediterra nean you call a curoclydoo, but what on the Atlantic we call a cyclone, but tho same storm. The steamer Greece, of the National Line, swung out into tbo Mersey at Liverpool, bound for New York. We bad on board seven hundred, crew and passengers. We came together strangers Italians, Irishmen, English men. Swedes, Norwegians, Americans. Two flags floated from the roxsts Brit ish and American ensigns. We had a new vessel, or one so thoroughly remod eled that the voyage had around it all the uncertainties of a trial trip. Tho great steamer felt its way cautiously out into the sea. The pilot was dis charged; and. committing ourselves to the care of Him who holdeth the winds in His list we were fairly started on our voyage of three thousand miles. It was rough nearly all the way the sea with strong buffeting disputing our path. But ono night at eleven o'clock, after the lights had been put out a cyclone a wind just made to tear ships to pieces caught us in its clutches. It came down so suddenly that we had not time to take in the sails or to fasten the batches. You may know that the bot tom of tbe Atlantic is strews with the ghastly work of cyclones. Oh! they are cruel winds. They have hot breath, as though they came up from the in fernal furnaces. Their merriment is the cry of affrighted passengers. Their play is the foundering of steamers. And, when a ship goes down, they laugh until both continents hear them. Thoy go in circles, or, as I describe them with my hand rolling on! rolling on! with finger of terror writing on the white sheet of the wave this sentence of doom: "Let all that come within this circle perish! Brigantlnes, go down! Clippers, go down! Steamships, go down!" And the vessel, hearing the terrible voice, crouches ia tbe surf, and as the waters gurgle through the hatches and port holes, it lowers away, thousands of feot down, farther and farther, until at last it strikes the bottom; and all is peace, for they have landed. Helmsman, dead at the wheel! Engineer, dead amid the extinguished furnaces! Captain, dead in the gangway! Passengers, dead in the cabin! Buried in the cemetery of dead steamers, beside the City of Bos ton, the Lexington, tho President, the Cambria, waiting for tho archangel's trumpet to split up the decks, and wrench open the cabin doors, and unfasten tbe hatches. I thought that I had seen storms on the sea before, but all of them together might have come under ono wing of that cyclone. Wo were only eight or nine hundred miles from homo, and in high expectation of soon seeing our friends, for there was no ono on board so poor as not to have a friend. Rut it seemed as if wo were to he disappointed. The most of us expected then and there to die. There were none who made light of tho peril, save two. One was an Englishman, and ho was drunk, and the other was an American, and ho was a fool! Oh! what a time it was! A night to make one's hair turn white. We came out of tho lierths, and stood in the gangway, and looked into the steerage, and sat in the cabin. While seated there we heard overhead something like minute guns. It was tho bursting of the sails. We held on with both hands to keep our places. Thoso who attempted to cross the floor came back bruised and gashed. Cups and glasses wero dashed to frag ments; pieces of the table getting looso, swung across the saloon. It seemed as if the hurricane took that great ship of thousands of tons and stood it on end, and said: "Shall I sink it, or let it go this onco?" And then it came down with such force that tho billows trampled over it each mounted of a fury. Wo felt that every thing depended on the propeling screw. If that stopped for an instant we knew tho vessel would fall oil into the trough of tho sea and sink, and so we prayed that tho screw, which three times since leaving Liver pool had already stopped, might not stop now. Oh! how anxiously we list ened for the regular thump of tho ma chinery upon which our lives seemed to depend. After awhilo some ono said: "The screw is stopped!" No; its sound had only been overpowered by tho up roar of tho tempest, and we breathed easier again when we heard the regular pulsations of tho overtasked machinery going thump, thump, thump. At three o'clock in tho morning the water cov ered the ship from prow to stern, and tho skylights gave way! The deluge rushed in, and we felt that one or two more waves like that must swamp us forever. As the water rolled back and forward in tho cabins and dashed against the wall, it sprang half way up to the ceiling. Rushing through tho skylights as it came in with such terrific roar, there went up from the cabin a shriek of horror which I pray God I may never hear again. I have dreamed the whole scene over again, but God has mercifully kept mo from hearing that one cry. Into it seemed to be compressed the agony of expected shipwreck. It seemed to say: "I shall never get home again! My children shall be orphaned, and my wife shall be widowed! 1 am launching now into cternitv! In two minutes I shall meet my God!" There were about flvo hundred and fifty passengers in the steerage, and as the water rushed in and touched the furnaces and began violently to hiss, tho poor creatures in tho steerage im agined that tho boilers were giving away. Those passengers writhed in the water and in the mud. somo praying, some crying, all terrified. They made a rush for the deck. An officer stood on deck and beat them back with blow after blow. It was necessary. They could not have stood an instant on the deck. Oh! how they begged to get out of the ship! One woman, with a child in her arms, rushed up and caught hold of one of the officers and cried: "Do let me out! 1 will help you! Do let me out! 1 can not die here!" Somo got down and prayed to the Virgin Mary, saying: "O, blessed mother! keep us! Have mercy on us!" Somo stood with white lips and fixed gaze, silent in their terror. Somo wrung their hands and cried out: "O, God! what shall 1 do? What shall I do?" The time came when the crew could no longer stay on tho deck, and tbe cry of the officers was: "Below! all bands below!" Our brave and sympathetic Captain Andrews whoso praiso I shall not cease to speak while I live had been swept by tho hurricano from his bridge, and had escaped very narrowly with bis life. Tbe cyclono seemed to stand on the deck, waving its wing, cry ing: "This ship is mine! I have capt ured it! Ha! ha! I will command it! If God will permit T will sink it here and now! By a thousand shipwrecks. I swear the doom of this vessel!" There was a lull in the storm; but only that it might gain additional fury. Crash went the lifeboat on ono side. Crash! went the lifeboat on tho other side. The great booms got loose, and. as witb the heft of a thunderbolt pounded tbe deck and beat tho mast tho jib boom, studding sail boom and square sail boom, with their strong arms, beating time to the awful march and music of the hurricane. Meanwhile the ocean became phosphor escent Tho whole scene looked like fire. The water dripping from the fig ging, there were ropes of fire;and there were masts of Arc; and there was a deck of fire. A ship of fire, sailing on a sea of fire, through a night of fire. May I never seo any thing like it again! Evory boiy prayed. A lad of twelve years of age got down and prayed for hia mother. "If I should give up," be said, "I do not know what would become of mother." There were men who, I think, had not prayed for thirty years, who then got down on their knees. When a man who has neglected God all bis life feels that he has come to his last time, it makes a very busy night All of our sins and shortcomings passed through our minds. My own life seemed utterly unsatisfactory. I could only say: "Here, Lord, take me as I am. I can not mend matters now. Lord Jesus, thou didst die for the chief of sinners. That's me! It seems. Lord, as if my work is done, and poorly done, and upon Thy infinite mercy I cast myself, and in this hour of shipwreck and darkness commit myself and her j whom I bold by tho hand to Thee, O j Lord Jesus! praying that it may be a short strugglo in the water, and that at the same instant we may both arrivo in glory!" Oh! I tell you a man prays straight to tho mark whon ho has a cyclono above him, an ocean beneath him and eternity so closo to him that ho can feel its breath on his cheek. The night was long. At last we saw the dawn looking through the port holes. As in the olden time, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came walking on tho sea, from wave cliff to wave cliff: and when Ho nuts His foot unon a billon,-. though it may bo tossed un with mirht it goes down. Ho cried: "Hush!" They knew His voice. Tho waves knew His foot. Thcv died awav. And in tho shining track of His feet I read theso letters on scrolls of foam and fire: earth shall bo filled with "Tho the tera knowledge or God as tho waters cover the sea." Tho ocean calmed. The path of the steamer became moro and more mild, until, on tho last morning out the sun threw round about us a glory such a3 I never witnessed before. God made a pavement of mosaic, reach ing from horizon to horizon, for all tho splendors of earth and Heaven to walk upon a pavement bright enough for the foot of a seraph bright enough for tho wheels of tho archangel's chariot. As a parent embraces a child and kisses away its grief, so over that sea, that had been writhing in agony in the tempest, tho morning threw its arms of beauty and of benediction, and tho lips of earth and Heaven met As I came on deck it was very early, and we wero nearing the shore I saw a' Tew sails against the sky. They seemed liko the spirits of tho night walking the billows. I leaned over tho taffrail of the vessel, and said: "Thy way, O God, is in tho sea, and Thy path in tho great waters." It jrrew lighter. Tho elouda hung in purple clusters along the sky; , snectmg it critically, thinking meanwhile and, as if thoso purple clusters were that tho girls' hats were all to bo rather ex pressed into red wino and poured out pensive this seasou, and that it was time to upon the sea, every wave turned intc ' retrench somewhere. What great differ crimson. Yonder, tiro cleft stood op- ence t,id il mako about aa old lauy's bonnet posito to firo cleft; and here, a cloud, way, so that it was comfortable-she ronUml tinl th l!,f c.i i!i- I went out bo little. a palace, with flames burning from the , ,i., .;?. n,"i.?";::: ;::.::: windows. The whole scene lighted un until it seemed as if tho anirels of God were ascending and descending upon j stairs or hre, and tho wavo crests, changed into Jasper, and crystal, and crystal, and amethyst, as they were flung toward the beach, made mo think of the crowns of Heaven cast before tho throne of tho great Jehovah. I leaned over the tailrail again, and said, with moro emotion than before: "Thy way, O God, is in tho sea, and thy path in the great waters!" So, I thought, will bo the going off of the storm and night of the Christian's life. The darkness will fold its tents and away! The golden feet of tho ris ing morn will como skipping upon tho mountains, and all the wrathful billows of the world's woe break into the splen dor of eternal joy. And so wo como into the harbor. Tho cyclono behind us. Our friends beforo us. God. who is always good, all around us. And if the roll of tho crew and tho passengers had been called, seven hun dred souls would havo answered to their names. "And so it came to pass that we all escaped safe to land." And may God grant that when all our Sab baths on earth aro ended, wo may find that through tho rich mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, wo all have weath ered the gale! Into the harbor of Heaven now we glide. Home at la.t! Softly we drift on the bright silver tide. Home at lust! Glory to God ! All our dangers are oVr; We stand secure on the glorified shore. Glory to God! we will shout evermore. Home at last! Home at last! a MANNERS AT TABLE A Grace That Mnt Ito Acquired in Early Childhood. The time for acquiring good table man ners is during childhood, and at home. Years at boarding-school, hours spent over books of social etiquette, may ef face vulgar habits, but can never givo the ease and grace acquired in child hood at a well-ordered table. A child who is almost a baby can be taught to handle his knife and fork, or spoon, if ho is too young for those more advanced implements, with a daintiness that will offend no one Whcro thero are chil dren it is not a good plan to have a wido difference between your every-day and company china, silver and napery. There is too apt to be a wide difference also between every-day and company manners Leteach child have hiscover as nicely laid witb plate, knife and fork, spoon, napkin and glass as his elders, and remember that ho will bo sure to noto your own uso of theso articles. Teach him to say "Thank you," and "please." and if ho is allowed toleavo the table before the meal is ended let him learn to say "Excuse me." Wo wero very much amused at a baby of four summers who recently dined at our table The meal, interspersed with in teresting conversation, was tedious to his infant appetite and intellect and finally tho little man spoke up with: "May I lie excused, please? I have en joyed my dinner very much." Someone at the table not his father remarked that that boy bade fair to bo "the finest gentleman in America." American Ag riculturist. Tho greatest wheel of its kind in the world, a very wonder in mechanism, stands in the main shop of the Dicksoa Manufacturing Company, in Scranton. It was built for the Calumet and Ilecla Mining Company, of Lake Superior, , Mich., for the purpose of lifting and dis charging the "tailings," a waste from the copper mines, into the lake, and its diaioteris54 feet while its weight in acute operation will be 200 tons. It is called a 50-foot sand-wheel, but its ex treme dimensions are 54 feet in diame ter. Some idea of its enormous capacity can be lormed from the fact that it will receive aad elevate sumcient sand every twenty-four hours to covet an acre of (round a foot deep. GRANDMA'S BONNET. Aunt Maria's Thoughtless and Bit terly-Regretted Words, T WAS years ago one March, when a few days of sprinciikc air swelled tho buds on tho maples, sent small green shoots from the daffodils, and set us girls plan ning about spring bats. Cousin Louiso and I wero to go in the city to-morrow on a slioDninir expedition. so my sister and I ran across the street to Aunt Maria's to consult with our cousins, tho "other girls, ' , We atvays drifted into KranJf.?m; . l wa tbe largest, plcasantest roomio the 'i ruifict nn frvtmi mra otick Kn iin'Ub aauu rheorv itb lnvr.1 in bn with her. She Bat by tVU7. UUU KUiUUlM w -" -l-t j .i,at morning, occasionally putting in her quiet word, while wo went deep into luo subject of straws and bonnets and leghorns, high crowns, rolling brims, tips, plumes, ribbons, etc. It was all settled at last, t hat Louise, being fair, should get a palo blue, shirred-Uko bonnet and Cousin Clan a white crape ono with pick roses; Sister Ruth's bounet was to be lilic herself, quiet and sweet a fiue straw with a bit of deli cate lace aud heliotropes; while m:ne, all agreed, should be a hat. with rolling brim, ' faced with black velvet aud glowing with , scarlet poppies. There was no need of so much clatter and consultation, however, for each, after receiving advice, resolved to provide herself with the identical head-gear she had in mind for tho lost month. After we had somewhat subsided, grand ma got up and went to her bureau drawer. "I guess 111 havo my bonnet tended to while you're about it," sho said, as she care fully lifted it out. "I've worn it just as it i going on live years now. Isn't it getting a little sort o' rustvi" "Grandma ought to havo a new bonnet, mother," said Louise. "Ono of thoso fine black Neapolitans, trimmed with black lace, would bo lovely for her." Aunt Maria "took her mother's straw bon net and turned it about on her baud, m- -'Oh, I don't think I need anew one." grandma said, meekly. "That would be cx i travagant; but 1 thought a new border might be put in, and may be a new pair of strings." "I don't seo any thing tho matter with tho border," said Aunt Maria, in a decided tone. "Tho strings can be sponged ami ironed, and they will look as well as ever." So saying, sho handed it back to grand ma, and turned to give Louiso further com missions for tho city. Ruth told me afterward that sho felt like saying: "Givo it to me, grandma. I win have It all freshened up for you, and 1'it pay for it myself." But none of us ever thought of going con trary to Aunt Maria's docrces. Sho was the commander-in-chief of both households. Grandma took her bonnet in sdence, aud put it back in tho drawer. Sho was no: growing childish, but I was sure that a tear trembled on her eyelid as she bent her AUNT MARIA TOOK IIER MOTHER'S STKAW BOXNET. white head an unnecessary timo over he drawer. She felt hurt I know sho did Sho was not a vain old lady, but her tastes were nice, and sho knew as well as any of us younger ones that her bonnet had lost its freshness. Grandma took her knitting work present ly, and seated herself by tho south window in her arm-chair. As I watched her, I fell to wondering if her thoughts were going hack just now over tho years to ihe time when Aunt Maria was a baby. They were pooi, then, and I bad heard grandma toll bow sho did her own work, and made shirts for several families to make the ends meet Was grandma recalling bow she had sat up nights and sewed to earn money enough to buy a cunning little whito hood made of satin and swan's down for her baby girl! Or did she rcicnibcr bow many weary stitches it took to earn that line, broad-brimmed straw hat trimmed with white ribbon, that her thirteen-year-old daughter might be "like other girls?" Perhaps her mind dwelt on a story she bad often told me; how, when Aunt Maria was nineteen, there came an invitation for her to go to Boston and spend a month. "Maria felt bad," grandma's story ran, "because she thought her hat wasn't fit to wear. I had a bonnet made of a splendid piece of velvet that my brother sent to me from Paris. I didn't say a word to any body. I just slipped upstairs and ripped that bonnet up, then I got your grandfather to take me to town. I had some money I had been saving up a good while to buy me a new bombazine dress, but I thought a cheaper one would do just as well; so I just took some of that money and went to the best milliner in town. I bought a long, black feather I knew Maria liked 'em aad I told her to make mo a hat fit to be seen in Bos ton. I never let on to any body what I'd done. But you ought to V seen Maria when that bat came home II sho wasn't happy 1 It was a beauty I Tbo long, black feather curled around her golden hair, and just touched ber shoulder. Ia front there was a littie white tuft 'with some tall birds o'ptradlse feathers waving in it ThemiUi- ner said it needed that so I got it beside. You've no idea how handsome she looked, and I enjoyed that hat forty time better than when I had it for mine." Was grandma thinking: "And yet Maria begrudges me a little new ribbon for my bonnet as well off as she Is, tool" If any such thought disturbed her, they dli not appear on her placid face as she paaantly knitted on. It was only a fortnight from that day. and we gathered again in graadaa'a room There was no merry talk. There we that strange hash which bet qm prtseace aflsaaMwr WSBKSflmh Sfaw. I fftWPay ilMIVc87 m i JtL-Ljffi 1 mlrimwSiMl WvFOUfe brings, broken only by low, saa strains or music, and words of consolation spoken in subdued tones. Grandma slept peacefully. There lin gered on her dear face the light of the ten der smile she had given usat parting. Fair flowers wero all about her, and I noticed, a 1 bent above her for tho last time, how puro und fresh tho white ribbon was which tied her cap. and then with a pang remembered her old bonnet strings. Dear grandma, she had gone where garments are without spot or wrinkle. IIow she would enjoy the white raiment, the purity, the unchanging freshness of the Ilea venly land! Wo all loved grandma dearlv; for a time itscemedasif we could not go on without her. Ono day towards evening a longing seized me to look onco more into grandma's toom; sol went across the street, stole around to tho side door, which opened di rectly into her room. It was ajar, and I stepped softly in. Grandma's arm-chair empty stood by the window. I leaned over it, trying to picture her as I I;d seen her so often sitting at dusk humming her favor ite hymn : Sua of my soul, Thon Saviour dear. But tho sound of sobbing reached my ear, and, looking up, I saw in the shadows at the further end of tho rocm Auut liana, standing by tho bureau. Graudma. boa net was in her hand. Sho turned it about and looked at it as if she would torture her self with tho certainty that it was indeed shabby, then sho kissed it again and bowed her head low over it m an agony of bitter weeping. And I had thought Aunt Maria self-constrained and cold! She had not heard mo come in, so I went noiselessly away. Aunt Maria meant to be a good daughter She had always abundantly supplied her mother with necessities and comforts, but she would have given all sho possessed that night standing there in that desolate room to be able to recall tho thoughtless words, which for the sake of a few paltry dollars denied tho dear old mother almost the last request ever made. "Let love antedate tho vrorkof death." and now bring tbe sweet spices of a fresh ribbon, a flower, a tender word, a loving thankfulness, which will brighten hearts that arc weary. Cougregationulist- MAKING PKESENTS. O old a custom us the giving of gifts ought ia our day to be brought to a high state of perfection. Yet wo aro still crude givers. Some excellent people give to churches or char ities with insulting words, declaring that the Gospel U free, and it was not in tendid sinners should pay car-fare to Heaven. Thero is a boun teon"gushof givins twculiar to Ameri cans whii-h rises like a tide and sweeps cit 'esand villages at every public calamity. Wo givo to tho unfortunate with both hands; givo him our coats, our shoes, our food. If he is burnt out, m-ilcodcdout, or plague-driven out of his home, ho be comes that instant grandly our own flesh aud spirit. Wo suffer in him until we can relievo his snffering. T.o human raepiloe. rise to high points. We are never defi55f here. It is the little, every-day, common giving in which wo arc still deficient. But iu the person who never gives at all there dwells a meaner nature than in the poorest giver. v He is tho man who regards a lax hold of any kind of property a weakness. He looics with contempt and astonishment on a per son who gives. "And she was always making presents," I heard a woman once say in summing up a young teacher's demerits. The thoroughness of a man's or woman's civilization may actually ho gauged by his tact and sense in giving presents. You know the fellow who comes m and knock.i you dowr with his gift. Ho pats himself. lie has been going t. do something hand some for you for a long time, tnd he has done it. Oh, tha.'s all right. You needn't Fay any thing. Ho knows he has laid you out flat under an obligation which is to last your lifetime. Ju-.t hold still and let lu'ra stand on the top of it and crow. That is your role. You know also th; dear friend who buys you somccostly, ugly thing which you have looked on with aversion, but which you must accept with smiles while your heart sinks in your pocket-book. lie must not rob himself rn your account. Yerdy, your money, which would have bought you just what you desired, must gt for a tokeu, when occasion arises, to tins discerning friend. IIow niuch we do waste in our miserable guess-work! Well, also, do you know the wretch v.-hc brings you a mongrel dog or broken-legged bird and "makes a present" of it. "Tho poor creature was suffering and I thought I'd bring it to you." This donor is complimentary to your hi manity. We all bavo a weakness for presents, which is amiable and human. They testi fy to our popularity. The man who is "sur prised by his fellow-citizens and a cane o upholstered chair or any object which they please to call a testimonial, and who is touched to tears as he draws his prepared speech from bis pocket, is really a more (I have seen just one such) who make it a rule never to accept any present. Very seldom are wedding presents re garded as gifts. They come under the head of taxes. Yet thero are occasions when costly presents are graceful. The "simple-Iittle-cift" theory may be run into the ground. It signifies more or less stinginess. "To-morrow is Grace's birthday," says a sister who owes the life and health of her own family to Grace's long and faithful service Grace, who took care of the babies and nursed them through more illnesses than the hairs on their little heads would number. "I want to give her a present and I don't know what to give bar." (Who ever does know what to give another except the most highly-trained human beings?) "I want to give her some simple little thing. She would like that just as well as she would a costly present." Give her a timothy straw," suggests the sarcastic hearer of this economical desire. "You are over head and cars under obliga tions to Grace, but- she is usedToyour sav ingmoney on her. Some simple little thing like a broken tea-cup or a bottle of mucilagu would be appropriate. The symbol js what you are after. 'Stick to us, Grace, or, -We are all broke up if you leave. There is nothing like the simple little plan when you are giving to people whom yorat never repay anyhow." - Yet it ia better to give with mean grasp of aa opportunity, with bad grace and worse perception, than never to give at all. .CUaTWEM. UATHEBOOD. Bif Joxsox appeaja to be t gUaoaaaoa record whod Ms. Wmsmmamml is verr at he desen'tiateadte bava . ;'IPi w-Mt Kn- I root--a n . f- raLaT7waiself:f aaandafulLiS I yxr.'T.-'V U. "" IJ"rPa .jst& '"-Sl-SiVggt5iSgrrwfrrr5titt