EXCUSES FOR DELAY.

DR. TALMAGE ON THOSE INVITED TO THE WEDDING FEAST. How Very Illogical Men Are In Their At-

ttitude Toward the Claims of Christianity. Poor Doctors, Poor Farmers, Poor Law-

yers and Poor Christians. BROOKLYN, April 16.--Rev. Dr. Talmage in his sermon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle this forenoon spread before the great audience in eloquent words the beauty and attractiveness of the gospel feast, the text chosen being from Luke xiv, 18, "And they all with one

consent began to make excuse." After the invitations to a levee are

sent out the regrets come in. One man apologizes for nonattendance on one

ground, another on another ground.

The most of the regrets are founded on prior engagements. So in my text a great banquet was spread, the invita-

tions were circulated, and now the re-

grets come in. The one gives an agricultural reason, the other a stock dealer's reason, the other a domestic reason --all poor reasons. The agricultural reason being that the man had bought a farm and wanted to see it. Could he not see it the next day? The stock dealer's reason being that he had bought five yoke of oxen, and he wanted to go and prove them. He had no business to buy them until he knew what they were. Besides that a man who can own five yoke of oxen can command his own time. Besides that he might have yoked two of them together and driven them on the way to the banquet, for locomotion was not as rapid then as now. The man who gave the domestic reason said he had got married. He ought to have taken his wife with him. The fact was they did not want to go. "And they all with, one consent began to make excuse." So now God spreads a great banquet; it is the gospel feast, and the table reaches across the hemispheres, and the invitations go out and multitudes come and sit down and drink out of the chalices of God's love, while other multitudes decline coming—the one giving this apology and the other giving that apology. "And they all with one consent began to make excuse." I propose this morning, so far as God may help me, to examine the apologies which men make for not

entering the Christian life.

Apology the first: I am not sure there is anything valuable in the Christian religion. It is pleaded that there are so many impositions in this day--so many things that seem to be real are sham. A gilded outside may have a hollow inside. There is so much quackery in physics, in ethica, in politics, that men come to the habit of incredulity, and after awhile they allow that incredulity to collide

with our holy religion. IT HAS MADE A GOOD RECORD.

But, my friends, I think religion has made a pretty good record in the world. How many wounds it has salved; how many pillars of fire it has lifted in the midnight wilderness; how many simoom struck Saharas it hath turned into the gardens of the Lord; how it hath stilled the chopped sea! What rosy light it hath sent streaming through the rift of the storm cloud wrack; what pools of cool water it hath gathered for thirsty Hagar and Ishmael; what manna whiter than coriander seed it hath dropped all around the camp of hardly bestead pilgrims; what promises it hath sent out like holy watchers to keep the lamps burning around deathbeds! Through the darkness that lowers into the sepulcher, what flashes of resurrection morn! Besides that, this religion has made so

many heroes. It brought Summerfield,

the Methodist, across the Atlantic ocean with his silver trumpet to blow the acceptable year of the Lord, until it seemed as if all our American cities would take the kingdom of heaven by violence. It sent Jehudi Ashman into Africa alone, in a continent of naked barbarians, to lift the standard of civilization and

Christianity. It made John Milton

among poets, Raphael among painters, Christopher Wren among architects, Thorwaldsen among sculptors, Handel among musicians, Dupont among mili-

tary commanders; and to give new wings

to the imagination, and better balance to the judgment, and more determination to the will, and greater usefulness to the life, and grander nobility to the soul, there is nothing in all the earth like our Christian religion.

Nothing in religion! Why, then, all

those Christians were deceived when in their dying moment they thought they saw the castles of the blessed; and your child, that with unutterable agony you

put away into the grave--you will never

see him again, nor hear his sweet voice, nor feel the throb of his young heart? There is nothing in religion! Sickness will come upon you. Roll and turn on your pillow. No relief. The medicine may be bitter, the night may be dark, the pain may be sharp. No relief. Christ never comes to the sick room. Let the pain stab. Let the fever burn. Curse it and die. There is nothing in religion!

After awhile death will come. You will hear the pawing of the pale horse on the threshold. The spirit will be breaking away from the body, and it will take flight--whither, whither? There is no God, no ministering angels to conduct, no Christ, no heaven, no home. Nothing in religion! Oh, you are not willing to adopt such a dismal theory. And yet the world is full of skeptics. And let me say there is no class of people for whom I have a warmer sympathy than for skeptics. We do not know how to treat them. We deride them, we caricature them. We, instead of taking them by the soft hand of Christian love, clutch them with the iron pincers of ecclesiasticism. Oh, if you knew how those men had fallen away from Christianity and become skeptics you would not be so rough on them. Some were brought up in homes where religion was overdone. The most wretched day in the week was Sunday. Religion was driven into them with a triphammer. They had a surfeit of prayer meetings. They were stuffed and choked with catechisms. They were told by their parents that they were the worst children that ever lived because they liked to ride down hill better than to read "Pilgrim's Progress." They never heard their parents talk of religion but with the corners of their mouths drawn down and the eyes rolled up. THE UNFAITHFUL IN A STUMBLING BLOCK. Others went into skepticism through maltreatment on the part of some who professed religion. There is a man who

says, "My partner in business was vol-

uble in prayer meeting, and he was of-

ficious in all religious circles, but he cheated me out of $3,000 and I don't want any of that religion."

There are others who got into skepti-

cism by a natural persistence in asking questions--why or how. How can God be one being in three persons? They can-

not understand it. Neither can I. How can God be a complete sovereign and yet man a free agent? They cannot under-

stand it. Neither can I. They cannot understand why a holy God lets sin come into the world. Neither can I. They say: "Here is a great mystery. Here is a disci-

ple of fashion, frivolous and godless all

her days--she lives on to be an octogenarian. Here is a Christian mother training her children for God and for heaven, self sacrificing, Christlike, indispensable

seemingly to that household--she takes the cancer and dies." The skeptic says,

"I can't explain that." Neither can I.

Oh, I can see how men reason them-

selves into skepticism. With burning feet I have trod that blistering way. I know what it is to have a hundred nights

poured into one hour. There are men in this audience who would give their thousands of dollars if they could get back to

the old religion of their fathers. Such

men are not to be caricatured, but helped, and not through their heads, but through their hearts. When these men really do

come into the kingdom of God, they will be worth far more to the cause of Christ than those who never examined the evidences of Christianity. Thomas Chalmers once a skeptic; Robert Hall once a skeptic; Christmas Evans once a skeptic; but when they did lay hold of the gospel chariot, how they made it speed ahead! If therefore I stand this morning before men and women who have drifted away into skepticism I throw out no scoff. I rather implead you by the memory of those good old times when you knelt at your mother's knee and said your evening prayers and those other days of sickness when she watched all night and gave you the medicines at just the right time and turned the pillow when it was hot, and with hand long ago turned to dust soothed your pains, and with that voice you will never hear again unless you join her in the better country told you never mind--you would be better by and by, and by that dying couch, where she talked so slowly, catch-

ing her breath between the words--by

all those memories, I ask you to come and take the same religion. It was good enough for her--it is good enough for you. Aye, I make a better plea by the wounds and the death throe of the Son of God, who approaches you this morning with torn brow and lacerated hands and whipped back crying, "Come unto me all yet who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." CHRIST'S REMEDY FOR BAD TEMPER. Other persons apologize for not enter-

ing the Christian life because of the in-

corrigibility of their temper. Now, we

admit it is harder for some people to become Christians than for others, but the grace of God never came to a mountain that it could not climb, or to an abyss that it could not fathom, or to a bondage that it could not break. The wildest horse that ever trod Arabian sands has been broken to bit and trace. The maddest torrent tumbling from mountain shelving has been harnessed to the millwheel and the factory band, setting a thousand shuttles all a-buzz and a-clat-ter, and the wildest, the haughtiest, the most ungovernable man ever created by the grace of God may be subdued and sent out on ministry of kindness, as God sends an August thunderstorm to water

the wild flowers down in the grass. Good resolution, reformatory effort,

will not effect the change. It takes a

mightier arm and a mightier hand to

bend evil habits than the hand that bent

the bow of Ulysses, and it takes a stronger lasso than ever held the buffalo on the prairie. A man cannot go forth with any human weapons and content successfully against these Titans armed with

uptorn mountain. But you have known

men into whose spirit the influence of the gospel of Christ came until their disposition was entirely changed. So it was with two merchants in New York. They were very antagonistic. They had done all they could to injure each other. They were in the same line of business. One of the merchants was converted to God. Having been converted, he asked the Lord to teach him how to bear himself toward that business antagonist, and he was impressed with the fact that it was his duty when a customer asked for a certain kind of goods which he had not, but which he knew his opponent had, to recommend him to go to that

store. I suppose that is about the hard-

est thing the man could do, but being

thoroughly converted to God he re-

solved to do that very thing, and being

asked for a certain kind of goods which

he had not he said, "You go to such and

such a store and you will get it." After awhile merchant No. 2 found these customers coming so sent, and he found also

that merchant No. 1 had been brought to God, and he sought the same religion. Now they are good friends and good neighbors, the grace of God entirely changing their disposition. THOSE RUGGED CHRISTIANS. "Oh," says some one, "I have a rough, jagged, impetuous nature, and religion can't do anything for me." Do you know that Martin Luther and Robert Newton and Richard Baxter were impetuous, all consuming natures, yet the grace of God turned them into the mightiest usefulness? Oh, how many who have been pugnacious and hard to please and irascible and more bothered about the mote in their neighbor's eye than about the beam like ship timber in their own eye have been entirely changed by the grace of God and have found out that "godliness is profitable for the life that now is

as well as for the life which is to come!"

Peter, with nature tempestuous as the

sea that he once tried to walk, at one

look of Christ went out and wept bitter-

ly. Rich harvests of grace may grow on the tiptop of the jagged steep, and flocks of Christian graces may find pasturage in fields of bramble and rock. Though your disposition may be all a-bristle with fretfulness, though you have a temper a-gleam with quick lightnings, though your avarice be like that of the horseleech, crying, "Give!", though damnable

impurities have wrapped you in all con-

suming fire, God can drive that devil out of your soul, and over the chaos and the darkness he can say, "Let there be light." Converting grace has lifted the drunkard from the ditch and snatched the knife from the hand of the assassin and the false keys from the burglar, and in the pestiferous lanes of the city met the daughter of sin under the dim lamplight and scattered her sorrow and her guilt with the words, "Thy sins are forgiven--go and sin no more." For scarlet sin a scarlet atonement. Other persons apologize for not entering the Christian life because of the inconsistencies of those who profess religion. There are thousands of poor farmers. They do not know the nature of soil nor the proper rotation of crops. Their corn is shorter in the stalk and smaller in the ear. They have 10 less bushels to the acre than their neighbors. But who declines being a farmer because there are so many poor farmers? There are thousands of incompetent merchants. They buy at the wrong time. They get cheated in the sale of their goods. Every bale of goods is to them a bale of disaster. They fail after awhile and go out of business. But who declines to be a merchant because there are so many incompetent merchants? There are thousands of poor lawyers. They cannot draw a declaration that will stand the test. They cannot recover just damages. They cannot help a defendant escape from the injustice of his persecutors. They are the worst evi-

dence against any case in which they

are retained. But who declines to be a

lawyer because there are so many in-

competent lawyers? Yet there are tens of thousands of people who decline being religious because there are so many unworthy Christians. Now, I say it is illogical. Poor lawyers are nothing against jurisprudence, poor physicians are nothing against medicine, poor farmers are nothing against agriculture, and mean, contemptible professors of religion are nothing against our glorious Christianity.

THE WILL-O'-THE-WISP OF UNBELIEF. Sometimes you have been riding along

on a summer night by a swamp, and you have seen lights that kindled over decayed vegetation--lights which are called jack-o'-lantern or will-o'-the-wisp. These lights are merely poisonous miasmata. My friends, on your way to heaven you will want a better light than the will-o'-the-wisps which dance on the

rotten character of dead Christians. Ex-

udations from poisonous trees in our

neighbor's garden will make a very poor balm for our wounds. Sickness will come, and we will be

pushed out toward the Red sea which divides this world from the next, and not the inconsistency of Christians but the rod of faith will wave back the waters as a commander wheels his host. The judgment will come with its thundershod solemnities, attended by bursting mountains and the deep laugh of earthquakes, and suns will fly before the feet of God like sparks from the anvil, and 10,000 burning worlds shall blaze like banners in the track of God omnipotent. Oh, then we will stop and say, "There was a

mean Christian; there was a lying Christian; there was an impure Christian." In that

day as now, "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, but if thou scornest thou alone shall bear it." Why, my brother, the inconsistency of Christians so far from being an argument to keep you away from God ought to be an argument to drive you to him. The best place for a skillful doctor is a neighborhood where they are all poor doctors; the

best place for an enterprising merchant

to open his store is in a place where the bargain makers do not understand their business, and the best place for you who want to become the illustrious and complete Christians--the best place for you is to come right down among us who are so incompetent and inconsistent sometimes. Other persons apologize for not becoming Christians because they lack time, as though religion muddled the brain of the accountant, or tripped the pen of the author, or thickened the tongue of the

orator, or weakened the arm of the me-

chanic, or scatterered the briefs of the lawyer, or interrupted the sales of the merchant. They bolt their store doors against it and fight it back with trowels

and with yard sticks and cry, "Away

with your religion from our store, our office, our factory!"

A RELIGION FOR WORKERS. They do not understand that religion in this workaday world will help you to do anything you ought to do. It can lay a keel, it can rail a ship, it can buy a car-

go, it can work a pulley, it can pave a

street, it can fit a wristband, it can write

a constitution, it can marshal a host. It

is as appropriate to the astronomer as his

telescope, to the chemist as his laboratory, to the mason as his plumbline, to the carpenter as his plane, to the child

as his marbles, to the grandfather as his staff.

No time to be religious here! You have no time not to be religious. You might

as well have no clerks in your store, no books in your library, no compass on

your ship, no rifle in the battle, no hat

for your head, no coat for your back, no

shoes for your feet. Better travel on toward eternity bear headed and barefooted and houseless and homeless and friend-

less than to go through life without religion. DId religion make Raleigh any less of a statesman, or Havelock any less of a soldier, or Grinnell any less of a merchant, or West any less of a painter? Religion is the best security in every bargain, it is the sweetest note in every song, it is the brightest gem in every coronet. No time to be religious! Why, you will have to take time to be sick, to be troubled, to die. Our world is only

the wharf from which we are to embark

for heaven. No time to secure the friendship of Christ. No time to buy a lamp and trim it for that walk through the darkness which otherwise will be illuminated only by the whiteness of the tombstones. No time to educate the eye for heavenly splendors, or the hand for choral harps, or the ear for everlasting songs, or the soul for honor, glory and immortality. One would think we had time for nothing else.

Other persons apologize for not enter-

ing the Christian life because it is time enough yet. That is very like those persons who send their regrets and say: "I will come in perhaps at 11 or 12 o'clock. I will not be there at the opening of the banquet, but I will be there at the close." Not yet! Not yet! No, I do not give any doleful view of this life. There is nothing in my nature, nothing in the grace of God, that tends towad a doleful view of human life. I have not much sympathy with Addison's description of the "Vision of Mirza," where he represents human life as being a bridge of a hundred arches, and both ends of the bridge covered with clouds, and the race coming on, the most of them falling down through the first span, and all of them falling down through the last span. It is a very dismal picture. I have not much sympathy with the Spanish proverb which says, "The sky is good, and the earth is good --that which is bad is between the earth and the sky." CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE HOPEFUL. But while we Christian people are bound to take a cheerful view of life we must also confess that life is a great un-

certainty, and that man who says, "I can't become a Christian because there is time enough yet" is running a risk infinite. You do not perhaps realize the fact that this descending grade of sin gets steeper and steeper, and that you are gathering up a rush and velocity which after awhile may not answer to the brakes. Oh, my friends, be not among those who give their whole life to the world and then give their corpse to God. It does not seem fair while our pulses are

in full play of health that we serve ourselves and serve the world and then make

God at last the present of a coffin. It does not seem right that we run our ship from coast to coast, carrying cargoes for ourselves, and then when the ship is crushed on the rocks give to God the shivered timbers. It is a great thing for a man on his dying pillow to repent--better than never at all--but how much better, how much more generous, it would have been if he had repented 50 years before! My friends, you will never get over these procrastinations. Here is a delusion. People think, "I can go on in sin and worldliness, but

after awhile I will repent, and then it will be as though I had come at the very

start." That is a delusion. No one ever gets fully over procrastination. If you

give your soul to God, some other time

than this, you will enter heaven with only half the capacity for enjoyment and knowledge you might have had. There will be heights of blessedness you might have attained, you will never reach; thrones of glory on which you might have been seated, but which you will never climb. We will never get over procrastination, neither in time nor in eternity. We have started on a march from which there is no retreat. The shadows of eternity gather on our path-

way. How insignificant is time com-

pared with the vast eternity! I was thinking of this while coming down over the Alleghany mountains at noon, by that wonderful place which you have all

heard described as the Horseshoe--a depression in the side of the mountain where the train almost turns back again

upon itself, and you see how appropriate is the description of the Horseshoe--and thinking on this very theme and preparing this very sermon it seemed to me as if the great coroner of eternity speeding along had just struck the mountain with

one hoof and gone on into the illimitable

space. So short is time, so insignificant is earth, compared with the vast eternity!

This morning voices roll down the sky, and all the worlds of light are ready to

rejoice at your disenthrallment. Rush not into the presence of the king ragged with sin when you may have this robe of righteousness. Dash not your foot to pieces against the throne of a crucified Christ. Throw not your crown of life off the battlements. All the scribes of God are this moment ready with volumes of living light to record the news of your soul emancipated.

Why the Barber Was Silent.

A distinctive feature of one of the luxurious barber shops in the dry goods

district is a razor wielder who can outtalk the traditional talkative barber.

His tongue is seldom idle when he is at work, and were it not for the fact that he is a barber of uncommon skill and

neatness he would have been banished

from the shop long ago. As it is, most of the customers put up with his chatter good naturedly, and some of them encourage him to talk out of pure mischief.

One day last week an overworked and

weary "head of a department" in a large

dry goods house hurried into this par-

ticular shop for a quick shave. An in-

voluntary shudder shook his frame when

he saw that the only vacant chair be-

longed to the talkative barber.

He nerved himself for the ordeal and

was greatly surprised when the barber said nothing to him as he took his seat. His astonishment increased when he found that the usually loquacious artist was actually shaving him without saying a word. The job was done quickly and neatly, and when the barber had

finished the customer jumped up and ex-

claimed enthusiastically: "By Jove, that Here's a quarter for you. You seem to have turned over a new leaf." The knight of the razor shook his head

gloomily and muttered: "Can't talk.

Burned mouth with carbolic acid. Thought it was sherry wine."--New York Times.

Education In the West.

Eastern states might well take a les-

son from the west in the matter of higher education. With the exception of Massachusetts and Connecticut our communities on the Atlantic border are sadly deficient in this respect. It will soon be a question whether those desiring the best university education for their children should not send them to some of the great institutions in the west rather than the older centers of learning in Europe. Foremost among establishments of

this kind in the new University of Chi-

cago, which promises to eclipse everything in the way of facilities for study ever attempted on this continent. The buildings are models of excellence, and no expense has been spared to secure as professors those who are pre-eminent in every department of human knowledge. In higher mathematics, astronomy, engineering and applied mechanics the west far excels the east. Even the smaller towns have public libraries, generously supported by the local authorities, and open in the evenings, affording unlimited opportunities for self education which would put to shame New York, with its inadequate facilities. The east should wake up, or it will be found that this process will surely transfer to the west the scepter of influence, for "knowledge is power."--New York Herald. Philadelphia a City of Families. Philadelphia is a dingy city by the side of Paris. It is outdone by most of the world's centers in all by which the world

reckons greatness, but no city that is or

ever was, has done more to make fam-

ilies and therefore children comfortable. If all Paris were to file past you,

every fifth person would be a child under 15 years of age. If all Philadelphia

were to do the same, there would be

three such children for every 10 persons. File for file, there would be one-half

more children in Philadelphia than in

Paris; more, file for file, than in New York or London; more than in any of

the world's old great cities; more, because Philadelphia makes life more comfortable for families and for children.--St. Nicholas. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. LESSON V, SECOND QUARTER, INTERNATIONAL SERIES, APRIL 30. Text of the Lesson, Prov. 1, 20-23--Mem-

ory Verses, 20-23--Golden Text, Heb. xii, 25--Commentary by the Rev. D. M. Stearns.

20. "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets." When we read in the New Testament such words as these, "Christ, the wisdom of God," "Who of God is made unto us wisdom" (I Cor. i, 24, 30), we have no difficulty in understanding who

is meant in this book by wisdom. Just as Jesus Christ is both the living personal

word and also the written word, so He is wisdom as to His person and as to His utterances. It is no wonder, then, that it is written, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom" (iv, 7). 21. "She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates. In the city she uttereth her words, saying." The

great multitude are in the broad way of self and self pleasing, with little or no thought of a hereafter and a day of judg-

ment. They care not for the fact that "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," and their only thought is pleasure and prosperity here and now (Math. vii, 13; Gal. vi, 7). Wisdom is represented as calling unto them as they hurry along their downward road.

22. "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?" Simple ones, if they believe the devil, are easily led astray. If they believe God, they are easily led aright. If they go astray, they are soon among the scorners and the fools. Yet wisdom loves them and cries unto them: "How long?" "How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?"

"How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before Me" (Jer. iv, 14; Ex. x, 3)?

23. "Turn you at My reproof: behold I will pour out My Spirit unto you; I will make

known My words unto you." He calls so lovingly, so patiently, so perseveringly.

"Come unto Me; return unto the Lord; turn, O backsliding children; take with yon words and turn to the Lord." These are some of the many words of the Lord to the erring ones as He entreats them to come unto Him (Isa. iv, 3, 7; Jer. iii, 1, 7, 12, 14; Hos. xiv, 3). He only asks us to turn to Him, and He will do all the rest, giving His words and His Spirit, His words which are Spirit and Life (John vi, 63).

24. "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man

regarded." It does not seem possible that a people who had been so wondrously dealt with could treat such love, but the human heart is still the same, and the same love on His part is turned away from by

those to whom His hands are imploringly stretched out. How is it with you? 25. "But ye have set at naught all My coun-

sel, and would none of My reproof." They mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against

His people, till there was no remedy (II Chron. xxxvi, 16). They even went so far as to say, "We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves" (Isa. xxviii, 15). Like the men before the flood, whose houses God filled with good things, they said unto God, "Depart from us; what can the Almighty do for us" (Job xxii, 15-18)? 26. "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, and he that soweth the wind shall reap the whirlwind" (Gal. vi, 7; Hos. viii, 7). Concerning all who take counsel against Him it is written, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision" (Ps. ii, 4), and if His loving invitations are persistently despised we must remember his words, "None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper" (Luke xiv, 24). 27. "When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you." In due time these things will come upon all who despise His love

and make light of His salvation. Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke; then a great ransom cannot deliver thee (Job xxxvi, 18).

28. "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, as they behaved themselves ill in their doings (Mic. iii, 4). He told Jeremiah that the intercession of Moses and Samuel could not save the nation, and He told Ezekiel that the presence of Noah, Daniel and Job would be of no avail (Jer. xv, 1; Ezek. xiv, 14, 20). Sin may become so great that nothing will do but judgment. 29. "For that they hated knowledge and

did not choose the fear of the Lord." They say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire

not the knowledge of Thy ways (Job xxi, 14).

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, a foundation of life, a great treas-

ure (Prov. i, 7; ix, 10; xiv, 27; Isa. xxxiii, 6).

But they had no reverence for God, no respect for His ways, no gratitude for His

gifts. The fool says there is no God, and

many a one who would not say this wishes

that there was no God. The carnal mind

is enmity against God (Rom. viii, 7).

30. "They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof." Our Lord Jesus said that whosoever heard His words, but did them not, was like a man building on

said, only to have everything swept away (Math. vii, 26, 27).

31. "Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices." Their own wickedness will correct them and their backslidings reprove them. Hear, O earth; behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words (Jer. ii, 19; vi, 19.) If people will not receive the truth, God will let them receive delusion and a lie (II Thess. ii, 10-12). He simply lets them have their own way, with its consequences, if they insist on having it. 32. "For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." To turn away from God is to turn one's back on the only source of love and light. It is to choose darkness rather than light (John iii, 19). 33. "But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil." What a wonderful salvation our wonderful Lord has provided for His enemies if they will only turn to Him in true penitence. Life, eternal life, abundant pardon, forgiveness of all sins, with the assurance of there being no more remembered, an inheritance incorruptible, a joint heir-

ship with Jesus Christ, with the promise of

all things temporal and spiritual that we can possibly need. Stitches in time will never prevent the day from breaking. There are about 14,000 miles of railroad in operation in Canada. The shortest man in congress is John R. Fellows of New York. Cervantes' father was a soldier, and he himself served in many wars. In Scotland the total acreage of nursery gardens in 1892 is given at 1,383. "Women, wind, time and fortune change," says the Portuguese proverb. DESIRABLE COTTAGES FOR SALE OR RENT. If you intend visiting the seashore the coming season, communicate with R. CURTIS ROBINSON, Real Estate and Insurance Agent,

744 ASBURY AVENUE, OCEAN CITY, N. J.

who has on hand a number of desirable furnished and unfurnished cottages. Full information furnished on application.

Building lots for sale in every section of the city. I also have 150 lots near Thirty-eighth street, which I will offer to

a syndicate, five lots to the share. Money to loan on Bond and Mortgage on improved property. SCUDDER LUMBER CO., PLANING MILL, SASH FACTORY AND LUMBER YARDS MANUFACTURERS OF Doors, Window Frames, Shutters, Sash, Moldings, Brackets Hot Bed Sash, Scroll Work, Turning, &c. ALSO DEALERS IN BUILDING LUMBER OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, OF WHICH A LARGE STOCK IS CONSTANTLY ON HAND, UNDER COVER, WELL SEASONED AND SOLD AT LOWEST MARKET PRICES. FRONT AND FEDERAL STREETS, CAMDEN, N. J.

Y. CORSON,

REAL ESTATE AGENT, AND LICENSED AUCTIONEER,

No. 721 Asbury Avenue, OCEAN CITY, N. J.

Properties for sale. Boarding Houses and Cottages for Rent in all parts of the city. Correspondence solicited.

WM. LAKE, C. E., REAL ESTATE AGENT,

Surveying, Conveyancing, Commissioner of Deeds, Notary Public, Master

in Chancery. Sec'y Ocean City Building and Lots Association. Lots for Sale or Exchange. Houses to rent, furnished or unfurnished, Deeds, Bonds, Mort-

gages. Wills and Contracts carefully drawn. Abstracts of titles carefully prepared. Expertises

of more than twenty-five years. Office--Sixth Street and Asbury Avenue.

P. O. Box 825. WM. LAKE.

Honesty is the best policy.--B. Franklin.

Therefore get the policies issued at the office of H. B. Adams & Co., by HONEST, Sound, Liberal, Solid and

Successful Fire Insurance Companies. Your choice of 18 of the best American and English Companies.

LOTS FOR SALE

in all parts of the city. Hotels and

Cottages for Sale or Rent. Money to loan on mortgages.

H. B. ADAMS & CO., Eighth Street, opposite W. J. R. R. Station, OCEAN CITY, N. J.

E. B. LAKE,

SUPERINTENDENT OF OCEAN CITY ASSOCIATION

From its Organization, and also REAL ESTATE AGENT

Having thousands of Building Lots for sale at various prices, Some very Cheap and located in all parts of Ocean City.

Now is the time to purchase property before the second rail-

road comes, as then property will greatly advance. I have a good many Inquiries for Property between 6th and

12th streets. Any one having property for sale might do

well to give me their prices.

All persons desiring to Buy, or Sell, or Exchange property,

would do well before closing any transaction to call on or address E. B. LAKE,

Association Office, No. 601 Asbury Ave., Ocean City, N. J.

F. L. ARCHAMBAULT. I am offering Diamonds, Watches, Jewelery, Silver Plated and Solid Silver Ware Handsome Table and Banquet Lamps during this month at the very lowest prices, and my success has been owing just to such special

inducements.

I feel there is no excuse for one not to enjoy a good time-keeper, when prices are from $10 to $15 in coin silver cases. Have a Watch, be on time. FRANK L. ARCHAMBAULT, JEWELER,

No. 106 Market Street

PHILADELPHIA, PA.