HARP AND JAVELIN.

DR. TALMAGE PREACHES ON A NOV-

EL SUBJECT. The Wonderful Soothing and Healing Power of Music as Illustrated by David Before Saul--When Revisited, the Evil is All the Greater. BROOKLYN, May 14.--In his sermon this forenoon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle Rev. Dr. Talmage brought in a novel and practical conjunction that is suggested by a text perhaps never before chosen. The opening hymn, led by organ and cornet and joined in by thousands of voices, was: Before Jehovah's awful throne Ye nations bow with sacred joy. The subject announced was: "Harp and Javelin," the text being I Samuel, eighteenth chapter, tenth and eleventh verses: "And David played with his hand as at other times, and there was a javelin in Saul's hand. And Saul cast the javelin, for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice." What a spectacle for all ages! Saul, a giant, and David, a dwarf. An unfortunate war ballad had been composed and sung eulogizing David above Saul. That song threw Saul into a paroxysm of rage, which brought on one of his old spells of insanity to which he had been subject. If one is disposed to some physical ailment and he get real mad, it is very apt to bring on one of his old attacks. Saul is a raving maniac, and he goes to imitating the false prophets or sibyls, who kicked and gesticulated wildly when they pretended to be foretelling events. Whatever the physicians of the royal staff may have prescribed for the disordered king I know not, but David prescribed music. Having keyed up the harp, his fingers began to pull the rhythm from the vibrating strings. Thrum! Thrum! Thrum! No use. The king will not listen to the exquisite cadences. He lets fly a javelin, expecting to pin the minstrel to the wall, but David dodged the weapon and kept on, for he was confident that he could, as before, subdue Saul's bad spirit by music. Again the javelin is flung, and David dodges it and departs. What a contrast!

Roseate David with a harp and enraged Saul with a javelin. Who would not

rather play the one than fling the other? But that was not the only time in the

world's history that harp and javelin met. Where their birthplace was I cannot declare. It is said that the lyre was first suggested by the tight drawing of the sinews of a tortoise across its shell, and that the flute was first suggested by

the blowing of the wind across a bed of reeds, and that the ratio of musical in-

tervals was first suggested to Pythagoras by the different hammers on the anvil of the smithy, but the harp seems to me to have dropped out of the sky and the javelin to have been thrown up from the pit. The oldest stringed instrument of the world is the harp. Jubal sounded his harp in the book of Genesis. David played many of his psalms on the harp while he sang them. The captives in Babylon hung their harps on the willows.

Josephus celebrated the invention of the 10-stringed harp. Timotheus, the Mile-

sian, was imprisoned for adding the twelfth string to the harp, because too

much luxury of sound might enervate the people. Egyptian harps, Scottish harps, Welsh harps, Irish harps have been celebrated. What an inspired triangle! Everlasting honors to Sebastian Erard, who by pedals invented called the foot as well as the hand to the harp. When the harpsicord maker for whom he worked discharged him for his genius, the employer not wanting to be eclipsed by his subordinate, Erard suffered from the same passion of jealousy that threw Saul of my text into the fit during which he flung a javelin at the harpist. The harp is almost human, as you find when you put your finger on its pulse.

Other instruments have louder voice and may be better for a battle charge,

but what exquisite sweetness slumber between the harp strings, waking at the

first touch of the tips of the fingers. It can weep. It can plead. It can soothe. It can pray. The flute is more mellow, the trumpet is more startling, the organ is more majestic, the cymbals are more festive, the drum is more resounding,

but the harp has a richness of its own and will continue its mission through all time and then take part in celestial symphonies, for St. John says he heard in heaven the harps of God. THE ANCIENT JAVELIN. But the javelin of my text is just as old. It is about 5 1/2 feet long, with wooden handle and steel point, keen and sharp. But it belongs to the great family of death dealers and is brother to sword and spear and bayonet, and first cousin to all the implements that wound and slay. It has cut its way through the ages. It was old when Saul, in the scene of my text, tried to harpoon David. It has gashed the earth with grave trenches. Its keep tip is reddened with the blood of American wars, English wars, German wars, Russian wars, French wars, Crusader wars and wars of all nations and of all ages. The structure of the javelin shows what it was made for. The plowshare is sharp, but aimed to cut the earth in preparation for harvests. The lightning rod is sharp, but aimed to disarm the lightnings and secure safety. The ax is sharp, but aimed to fell forests and clear the way for human habitation. The knife is sharp, but aimed to cut the bread for sustenance. But the javelin is sharp only to open human arteries and extinguish human eyesight and take

human life and fill the earth with the cries of orphanage and widowhood and childlessness. Oh, I am so glad that my text brings them so close together that we can see

the contrast between the harp and the javelin. The one to soothe, the other to

hurt; the one to save, the other to destroy; the one divine, the other diabolic; the one to play, the other to hurl; the one in David's skillful hand, the other in Saul's wrathful clutch. May God speed the harp, may God grind into dullness the sharp edge of the javelin.

Now what does all this make you think of? It suggests to me the music as a medicine for physical and mental disorders. David took hold of the musical instrument which he best knew how to play and evoked from it sounds which were for King Saul's diversion and medication. But, you say, the treatment in this case was a failure. Why was it a failure? Saul refused to take the medicine. A whole apothecary shop of curative drugs will do nothing toward healing

your illness if you refuse to take the medicine. It was not the fault of David's prescription, but the fault of Saul's ob-

stinancy.

David, one of the wisest and best of all ages, stands before us in the text administering music for nervous disorder and cerebral disturbance, and David was

right. Music is the mightiest force in all therapeutics. Its results may not be seen as suddenly as other forms of cure, but it is just as wonderful. You will never know how much suffering and sorrow music has assuaged and healed. A soldier in the United States army said that on the days the regimental band played near the hospitals all the sick and wounded revived, and men who were so lame they could not walk before got up and went out and sat in the sunshine, and those so dispirited that they never expected to get home began to pack their baggage and ask about timetables on steamboat and rail train. Theodosius, the emperor, wrathful at the behavior of the people of Antioch, who, on some sudden provocation tore down the statues of emperor and empress, resolved severely to punish them, but the bishop, knowing that the emperor

had a group of boys to sing to him while eating at the table, taught the boys a plaintive song in which the people lamented their bad behavior, and the king under the pathos of the music cried out, "The city of Antioch is forgiven." The rage of Achilles was assuaged by a harp. Asclepiades swayed rebellious multitudes by a harp. THE POWER OF MUSIC.

After the battle of Yorktown, when a musician was to suffer amputation, and before the days of anaesthetics, the wounded artist called for a musical instrument and lost not a note during the 40 minutes of amputation. Filippo Pal-

ma, the great musician, confronted by an angry creditor, played so enchantingly before him that the creditor forgave the debt and gave the debtor 10 guineas more to appease other creditors. An eminent physician of olden time contended (of course carrying our theory too far) that all ailments of the world could be cured by music. The medical journals never report their recoveries by this mode. But in what the twilight hour has

many a saint of God solaced a heartache with a hymn hummed or sung or played! Jerome of Prague sang while burning at the stake. Over what keys of piano or organ consolation has walked. Yea, in church one hymn has rolled peace over a thousand of the worried, perplexed and agonized. While there are hymns and tunes ready for the jubilant, there is a rich hymnology for the suffering--"Naomi" and "Eventide" and "Autumn Leaves" and

"Come, ye disconsolate," and whole portfolios and librettos of tears set to music. All the wonderful triumphs of surgery

and all the new modes of successful treatment of physical and mental dis-

orders are discussed in medical conventions and spread abroad in medical books, and it is high time that some of the millions of souls that have been medicated

by music, vocal and instrumental, let the

world know what power there is in sweet

sound, whether rolling from lip or leaping from tightened cord of ascending from ivory key.

Music is a universal language. At the foot of the Tower of Babel language was split into fragments never to be again put together, but one thing was not hurt, and that is music, and it is the same all the world over. Last summer in Russia

at a watering place we were greeted as we entered a great auditorium, which

was filled with thousands of Russians, whose language I could not understand and more than they could understand mine. But after the grand band had, out of compliment to us, played our two great American airs, I stepped on the platform and said to the bandmaster, "Russian air! Russian air!" and then he tapped with his baton on the music rack, and with a splendor and majesty of power that almost made us quail the full band poured forth their national anthem. They understood our American music, and we understood their Russian music. It is a universal language and so good for universal cure.

I should not wonder if in the day of judgment it should be found out that more souls have been saved by music than by preaching. I should not wonder

if out of the one hundred and forty and four thousand ransomed souls that John foresaw before the throne of God at least 130,000 had been saved by sweet song. Why does not the church on earth take the hunt? Heaven is the great musical center of the universe, the place of doxologies and trumpets and harps, and in preparation for that place we ought to make more music on earth. The band of music at Waterloo played the retreat of the Forty-second Highlanders back to their places, and sacred music has returned many a faltering host of God into the Christian conflict with as much determination and dash as Tennyson's "Six Hundred." Who can tell what has been accomplished by Charles Wesley's 7,000 hymns, or by the congregational singing of his time, which could be heard two miles off? When my dear friend Dio Lewis (gone to rest all too soon) conducted a campaign against drunkenness at the west, and marshaled

thousands of the noblest women of the land in that magnificent campaign, and whole neighborhoods and villages and cities shut up their grog shops, do you know the chief weapon used? It was the song: Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee. They sang it at the door of hundreds of liquor saloons which had been open for years, and either at the first charge of the campaign or the second the saloon

shut up. At the first verse of "Nearer, My God, to Thee," the liquor dealers laughed, at the second verse they looked solemn, at the third verse they began to cry, and at the fourth verse they got down on their knees. You say they opened their saloons again. Yes, some of them did. But it is a great thing to have hell shut up if only for a week. Give full swing to a good gospel hymn, and it would take the whole world for God! THE REBELLIOUS NATURE. But when in my text I see Saul declin-

ing this medicine of rhythm and cadence and actually hurling a javelin at the

heart of David, the harpist, I remind myself of the fact that sin would like to kill sacred music. We are not told what tune David was playing on the harp that day, but from the character of the man we know it was not a crazy madrigal, or a senseless ditty, or a sweep of strings suggestive of the melodrama, but ele-

vated music, God given music, inspired music, religious music, a whole heaven of it encamped under a harpstring. No wonder that wicked Saul hated it and

could not abide the sound and with all his might hurled an instrument of death at it. I know there are styles of music that sin admires, and you hear it as you pass

the casino or the dance hall, and the devil has stolen most of the fiddles, though I am glad the Ole Bulls have snatched up the charmed strings from

their desecration, but it is a fact that sin has a javelin for sacred sounds. In

many churches the javelin of criticism has killed the music, javelin flung from organ loft or from adjoining pew of the supersensitive. Saul's javelin aimed at

David's harp. Thousands of people so afraid they may not sing scientifically, they will not sing at all, or sing with such low tone that no one hears them.

In many a church the javelin of criti-

cism has crippled the harp of worship. If satan could silence all the Sunday

school songs and the hymns of Christian worship, he would gain his greatest

achievement. When the millennial song shall rise--and it is being made ready--there will be such a roll of voices, such a concentrated power of stringed and wind instruments, such majesty, such unanimity, such continental and hemi-

spheric and planetary acclamation, that it will be impossible to know where earth

stops and heaven begins. Roll on, roll in, roll up, thou millennial harmony! THE MEANNESS OF REVENGE.

See also in my subject a rejected opportunity of revenge. Why did not David pick up Saul's javelin and hurl it back again? David had a skillful arm. He demonstrated on another occasion he could wield a sling, and he could have easily picked up that javelin, aimed it at Saul, the would be assassin, and left the foaming and demented monster as lifeless under the javelin as he had left Goliath under a sling. Oh, David, now is your chance. No, no. Men and women with power of tongue or pen or hand to reply to an imbittered antagonist, better imitate David and let the javelin lie at your feet and keep the harp in your hand. Do not strike back. Do not play the game of tit for tat.

Gibbon, in his history, tells of Bajazet, the great Moslem general who was

brought a captive to the tent of Timur. He had attempted the massacre of Timur

and his men. Timur said to him: "Had you vanquished us I am not ignorant of

the fate which you reserved for myself and my troops, but I disdain to retaliate. You life and honor are secure, and I shall express my gratitude to God by my clemency to man." Beautiful. Revenge on Christian's tongue or pen or hand is inapt and more damage to

the one who employs it than the one against whom it is employed. What! A

javelin hurled at you and fallen at your feet, and you not hurl it back again? Yes, I have tried the plan. I learned it from my father and have practiced it all my life, and it works well, and by the help of God and javelins not picked

up I have conquered all my foes and preached funeral sermons in honor of most of them.

The best thing you can do with a javelin hurled at you is to let it lie where it dropped or hang it up in your museum

as a curiosity. The deepest wound made by a javelin is not by the sharp edge, but at the dull end of the handle to him who wields it. I leave it to you to say which got the best of that fight in the palace--Saul or David. See also in my subject that the fact that a man sometimes dodges is not

against his courage. My text says that when Saul assailed him, "David avoided out of his presence twice"--that is, when the javelin was flung, he stepped out of

its direction or bent this way or that--in other words, he dodged. But all those who have read the life of David know that he was not lacking in prowess. David had faults, but cowardice was not one of them.

When David, who was, I guess, about 4 1/2 feet high, went out to meet the giant,

who was, I guess, about 10 feet high, it was a big undertaking, and the inequalities of the struggle were so great that it stuck the giant's idea of the ludicrous,

and he suggested to the little fellow that he would make a fine dinner for a buz-

zard or a jackal--"Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field." COURAGE OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

When David went out to meet that giant and conquered him, he demonstrated, as he did on other occasions, his courage. But I am so glad that when Saul flung that javelin David dodged it, or the chief work of his life would never have been done. What a lesson this is to those who go into useless danger and expose their lives or their reputations or their usefulness unnecessarily. When duty remands, go ahead, though all earth and hell oppose. Dodge not one inch

from the right position. But when nothing is involved step back or step aside. Why stand in the way of perils that you can avoid? Go not into quixotic

battles to fight windmills. You will be

of more use to the world and the church

as an active Christian man than as a tar-

get for javelins. There are Christians always in a fight. If they go into churches, they fight there. If they go into presbyteries or conferences or consociations, they fight there. My advice to you is, if anything is to be gained for God or the truth, stand out of the way of the javelins. I Samuel xviii, 11, "David avoided out of his presence twice." Washington was as mighty in his retreats as in his advances. His army would several times have been destroyed if he had not dodged. He dodged on Long Island; he dodged on New Jersey heights. Lincoln on his way to inauguration at Washington was waited for by assassins, but he took another train and dodged the desperadoes. We have high example of the fact that sometimes a man will serve God best by disappearing from this or that place, this or that environment. A mob brought Christ to the top of the rocks back of Nazareth. They did not like his preaching, and they proposed to hurl him down the precipice. But while they were getting ready for the massacre Christ darted into the crowd and amid the confusion escaped to Capernaum and continued exorcising devils and cooling fevers and filling fish nets and giving healthy circulation of blood to paralysis and curing dementia and

turning corpses into living men and women and doing his chief work.

What a good thing he dodged the crowd on the rocks back of Nazareth! Likewise at Jerusalem one day, while he was sauntering up and down in Solomon's porch waiting for an opportunity to say kind words or do a useful deed, the people proposed to pay him for his self sacrifices by stoning him to death but the record is, "He escaped out of their hands." CAUSELESS HATRED. See also in my subject the unreasonable attitude of javelin toward harp. What had that harp in David's hand done to the javelin in Saul's hand? Had

the vibrating strings of the one hurt the

keen edge of the other? Was there an old grudge between the two families of sweet sound and sharp cut? Had the triangle ever insulted the polished shaft? Why the deadly aim of the destroying weapon against the instrument of soothing, calming, healing sound? Well, I will answer that if you will tell me why the hostility of so many to the gospel, why the virulent attacks against Christian religion, why the angry antipathy of so many to the most genial, most inviting, most salutary influence under all the heavens. Why will men give their lives to writing and speaking and warring against Christ and the gospel? Why the javelin of the

world's hatred and rage against the

harp of heavenly love? You know and I know men who get wrathfully red in the face and foaming at the mouth and use the gesture of the clinch-

ed fist and put down their feet with indignant emphasis and invoke all sar-

casm and irony and vituperation and scorn and spite at the Christian religion. What has the Christian religion done that it should be so assailed? Whom hath it bitten and left with hydrophobia virus in their veins that it should sometimes be chased as though it were a maddened canine?

To head off and trip up and push down and corner our religion was the

dominant thought in the life of David Hume and Voltaire and Shaftesbury and even the Earl of Rochester, until one day in a princely house, in which they blasphemously put God on trial, and the Earl of Rochester was the attorney against God and religion and received the applause of the whole company, when suddenly the earl was struck with conviction and cried: "Good God, that a man who walks uprightly, who sees the wonderful works of God and has the use of his senses and reason, should use them in defying his Creator! I wish I had been a crawling leper in a ditch rather than have acted toward God as I have done." Javelin of wit, javelin of irony, javelin of scurrility, javelin of sophistry, javelin of human and diabolic hostility have been flying for hundreds of years and are flying now. But aimed at what? At something that has come to devastate the world? At something that slays na-

tions? At something that would maul

and trample under foot and excruciate and crush the human race?

THE WONDERFUL HARP.

No, aimed at the gospel harp--harp on which prophets played with somewhat lingering and uncertain fingers, but harp on which apostles played with sublime certainty, and martyrs played while their fingers were on fire. Harp

that was dripping with the blood of the Christ, out of whose heartstrings the harp was chorded and from whose dying groan the strings were keyed. Oh, gos-

pel harp! All thy nerves a-tremble with stories of self sacrifice. Harp thrummed by fingers long ago turned to dust. Harp that made heaven listen and will yet make all the earth hear. Harp that sounded pardon to my sinful

soul and peace over the grave where my dead sleep. Harp that will lead the

chant of the blood washed throng redeemed around the throne. May a javelin slay me before I fling a javelin at

that. Harp which it seems almost too sacred for me to touch, and so I call down from their thrones those who used to finger it and ask them to touch it

now. "Come down, William Cooper, and run your fingers over the strings of

this harp." He says, "I will," and he plays:

There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel's veins. "Come down, Charles Wesley, and touch the strings." He says, "I will," and he plays: Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly. "Come down, Augustus Toplady, and sweep your fingers across this gospel harp." He says, "I will," and he plays: Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee. "Come down, Isaac Watts, and take this harp." He says, "I will," and he plays:

Alas, and did my Saviour bleed,

And did my Sovereign die?

"P. P. Bliss, come down and thrum this

gospel harp." He says, "I will," and he plays: Hallelujah, 'tis done! I believe on the Son. Ineffable harp! Transporting harp! Harp of earth! Harp of heaven! Harp saintly and seraphic! Harp of God! Oh, I like the idea of that old monument in the

ancient church at Ullard, near Kilkenny, Ireland. The sculpture on that monu-

ment, though chiseled more than a thousand years ago, as appropriate today

as then, the sculpture representing a harp upon a cross. That is where I hang it now; that is where you had better hang it. Let the javelin be forever buried, the sharp edge down, but hang the harp upon the cross.

And now upon our souls let the harps of heaven rain music, and as when the

sun's rays fall aslant in Switzerland at the approach of eventide, and the shep-

herd among the Alps puts the horn to his lips and blows a blast and says,

"Glory be to God," and all the shepherds on the Alpine heights or down in

the deep valleys respond with other blasts of horn, saying, "Glory be to God," and then all the shepherds uncover their heads and kneel in worship, and

after a few moments of silence some shepherd rises from his knees and blows

another blast of the horn and says, "Thanks be to God," and all through the mountains the response comes from other shepherds, "Thanks be to God," so this

moment let all the valleys of earth re-

spond to the hills of heaven, with sounds of glory and thanks, and it be harp

of earthly worship to harp of heavenly worship, and the words of St. John in

the Apocalypse be fulfilled, "I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder, and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps."

Chicago as a Show Town. A theatrical manager believes that Chicago is destined to be the worst

"show town" this summer in the United States. People, he says, are not going

there to spend their money on theater going. If the exposition is open at night,

it will prove a formidable rival undoubtedly, and those who can't go there at night will probably be too fatigued with their day's work to go out any-

where at night.--Detroit Journal. Cassius fell by his own dagger after the battle of Philippi, the same dagger, it is said, with which he stabbed Caesar.

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

LESSON VIII, SECOND QUARTER, INTERNATIONAL SERIES, MAY 21. Text of the Lesson, Prov. xxiii, 29-35. Memory Verses, 29-32--Golden Text. Prov. xx, 1--Commentary by the Rev. D. M. Stearns.

29. "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath bab-

bling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?" The Golden Text tells us that "wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Yet there are fools without number who seem to prefer the woe and sorrow and contention. At least they prefer the wine and strong drink, even though it bring these things. The woes of Scripture against those who have to do with wine are not few. "Woe to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night till wine inflame them." "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink." "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him and maketh him drunken also" (Isa. v, 11, 22; Hab. ii, 15). Then it is plainly written that drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. vi, 10), so for this life and the life to come it is

naught but woe for those who are slaves of strong drink. But thank God for deliverance, even for those who are bound with such chains, for the drunkards and vile

people of Corinth had, many of them, ex-

perienced the power of the grace of God and become washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (I Cor. vi, 11). 30. "They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine." This is the answer to the previous verse. Drunk-

enness is invariably associated with trouble. In verse 21 it is said that "the drunkard shall come to poverty." The story of

drunken Nabal, and of Elah, who was slain while he was drunken, are among the sad records of the Bible (I Sam. xxv, 36, 38;

I Kings xvi, 8-10). But perhaps more sad is the story of righteous Noah, who forgot himself and his high calling and became

drunken, thus bringing great humiliation to himself and one of his sons and giving great occasion to the enemy to blaspheme (Gen. ix, 20-25). Worse still is the story of David making Uriah drunk (II Sam. xi, 13). Surely every man at his best estate is alto-

gather vanity, but what can be said of a drunken man except that he has descended lower than the brutes?

31. "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright." The R. V. has for the last clause, "When it goeth down smoothly." Wine has its attrac-

tions and its pleasures, but they are wholly on the side of self and sensuality when car-

ried to excess. There is no manner of use in making a joke of Paul's advice to Tim-

othy to use a little wine for his stomach's sake (I Tim. v, 23), nor in saying that the wine of the New Testament was wholly un-

fermented, for how could unfermented wine burst wineskins? But there is use in letting the word of God stand, and in all humility and teachableness take it to mean what it says in its plain, literal sense, un-

less it is clearly a figure or a symbol. Hap-

py are those whose stomachs need no wine, happy those who prefer to let even meat alone, if need be, rather than be a stum-

bling block; happy the church that prefers to use an unfermented wine at the communion rather than put temptation before any weak one. Happiest of all those who can truly say, "Not I, but Christ, who liv-

eth in me." 32. "At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." It is on the principle of "he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption" (Gal. vi, 8). "For the mind of the flesh is death" (Rom. viii, 6, R. V.). The flesh will manifest itself in greater or less degree in some or all of the works named in Gal. v, 19-21, and the record is "that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." If a man is simply a natural man, a man after the flesh, never born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God, but must in due time experience the second death, which is the lake of fire (Rev. xx, 15, 14). Then shall he indeed know to his eternal sorrow the serpent's bite and the adder's sting. Foretastes of hell are in mercy given even in this life (let any drunkard testify) if perchance men may repent and so escape the lake of fire. 33. "Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter per-

verse things." Woman in Scripture is the type of the very best and the very worst. The church is spoken of as a chaste virgin, espoused to Christ, and as a bride adorned for her husband (II Cor. xi, 2; Rev. xxi, 2), while all that is vile and false is described as a woman seated upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy (Rev. xvii, 3). The strange woman is described in verses 27, 28, of this chapter, and more fully in chapters v, 3-5; vi, 24-26. The way to be saved from such destruction is to give heed to verse 26, "My son, give me thine heart and let thine heart observe my ways." Not only do we need to be kept from uttering perverse things, but we need to be kept from foolish thoughts, for the thought of foolishness is sin (chapter xxiv, 9). And since we are not sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, how utterly help-

less is our condition, but our sufficiency is of God (II Cor. iii, 5).

34. "Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast." Dangerous positions surely. Such a one might say, indeed, what David thought was true of him-

self, "There is but a step between me and death" (I Sam. xx, 8). When we know that death shall usher us into the presence of the King, that to die is gain and to depart is to be with Christ, then indeed one has no cause to fear that enemy. But if one's sorrows have already begun through wine and women, on the edge of what a fearful precipice does such a one stand! But the figure is that of one asleep in danger. This is more fearful still, for if one is only awake there is some hope of escape, but what hope can there be for Samson asleep in the lap of Delilah?

35. "They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again." Refusing to receive correction, they make their faces harder than a rock and refuse to return (Jer. v, 3). They say come and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant (Isa. ivi, 12). Of such it will doubtless become true, "He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Prov. xxix, 1). And yet God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but cries imploringly, Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die (II Pet. iii, 9; Ezek. xxxiii, 11). How deceitful and desperately wicked is the human heart? Both Rev. Dr. Talmage and his congregation have always been distinguished for public spirit and liberality in all philanthropic causes. The Tabernacle is not a Brooklyn institution solely, how-

ever. It belongs to every locality where the English language is spoken or read. A silver spoon which was lost by Horace Woodward of Dayull, Conn., who is

now 80 years of age, when he was 6 years old has been restored to him, he

claims. It was found at the bottom of a well which was cleaned out. 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 Loan Association. Lots for Sale or Exchange. Houses to rent, furnished or unfurnished. Deeds, Bonds, Mortgages, Wills and Contracts carefully drawn. Abstracts of titles carefully prepared. Experience of more than twenty-five years. Office--Sixth Street and Asbury Avenue. P. O. Box 325, 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 railroad 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, Jew-

elery, 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 to just 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