A BUNCH OF GRAPES.

THE THEME OF DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON AT THE TABERNACLE. That Terrible Trip Across the Wilderness. The Divinely Sanctioned Idea of Death. Mrs. Sigourney's Beautiful Lines--Be-fore the Resurrection.

BROOKLYN, June 18.--Rev. Dr. Tal-

mage in selecting a theme for today's sermon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle chose

one peculiarly suitable to the season of fruits, the title being "Grapes From

Canaan" and the text Numbers xiii, 23, "And they came unto the brook of Eschol and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff." The long trudge of the Israelites across the wilderness was almost ended. They

had come to the borders of the promised land. Of the 600,000 adults who started from Egypt for Canaan, how many do you suppose got there? Five hundred thousand? Oh, no. Not 200,000, not 100,000, nor 50, nor 20, nor 10, but only 2 men. Oh, it was a ruinous march that God's people made, but their children were living, and they were on the march, and now that they had come up to the borders of the promised land they were very curious to know what kind of a place it was and whether it would be safe to go over. So a scouting party is sent out to reconnoiter, and they examine the land, and they come back bringing specimens of its growth. Just as you came back from California, bringing to your family a basket of pears or plums or apples to show what monstrous fruit they have there, so this scouting party cut off the biggest bunch of grapes they could find. It was so large that one man could not carry it, and they thrust a pole through the clus-

ter, and there was one man at either end of the pole, and so the bunch of grapes was transported.

I was some time ago in a luxuriant vineyard. The vine dresser had done his work. The vine had clambered up and spread its wealth all over the arbor. The sun and shower had mixed a cup which the vine drank until with flushed cheek it lay slumbering in the light, cluster against the cheek of cluster. The rinds

of the grapes seemed almost bursting with the juice in the warm lips of the autumnal day, and it seemed as if all you had to do was to lift a chalice toward the cluster and its lifeblood would begin to drip away. But, my friends, in these rigorous climes we know nothing about large grapes. Starbo states that in Bible times and in Bible lands there were grapevines so large that it took two men with outstretched arms to reach round them, and he says there were clusters 2 cubits in length, or twice the length from the elbow to the tip of the long finger. And Achaitus, dwelling in those lands, tells us that during the time he was smitten with fever one grape would slake his thirst for the whole day. No wonder, then, in these Bible times two men thought it worth their while to put their strength together to carry down one cluster of grapes from the promised land. THE DIVINE IDEA. But this morning I bring you a larger cluster from the heavenly Eschol--a cluster of hopes, a cluster of prospects, a clus-

ter of Christian consolations, and I am expecting that one taste of it will rouse up your appetite for the heavenly Ca-

naan. During the past winter some of this congregation have gone away never to return. The aged have put down their staff and taken up the scepter. Men in midlife came home from office or shop and did not go back again and never will go back again. And the dear children, some of them, have been gathered in Christ's arms. He found this world too rough a place for them, and so he has gathered them in. And, oh, how many wounded souls there are--wounds for which this world offers no medicament--and unless from the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ there shall come a consolation there will be no consolation at all. Oh, that the God of all comfort would help me while I preach and that the God of all comfort would help you while you hear!

First, I console you with the divinely sanctioned idea that your departed friends are as much yours now as they ever were. I know you sometimes get

the idea in your mind when you have this kind of trouble that your friends

are cut off from you and they are no longer yours, but the desire to have all

our loved ones in the same lot in the cemetery is a natural desire, a universal

desire and therefore a God implanted desire and is mighty suggestive of the fact that death has no power to break up the friendly relations. If our loved ones go away from our possession, why put a fence around our lot in the cemetery? Why the gathering of four or five names on one family monument? Why the planting of one cypress vine so that it covers all the cluster of graves? Why put the husband beside the wife and the children at their feet? Why the bolt on the gate of our lot, and the charge to the keepers of the ground to see that the grass is cut and the vine attended to and the flowers planted? Why not put our departed friends in one common field and grave? Oh, it is because they are ours. That child, O stricken mother! is as much yours this morning as in the solemn hour when God put it against your heart and said as of old, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." It is no mere whim. It is a divinely planted principle in the soul, and God certainly would not plant a lie, and he would not culture a lie! Abraham would not allow Sarah to be buried in a

stranger's grounds, although some very beautiful ground was offered to him a free gift, but he pays 400 shekels for Mach-

pelah, the cave, and the trees overshadowing it. The grave has been well kept, and today the Christian traveler stands in thoughtful and admiring mood gazing upon the Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah are taking their long sleep of 4,000 years. Your father may be slumbering under the tinkling of the bell of the Scotch kirk. Your brother may have gone down in the ship that foundered off Cape Hatteras. Your little child may be sleeping on the verge of the flowering western prairie. Yet God will gather them all up, however widely the dust may be

scattered. Nevertheless it is pleasant to think that we will be buried together. When my father died and we took him out and put him down in the graveyard of Somerville, it did not seem so sad to leave him there, because right beside him was my dear, good, old, beautiful

Christian mother, and it seemed as if she said: "I was tired, and I came to bed a little early. I am glad you have come; it seems as of old." Oh, it is a consolation to feel that when men come and with solemn tread carry you out to your resting place they will open the gate through which some of your friends have already gone and through which many of your friends will

follow. Sleeping under the same roof, at last sleeping under the same sod. The

autumnal leaves that drift across your grave will drift across yours; the bird songs that drop on their mound will drop on yours, and then in starless winter nights, when the wind comes howling through the gorge, you will be company for each other. The child close up to the bosom of its mother. The husband and wife remarried, on their lips the sacrament of the dust. Brothers and sisters who used in sport to fling themselves on the grass now again reclining side by side in the grave, in flecks of sunlight sifting through the long, lithe willows. Then at the trumpet of the archangel to rise side by side, shaking themselves from the dust of ages. The faces that were ghastly and fixed when you saw them last all aflush with the light of incorruption. The father looking around on his children and saying, "Come, come, my darlings; this is the morning of the resurrection." Mrs. Sigourney wrote beautifully with the tears and blood of her own broken heart: There was a shaded chamber, A silent watching hand, On a low couch a suffering child Grasping her mother's hand.

But 'mid the gasp and struggle With shuddering lips she cried, "Mother, oh, dearest mother, Bury me by your side." Only one wish she uttered

As life was ebbing fast,

"Sleep by my side, dear mother, And rise with me at last." A CLOUD OF WITNESSES. Oh, yes, we want to be buried together. Sweet antetype of everlasting resi-

dence in each other's companionship. When the wrecked went down into the cabin of the lost steamer, he found the mother and child in each other's arms. It was sad, but it was beautiful, and it was appropriate. Together they went down. Together they will rise. One on earth. One in heaven. Is there not something cheering in all this thought and something to impress upon us, the idea that the departed are ours yet--ours forever? But I console you again with the fact of your present acquaintanceship and communication with your departed friends. I have no sympathy, I need not say, with the ideas of modern spiritualism, but what I mean is the theory set forth by the apostle when he says, "We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses." Just as in the ancient amphitheater there were 80,000 or 100,000 people looking down from the galleries upon the combatants in the center, so, says

Paul, there is a great host of your friends in all the galleries of the sky looking

down upon our earthly struggles. It is a sweet, a consoling, a Scriptural idea. With wing of angel, earth and heaven are in constant communication.

Does the Bible not say, "Are they not sent forth as ministering spirits to those

who shall be heirs of salvation?" And when ministering spirits come down and see us, do they not take some message back? It is impossible to realize, I know, the idea that there is such rapid and per-

petual intercommunication of earth and heaven, but it is a glorious reality. You take a rail train, and the train is in full motion, and another train from the opposite direction dashes past you so swiftly that you are startled. All the way between here and heaven is filled with the up trains and the down trains --spirits coming--spirits going--coming--going--coming--going. That friend of yours who died last month--do you not suppose he told all the family news about you in the good land to the friends who are gone? Do you not suppose that when there are hundreds of opportunities every day for them in heaven to hear from you that they ask about you--that they know your tears, your temptations, your strug-

gles, your victories? Aye, they do.

Perhaps during the last war you had a boy in the army, and you got a pass, and you went through the lines, and you found him, and the regiment coming from your neighborhood you knew most of the boys there. One day you started for home. You said: "Well, now, have you any letters to send? Any messages to send?" And they filled your pockets with letters, and you started home. Arriving home, the neighbors came in, and one said, "Did you see my John?" and others, "Did you see my George?" "Do you know anything about my Frank?" And then you brought out the letters and gave them the messages of which you had been the bearer. Do you suppose that angels of God, coming down to this awful battlefield of sin and sorrow and death and meeting us and seeing us and finding out all about us, carry back no message to the skies? Oh, there is consolation in it! You are in present communication with that land. They are in sympathy with you now more than they ever were, and they

are waiting for the moment when the hammer stroke shall shatter the last

chain of your earthly bondage, and your soul shall spring upward, and they will stand on the heights of heaven and see you come, and when you are within hailing distance your other friends will be called out, and as you flash through the pearl hung gate their shout will make the hills tremble. "Hail! ransomed spirit, to the city of the blessed!" I console you still further with the idea of a resurrection. I know there are a great many people who do not accept this because they cannot understand it; but, my friends, there are two stout pas-sages--I could bring a hundred, but two swarthy passages are enough--and one David will strike down the largest Goliath. "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves shall come forth." The other swarthy passage is this: "The Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the archangel; and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Oh, there will be such a thing as a resurrection. You ask me a great many questions I cannot answer about this resurrection.

You say, for instance, "If a man's body is constantly changing, and every sev-

enth year he has an entirely new body, and he lives on to 70 years of age and

so has had 10 different bodies, and at the hour of his death there is not a particle

of flesh on him that was there in the days of his childhood, in the resurrec-

tion which of the 10 bodies will come up or will they all rise?"

You say, "Suppose a man dies, and his body is scattered in the dust, and out of that dust vegetables grow, and men eat the vegetables, and cannibals slay these

men and eat them, and cannibals fight with cannibals until at last there shall be a hundred men who shall have within them some particles that started from the dead body of the first named, coming up through the vegetable, through the first man who ate it and through the canni-

bals who afterward ate him, and there be more than a hundred men who have rights in the particles of that body--in the resurrection how can they be assort-

ed when these particles belong to them all?"

You say, "There is a missionary buried in Greenwood, and when he was in China he had his arm amputated--in the resur-

rection will that fragment of the body fly 16,000 miles to join the rest of the body?"

You say, "Will it not be a very diffi-

cult thing for a spirit coming back in that day to find the myriad particles of

its own body, when they may have been scattered by the winds or overlaid by

whole generations of the dead, looking for the myriad particles of its own body,

while there are a thousand million other spirits doing the same thing, and all the assortment to be made within one day?" You say, "If 150 men go into a place of evening entertainment and leave their hats and overcoats in the hall, when they come back it is almost impossible for them to get the right ones, or to get them without a great deal of perplexity, and yet you tell me that myriads of spirits in the last day will come and find myriads of bodies." Have you any more questions to ask? Any more difficulties to suggest? Any more mysteries? Bring them on! Against a whole regiment of skepticism I will march these two champions: "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming when

all who are in their graves shall come forth." "The Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." You see I stick to these two passages. Who

art thou, O fool, that thou repliest against God? Hath he promised, and shall he not do it? Hath he commanded, and shall he not bring it to pass? Have you not confidence in his omnipotence? If he could in the first place build my body, after it is torn down can he not build it again? "Oh," you say, "I would believe that if you would explain it. I am not dis-

posed to be skeptical, but explain how it can be done." My brother, you be-

lieve a great many things you cannot explain. You believe your mind acts on

your body. Explain the process. This seed planted comes up a blue flower. An-

other seed planted comes up a yellow flower. Another seed planted comes up

a white flower. Why? Why that wart on your finger? Tell me why some cows have horns and other cows no horns. Why, when two obstacles strike

each other in the air, do you hear the percussion? What is the subtle energy

that dissolves a solid in a crucible? What makes the notches on an oak leaf different from any other kind of leaf? What makes the orange blossom different from that of the rose? How can the almightiness which rides on the circle of heaven find room to turn its chariot on a heliotrope? Explain these. Can you not do it? Then I will not explain the resurrection. You explain one-half of the common mysteries of everyday life, and I will explain all the mysteries

of the resurrection. You cannot answer me very plain questions in regard to ordinary affairs. I am not ashamed to say that I cannot explain God, and the judg-

ment, and the resurrection. I simply ac-

cept them as facts, tremendous and infinite. NEAR UNTO HEAVEN'S GATES. Before the resurrection takes place everything will be silent. The mausoleums and the labyrinths silent. The graveyards silent, the cemetery silent,

save from the clashing of hoofs and the grinding of wheels as the last funeral

procession comes in. No breath of air disturbing the dust where Persepolis stood and Thebes and Babylon. No winking of the eyelids long closed

in darkness. No stirring of the feet that once bounded the hillside. No opening of the hand that once plucked the flower out of the edge of the wildwood. No clutching of swords by the men who went down when Persia battled and Rome fell. Silence from ocean beach to mountain cliff and from river

to river. The sea singing the same old tune. The lakes hushed to sleep in the bosom of the same great hills. No hand disturbing the gate of the long barred sepulcher. All the nations of the dead motionless in their winding sheets. Up

the side of the hills, down through the trough of the valleys, far out in the cav-

erns, across the fields, deep down into the coral palaces of the ocean depths where leviathan sports with his fellows--everywhere, layer above layer, height above height, depth below depth--dead! dead! dead! But in the twinkling of an

eye, as quick as that, as the archangel's trumpet comes pealing, rolling, reverberating, crashing across continents and seas, the earth will give one fearful shudder and the door of the family vault, without being unlocked, will burst open, and all the graves of the dead will begin to throb and heave like the waves of the sea, and the mausoleum of princes will fall into the dust, and Ostend and Sebastopol and Austerlitz and Gettysburg stalk forth in the lurid air, and the shipwrecked rise from the deep, their wet locks looming above the billow, and all the land and all the sea become one moving mass of life--all generations, all ages with upturned countenances--some kindled with rapture and others blanched with despair, but gazing in one direction, upon one object, and that the throne of resurrection.

On that day you will get back your Christian dead. There is where the com-

fort comes in. They will come up with the same hand, the same foot and the same entire body, but with a perfect hand, and a perfect foot, and a perfect body, corruption having become incoruption, mortality having become immortality. And, oh, the reunion! Oh, the embrace after so long an absence! Comfort one another with these words. While I present these thoughts this morning does it not seem that heaven comes very near to us, as though our friends, whom we thought a great way off, are not in the distance, but close by? You have sometimes come down to a

river at nightfall, and you have been surprised how easily you could hear voices across that river. You shouted over to the other side of the river, and they shouted back. It is said that when George Whitefield preached in Third street, Philadelphia, one evening time

his voice was heard clear across to the New Jersey shore.

When I was a little while chaplain in the army, I remember how at eventide we could easily hear the voices of the pickets across the Potomac just when

they were using ordinary tones. And as we come today and stand by the riv-

er of Jordan that divides us from our friends who are gone it seems to me we

stand on one bank, and they stand on the other, and it is only a narrow stream and our voices go, and their voices come. Hark! Hush! I hear distinctly what they say. "These are they who came out of great tribulation and had their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb." Still the voice comes across the water, and I hear, "We hunger no more, we thirst no more; neither shall the sun light on us, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne leads us to living fountains of water, and God wipeth away all tears from our eyes." Big Winnings on a Small Stake. A group of men were standing in the office of one of the leading hotels recently, and the talk turned to gambling and

gamblers. One of the party, a fine looking, portly man, with a rubicund coun-

tenance, said:

"What I am going to relate took place

in New Orleans in 1868. A neatly dressed, quiet mannered fellow accosted me in the office of the St. Charles hotel and wanted

to borrow $20. He was Charles Coree, a

Frenchman and a high roller at faro.

He had been in New Orleans a week and had 'gone broke.' He said he felt like he

could win if I could only lend him a

'stake.' After some persuasion I let him

have the money, with the understanding

that I was to have half of his winnings,

and that as soon as he had won enough to take care of himself he should pull out my half. I thought no more about

the matter, and after reading a little while I went to my room and went to sleep.

"About 1 o'clock in the morning a boy

came to my room, woke me up and hand-

ed me a package. It contained $200 and a note from Coree saying it was my half of the winnings, and that I could take it or send it back to be played on as I chose. I thought $200 on a $20 investment was pretty good, so I put the money in my pocket and decided to let well enough alone. The first thing I heard the next

morning was that Coree had won $5,000.

He kept on playing and in 24 hours had won, all told, $16,000. I did not see him for a good many years after that, and when I met him again he had plenty of money. The second meeting was our last, and I have not heard a word from him since."--Louisville Courier-Journal. Each Girl Has One True Friend. In England, as we have been told, there is a "Girl's Letter Guild," having a mem-

bership of over 5,000 persons. Of this number 3,000 are girls. The remaining names on the list are those of lady correspondents and honorary members, who control and carry out the provisions of

parties who have inaugurated so beneficent an institution, giving by letter advice and help to this expectant crowd, and it is so arranged that each girl member of this guild shall have one true friend to whom she may safely open her heart, and to whom she may appeal for suggestion and aid in any emergency. What a merciful plan for the many not knowing which way to turn in seasons of uncertainty and trial! May it not be accepted among us as a

timley suggestion, by which many a

young woman may receive sympathy

and be led by the one true friend to whom

her name has been assigned to such advancement as shall secure at least an honest independence and bring into some stinted life a brightness never dreamed of? The very fact of such a friendship cor-

respondence that will enter heartily into one's joys and sorrows, that can kindly offer suggestions without fear of offense,

is of itself an education.--Harper's Bazar. Valuable Papers Destroyed For Gain.

Not long ago a local collector, whose letters of rare interest only his most in-

timate friends are allowed to see, se-

cured possession of about 20 letters of a revolutionary hero which were most valuable historically on account of the new light they threw upon some disputed points. Their number, however, necessarily reduced their individual commercial value, so 10 of them were consigned to the flames without having even been copied. The value of the remaining 10 was of course enhanced greatly by this course. To such collectors the money value of a letter is the only point to be

considered, and they do not hesitate to make any sacrifice that will increase this

value. Many very important historical letters have recently been destroyed in this way.--Philadelphia Record.

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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

LESSON XII, SECOND QUARTER, IN-

TERNATIONAL SERIES, JUNE 25. A Comprehensive Review of the Lessons of the Second Quarter--Golden Text, Prov. iii, 6--Commentary by the Rev. D. M. Stearns. LESSON I.--The Resurrection of Christ (Math. xxviii, 1-10). Golden Text (I Cor. xv, 20), "But now is Christ risen from the

dead and become the first fruits of them

that slept." Looking back over the quar-

ter there is a remarkable completeness in

the first lesson being a resurrection lesson

and the last one on the kingdom, while

between the two we have so much on the practical daily life of one associated with Christ in resurrection and waiting for the kingdom. Let us emphasize and if possible embrace more fully the fact that all

believers are looked upon by God as risen with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. ii, 5, 6; Col. iii, 1, 24) so may our constant prayer be that of Pani[?] Phil. iii, 10, 11.

LESSON II.--Afflictions Sanctified (John [?] 17-27). Golden Text (Heb. xii, 6), "[?]

whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth" [?]

our three lessons in this book, or four if [?] had taken the first instead of the [?] lesson, we have a righteous man [?]

made meet for his place in the kingdom. The principal point in this lesson is that we are to accept all chastening with not only

submission, but even joyfulness, because

our Heavenly Father is lovingly dealing

with us to make us more conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. viii, 28, 29). LESSON III.--Job's Appeal to God (Job xxiii, 1-16). Golden Text (John xiii, 7). "What I do thou knowest not now, but then shalt know hereafter." A central thought is in verses 10: "He knoweth the way that I take. When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." A true believer is God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before prepared for us to walk in (Eph. ii, 10). LESSON IV.--Job's Confession and Restoration (Job xlii, 1-10). Golden Text (Jas. v, 11). "Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord,

that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender

mercy." We now see a man who has been through the fire come forth as gold. His

eyes are no longer on himself, as in chapter 29, but this is his testimony to the Lord,

"Mine eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself." To deny self and follow Jesus,

to live in the power of "not I, but Christ"

(Math. xvi, 24; Gal. ii, 20), is to manifest

something of the resurrection life that looks for the kingdom. Such a one can pray even for friends like Job's (verse 10) and for enemies (Luke xxiii, 34; Acts vii, 60).

LESSON V.--Wisdom's Warning (Prov. i, 20-33). Golden Text (Heb. xii, 25), "See

that ye refuse not him that speaketh." This and the next four lessons are in the book of Proverbs and are suggestive of the manifestation in the daily life of Him who is "The Wisdom of God" (I. Cor. 1, 24). In this section Wisdom cries unto the simple ones who are being led astray that they may turn and receive His spirit and thus dwell safely and be quiet from fear of evil. LESSON VI.--The Value of Wisdom (Prov. iii, 11-24). Golden Text (Prov. iii, 5). "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding." Here, as

in lesson ii, we learn that only by loving

chastisement can we learn wisdom. So sin-

ful are we and so loving is our Heavenly

Father that He speaketh even by chasten-

ing if only He may save us from the pit

(Job xxxiii, 18, 19, 29, 30) and make us partakers of His holiness (Heb. xii, 10). Like

children, we are apt to take gilt for gold,

but our Father would have us possess true riches. The world would have us believe

that her ways are the only happy ones, while the truth is that it is only wisdom's

ways that are ways of pleasantness and her

paths peace (verse 17). Every possible attraction, and all real, is set before us in wisdom that we ask and receive (iv, 7; Jas. i, 5).

LESSON VII.--Fruits of Wisdom (Prov.

xii, 1-15). Golden Text (Prov. xi, 30), "The

fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and

he that winneth souls is wise." Thirteen out of the 15 verses of this lesson contrast

the wise and the foolish, the righteous and

the wicked, reminding us of the Saviour's

words concerning the wise and foolish in

Math. vii, 24-27; xxv, 1-13. Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden did not think enough

of the tree of life to prefer it to that of the

knowledge of good and evil, and their descendants have inherited their failings and

are all foolish by nature. We must be born

from above by receiving Him who is the wisdom of God. LESSON VIII.--Against Intemperance

(Prov. xxiii, 29-35). Golden Text (Prov.

xx, 1), "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is

raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby

is not wise." In contrast to being filled with wine, the believer is commanded to be

filled with the Spirit (Eph. v, 18), and thus be filled with songs of rejoicing instead of

the noisy and vain song of the drunkard.

LESSON IX.--The Excellent Woman

(Prov. xxxi, 10-31). Golden Text (Prov.

xxxi, 30). "Favor is deceitful, and beauty

is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord

she shall be praised." Instead of beholding here merely the perfect woman, wife and mother, we considered her as suggestive of the true church, the bride of Christ, as to her personal standing and character,

and then her relation to her Husband, to her household and to the poor and needy.

LESSON X.--Reverence and Fidelity

(Eccl. v, 1-12). Golden Text (Rom. xii,

11, "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Two lessons have been given us from this wonderful book,

with its description of things as seen under

the sun. There is nothing very comforting

or encouraging in the constant endeavor to

do right and not to do wrong with the

thought of a just God ever before you.

Neither is there anything restful in a study of the riches and poverty problem, but there is real rest of soul in seeing Jesus as the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. LESSON XI.--The Creator Remembered (Eccl. xii, 1-7, 13, 14). Golden Text (Eccl. xii, 1). "Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth." Youth is set before us as the time when we are apt to seek our own pleasure and forget God, but we are

reminded that old age will come when we may have no desire for anything, and that

our Creator has a right to the vigor of our youth. Our eyes turn to Him who as a

young man finished with His work on earth, who will in due time be our judge, and who offers us eternal youth if we will but welcome Him to our hearts. LESSON XII.--Messiah's Kingdom (Mal. iii, 1-12). Golden Text (Mal. iii, 17). "They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in

that day when I make up my jewels." It

is a fitting close to a quarter's lessons to

contemplate the time of the kingdom when Israel, after all her wanderings, shall be "holiness unto the Lord," and when the risen Christ shall be accepted as her long looked for king. All the more so, as we seem to be on the very verge of the time of the restoration of all things of which the prophets have spoken (Acts iii, 19-21). Evil Communications. Mrs. Backbay--I never would have be-

lieved my little boy could use such language. Been playing with bad children again, haven't you? Algernon--No'm. Teddy Bacon and I have been playing with a parrot his uncle sent him from Chicago.--Truth. Woolwich in 1842 first applied magneto electricity to electroplating metals. There is no genius in life like the genius of energy and activity.--D. G. Mitchell. 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 unfur-

nished 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.

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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 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 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, 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