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IIR POVERTY OF ASKINB 'V The Inwardness of Things Is Held Above the Externals. by AsIc . . . that your joy may be full. â€" John xvi. 24. Men reproach us for asking too much ; the divine complaint is that 'we <!• not ask enough. "He wants 'tJM earth and heaven, too," said ^ man by way of criticism upon the inordinate acquisitiveness of an- other â€" "He wants the earth and heaven, too." But God is ch'efly sorry because man want only the farth and fail to put in any claim for lieaven, with all the bounties for which it stands. The Bible fair- ly yearns over our poverty of ask- "ng. Soiae one says that there are two sides to every question, and then dds humorously, "The outside nd the inside." The eternal em- basis of religion is upon the in- wg,rdness of things. Our fault commonly is that we are satisfied with externals. Real ri'jndship is always an inward pos- ession. It i^ won in terms of soul. 'Purchase not thy friend by gifte, est when thou ceasest to give they ease to love." As if friends could eally be won by champagne at $5 iottle or at the price of elabor- te hospitality. I knew a man who ;3"iit half a fortune in BUYING FRIENDS. let I doubt if he could count upon ^heir coming to his funeral, unless bhoy were assured of a wine sup- per. Friendship can neither be cajoled nor bribed. What wo win by such frank commercial methods is merely a husk. Real friendship liever crosses the doorsill of any life, save h'is- who has paid for it an inward price. I Pleasure also has its outside and Its inside. A child gets the out- â- ide of i>leasure when he possesses auliitude of toys, and is not amused by any of them. He has gotten the inwardness of pleasure when, by virtue of a happy heart, he finds happiness in the simplest flower or toy. The fault of our pleasure-loving age is not that it seeks pleasure, but that it concerns itself with the lesser gifts of joy. Real joy is of the heart. It is nev- er born of a multitude of scenes, or a multiplicity of sensations. He who cannot find material for hap- ninesa in his own garden in some choice book or in a little group of frends will never find it by going abroad for it. Goodness also has its outside and its inside. Respectability is the shell of goodness ; manhood is its soul. But, by an inveterate prac- tice, most people are still chiefly concerned with tue EXTERNALS OF GOODNESS. Pharisaism is by no means an anci- ent spirit. It is as modern as this morning. Men still broaden their phylacteries instead of their souls. A man can only weigh what he is, whether on a scale or in the scales of eternity. Not the form, but the force of goodness ; not the shell, but the strength of truth ; not the pretence, but the power of a good life, is the real thing. I was amused at the evident dis- gust of one of the squirrels in the park. He had seized eagerly the empty shell which had been flung him. But after satisf3'ing himself that the shell was empty he turned angrily uway. To such chagrin mul- titudes come at length. The cry of Ecclesiastes is a specimen cry of .disappointed manhood. No man can really feed his life on externals. We need to be sure that the shell includes the kernel of joy, else "all is vanity and vexation of spirit." Gaorge Clarke Peck, D. D. MUSHROOM EMPIRES. Retire at Night a Republic, Awake in the Horning ua Empire. Most Empires grow by impercep- tible degrees. Some, however, like Bulgaria, are born in a day. Germany, tor example ! Prior to January 18th, 1871, the German Empire, as we know it to-day, had no existence. Instead, was a jumble of kingdoms, states, duchies, grand-duchies, and principalities â€" all joined together by a like langu- age and common political aspira- tions, it is true, but otherwise quite separate and district. Then came the historic ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors at Ver- sailles. Paris had just been cap- tured by King William of Prussia, and it was held to be a fitting time and place to prt)claim him the first German Emperor. Never since the dawn of history was an empire born more dramatically. By a strange irony of fate, too, its birth took place amid the ruins of the Third French Empire, itself the creation of a day, or rather, to be strictly accurate, of a night. France went to bed on the evening of December 1st, 1851 a republic. When it awoke next morning it was an empire. During the hours of darkness Paris had been occupied by troops, and the Prince-President had become Napoleon III. Equally sudden, and almost as sensational in its way, was the birth of the modern Greek Empire. After the yoke of the Turks had beery thrown off in the War of Independ- ence, the country became a repub- lic. But the people soon tired of that democratic form of govern- ment, and promptly proceeded to assassinate their first and only Pre- sident. Then they met together amicably, elected a King, and settled them- selves down to be ruled by him in ! a quiet orderly and contented fashion. r HE S. S. LESSON INTVJRNATIONAL LESSON, JAN. 17. ^h« Reijinnings of the Christicn CJxureh. Acts 2. 22-47. Goldeu Acta 2. 42. \M'sr 22. Ye men of Israel â€" 'et^r is still speaking in his ad- lre*-s to the assembled multitude at ^'entocost. He has just quoted from the prophet Joel, and applies f)he prophecy of the outpouring of Khe divine Spirit to the phenome- llion of the gift of tongues which â- bad so astonished and puzzled bis Ihearers. fieiUi of Nazareth â€" Thus was he Ifmown to the people generally. Had Ireter been addressing a company lof di.sciples, he would perhaps have lused the title of "Master" in re- I ferriug to Jesus. -23. Being delivered up â€" Sur- I rendered, sacrificed. Peter would [have his hearers distinctly under- itand that it was by the determin- " ale counsel and foreknowle'ii,e of I Oi)d that Jesus had suffered by the hard of lawless men. By the ex- I pr Sftion "lawless men" is meant men who in what they were doing were e.xceeding their legal rights I and prerogatives. 84. Whom God raised up â€" This is the clima.'c and turning point of Peter's argument. God had re- versed the actions of those who plotted against the Christ. 25. For David saithâ€" The refer- ence is to Psa. 16. 8f . , which reads : |1 have set Jehovah always before me : " [Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. I Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : [My flesh also shall dwell in safety. [For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; [Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. The quoted verses constitute one of the few passages in the Old Tes- iiment in which appears to be ex- [â-ºressed a definite hope of a future jlife. The Davidic authorship of ie psalm is uncertain. The idea jtself might well be found in a psalm of David, but the mode in irhich the author works out the idea Deuts to suggest a later period. 1*26. Dwellâ€" Or, "tabernacle," that p, dwell temporarily as a sojour- }r. 27. Hades- The Hebrew Sheol, ke mystical realm of departed Mrits [Thy Holy Oneâ€" Peter here ap- lies to Christ words which in the riginal psalm refer to the writer the psalm itself, as the omission the capitals in the Old Testa- keiit quotation is intended to in- iicate. The word "holy" as used the psulm means "godly" or (beloved.'" The term implies lov- ]ig loyalty. The application of t\eae words to Jesus as the Mos- iah ratber than to the psalmist Inv^elf is justified by Peter him- \\i in verse 29, wheiv "»<» joints out -*- the fact that certain things men- tioned in the psalm were not true of the writer. 31. Spake of the resurrection of the Christâ€" The application of the psalmist's words to the resurrec- tion of Jesus from the dead is hard- ly warranted by the original mean- ing of the psalm, which is primar- ily a prayer for preservation from death, and an expression of confi- dence in Jehovah that this prayer will be granted. Concerning this point Professor Bartlet, in his Commentary on Acts, New Century Bible Scries, says: "Such free use of the Old Testament was quite common among the Jews ; and in- deed the New Testament writings contrast most favorably in this re- spect with contemporary usage, so far as known to us. The idea ly- ing behind the parallel perceived, even in such a case as the present, is usually profound, admitting of suggestive restatement in terms of our own more rigorous literary me- thods. Thus, on the assumption that the psalm was Davidic and i Messianic â€" things taken for grant- 1 ed by Jewish opinion at the time â€" | Peter was justified by the Semitic idea of almost personal identity be- 1 tween parent and offspring (even ! to remote generations, see verse 30), in using the psalm to prove, (1) that David's true scion, the Mes- siah, could not be holden of death, and (2) that Jesus, whom death had not been able to hold, was indeed Messiah. Behind all this lies, both in the p.salm and in Peter's mind, j the deep principleâ€" upon which all really dependsâ€" that God cannot leave to destruetiion 'His Holy One,' with whom Vie is in special covenant relation^'' 32. Wheroof-=^Or, of whom. 33. By the right hand, of God ex- altedâ€"Exalted by God's "p\...«« to be a prince and Saviour. 34. For David ascended notâ€" The argainent of verse 29 is continued, it being pointed out that David could not be the object of certain prophetic utterances of the psalm quoted. But he saithâ€" This second quota- tion is from Psa. 110, where the original verse quoted reads : Jehovah saith unto my lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 37. Pricked in their heart--Con- science- stricken, realizing in a measure the enormity of the crime committed by their nation in put- ting the Messiah to death. 38. In the name of Jesus Christâ€" Thus niakiug a public confes.sion of their belief in the divinity and Messiahship of Jesus, which was the burden of Peter's sermon and the ba.iis of the Cihristiau Church. 39. And to all that are afar offâ€" To future generations, as well as to those whom Peter addressed, this promise was given. '10. This crooked generation â€" Re- ferring to the collective guilt of the nation. 41. There were added unto them â€" The word.s italicized in uur text are omitted in the original, there be- ing no grammatical complement to the verb "added." The sense is that this number were added to the m^nibv-rahip. SENTENCE SERMONS. Love leads ; greed drives. Truth hid in the heart never stays secret. Charity always goes farther than it is sent. Good nature ought to be natural to the good. Coals of fire are not intended for roasting purposee. Honey on the lips does not cure hatred in the heart. Many think they are shining when they are only glaring. The sins we wiak at to-day are the ones we wed to-morrow. To-morrow's burdens always prove too much for to-day's back. The saddest slavery is that of be- ing ruled by our pleasures. You have no right to set up your fad as another man't faith. If you would be farsighted you must learn to live on the heights. The fool is known by offering his forethought after the event. You cannot improve the breed by polishing the brass on the harness. The secret of success lies some- where between wishing and willing. It's a sad day when a man lets his interests determine his princi- ples. Religion has no home in the man who does not show his religion at home. It's usually the man who opens his mouth widest who drinks in most scandal. When a sermon only reaches back to Saturday night you can's expect it to last much beyond Monday morning. WORLD'S WOOD SUPPLY. Will the world's wood supply of wood ever become exhausted? This is becoming one of the questions of the day. In con.squence of the enormous consumption of wood all over the world for the manufacture of paper, for wood paving, for heat- ing, for construction, and so many other purposes, this material is becoming scarcer and hence more valuable every day. In France many large companies have been formed for the purpose of acquir- ing and cutting down some of the moat beautiful forests in the coun- try, and the question of preserving the forests has become a pressing one. The French Society for the protection of Forests has petitioned the French Parliament to pass a law restricting the felling of trees, which it says, is a menace to public health, trees being the great puri- fiers of the atmosphere. VELOCITY OF WIND. The velocity of wind varies very considerably, according to the strength at which it is blowing. A gentle breeze travels five miles an hour, or thereabouts; a brisk wind at ten miles an hour. When a storm is blowing the velocity of the wind is about fifty miles an hour, and it is difficult to make headway against it when walking. Boisterous puffsâ€" spoken of as "blowing great guns"â€" attain a velocity of any- thing from eighty to on* hundred miles an hour. STREET CORNER NOVELTIES. Public story-tellers still earn a good livelihood in Japan. In Tokio alone 600 of them ply their trade, provided with a small table, a fan, and a paper rapper to illustrate and emphasize the points of their talcs. BURIED ALIVE ROMANCES SOME TRUE "RETURNED TO LIFE" STORIES. Instances of Miraculous Ebcapoa From Ueiug Preuiaturclj Buried. When the will of Herbert Spen- cer was published, a smile was pro- voked by one of its provisions. The aged philosopher had directed that, preparatory to cremation, hiu body should lie in a coflin with a loose lid, and easily opened from the in- side. A still more startling clause bad a place in the last testament of Miss Frances Power Cobbe, who ordered that her windpipe bo sev- ered before her body was commit- ted to the ground. She, like Spen- cer, feared that she would be buri- ed alive. She had reason. A kins- woman of hers, a famous heiress, was declared to be dead, placed in I her coffin, and made ready for buri- al. The hearse was at the door, the ; funeral guests all assembled, when ' by some merciful Providence a friend insisted on having one last look at the body. The supposed corpse revived under this inspec- tion, and lived to marry and become the mother of twenty-two children. This soft of story may read like the weird material of which gruesome fiction is made, but it is only one of many similar cases. STIMULANTS FOR A CORPSE. One that has recently greatly ex- cited the public mind is that of a woman residing with her husband and children near Accrington, Eng- land. She lay as dead ; her husband had prepared her for the interment, a,nd the poor creature came to life while actually being measured by the undertaker for her coffin. The doctor in attendance upon the un- fortunate woman had been com- pletely deceived by her symptoms, and certified her death. She is by no means the only per- son living in England who has been certified to be dead. There lives a lady in HoUana Road, Kensing- ton, who possesses, in the form of a death certificate, a memento of a miraculous escape from the grave. The dcctor had certified, the lady was laid in her coffin, and about to be screwed down, when her daugh- ter, who could not believe her dead, placed brandy to her lips. The cof- fin figure sat up, and is alive to- day to show her friends her own death certificate. The well-known instance of the member of Lord Mount Edgcumbe's family who. after having been laid in the family vault, was visited by the sexton for the purposes of plun- der and revived, is too well known to need to be told at length. LIFE SAVED BY MICE. Somewhere in England is a cer- tain Trooper Holmes, who, accord- ing to evidence in the possession of the Society for the Prevention of Premature Burial, was "dead" yet 13 alive. Grievously wounded in the Afghan War of 1373, he was be- ; ing brought down to Deolaii, en' route for England, when he appear- ; ed to relinquish hold on life. 'There | were difficulties in the way of an' immediate interment, so the body was laid in the field mortuary. 1 There it remained for three days. I On the third day the surgeons went: to perform a post mortem examiua- j tion. 'They raised the tarpaulin be- ' neath which the body reclined, and ' were horrified to sec hundreds of , field mice, with which the district; is infested, scurry from beneath the i covering. I But they had been the means ofi saving that soldier's life. The I warmth of their little bodies had ; had a reanimating effect upon his. j More important still, however, they \ had nibbled his calves, aP'l so brought him to. Me was breathing slowly when found, v.as nursed back to convalescence, and went forth bravely to rejoin his regiment at Meerut. A well-known character in Guern- sey used to be an old soldier who had been cast into and redeemed from the grave. After a sanguin- ary battle in the Crimea he was picked up with scores more to be thrown into the huge trench where the dead were to lie. Before the work could be completed, one of the burial party thought he ob- served a movement in this man's body. Efforts at revivification were successfully attempted, and the sol- dier lived to fight again many an- other day. A similar instance is recorded of a French soldier at the Battle of Borny, near Metz, but he revived in the mortuary,' thanks to the delay of the burial party in ar- riving. BATTLEFIELD MYSTERIES. Not long ago, it may be rcmom- bcred, a Russian Pole committed isuicide in a London synagogue. Some time previously he had been placed in his coffin as dead, but he revived when being screwed down. The horror of that awful event so preyed on his mind that he went mad, and eventually took his own life. Eight years back the police found a child apparently dead in Regent's Park. 'The body was re- moved to Marylebone Mortuary, and placed in a coffin to await an inquest. When the coroner and jury arrived, the child was alive and well jb its grim surroundings. A similar thing occurred at Cam-' bridce, where the deputy coroner was called upon to inquire into the death of Charles Lawrence, a Great Eastern Railway fireman. The coroner, however, was so well satisfied with the evidence of the do -tor that death was due to valvu- lar disease of the heart, that he de- clined to hold an inquest. It was as well that he did. Five days af- terwards Charles Lawrence stalk- ed out of hia coffin, and went to work. It is always hard to prove a case of a person having been buried alive there are obvious difficulties in the way, and so distressing a subject is naturally avoided by re- latives. Still, there is indubitable evidence as to its having occurred in many instances. Doctors say that, could the battlefields speak, the world would be shocked by the frightful stories of men who h.ive been cast into their graves alive to awake in the tomb and be stifled by the superincumbent earth. A TRAGIC NOTE. Unimpeachable authority exists for the story of a girl ha-ving been prematurely interred in New York, and of her having afterwards re- vived. When the coffin was opened it was found that her shroud had been torn to shreds and the fingers of both hands eaten off. The effect of a tragedy of this sort in another family was to make it ti solemn rite for the head of the bouse to plunge a knife into the heart of any member of the family who died. It was done once too of- ten. The weapon pierced the breast of a beautiful girl who was, in rea- lity, not dead, but in a trance. She gave one terrible groa:i and expir- ed, aud her father, who had iM.o- cently struck the blow, died soon afterwards, raving. â€" London An- swers. ..* -4r- TUE COOL rAi'r.u:^. How a Lisping Lieutenant Got Even With His Tornionlor. A good story ir. told of a lisping of- ficer being victimized by a brother officer (who was noted for his cool deliberation and strong nervps), and his getting square with him in the following manner'. The cool joker, the captain, was 'alv/ays quizzing the lisping officer, a lieu- tenant, for his nervousness, a'.U said one day in the presence of his company : â€" "Why nervousness is all non- sense. I tell you, lieutenant, no brave man will be nervous." "Well," inquired the lisping friend, "how would you do thpose a tbell with an inth futhcc thould drop itthelf in a walled angle, in whith you had taken theller from a company of tharpthoothcrth, and where it wath thertiiin if you put out your nothe you'd get pepper- ed?" "How?" said the capt.ain, wink- ing at the circle; "why, take it cool, and spit on the fusee." The party broke up, and all re- tired except the patrol. The next morning a number of soldiers wre assembled on the par- ade and talking in clusters, when along came the lisping lieutenant. Lazily opening his eyej, ne remark- ed :â€" "I want to try and experiment thith morning and thee how ex- theedingly cool the captain can be." Saying this, he wa'ked deliber- ately into the cajjtain's quarters, where a fire v.as burning on the hearth, placed in its hottest centre a powder canister, and instantly retreated. There was but one mode of egress from the quarters, and that was upon the parade ground, the road being built up for de- fence. The occupant took one look at the canister, comprehended the situation, and in a momcut dashed at the door, but it was fastened on the outside. "Charle.v, let me out, if you love me!" shouted the captain. "Thpit on the canister." shouted he in return. Not a moment v/as to be lost. He had at first snatched up a blanket to cover his egress, but now, dropp- ing it, he raised the window, and out he bounded, sans everything but a ^ery short undergarment, and thus, with hair almost on end, he dashed upon a full parade-ground. The shouts which hniled him brought out the whole barracks to see what was the matter, and the dignified captain pulled a sergeant in front of him to hide himself. "Why didn't you thpit on it?" inquired the lieutenant. "Because there were no sharp- shooters in front to stop a re- treat." answered the captain. "All I've got to thay, then, ith," said the lieutenant, "that you might thafely have done it; for I'll thware there wathn't a thinglc grain of powder in it.'' The captain has never spoken of nervousness since. NO FRONTIERS NOW. Duke of Argyll Speaks on rassibla Aerial InvosJoo. The Duke of Argyll kad som« trenchant th.>ugs to say of the gen- eral apathy of Great Britain in matters appertaining to aeroplan- ing and ballooning in proposing thd toast of the Aero Club of th* UniV ed Kiugd.tra at the annual dinner at the Ritz Hotel, Loudon, a few days ago. "I tliink it is remarkable," sa.'d his Grace, "how little attention the subject bus attracted, au«t how very casual has been the attitude of the British public in regard to thi.-; really momentous question." There could be no doubt that no country could now be considered by those who were building aero- planes and dirgible balloons as having any frontiers at all. We cou'd all bo overlooked and spied upon, and in all probability iil would be dirgibles capable of car- rying besides equipment a weight of between 1,300 pounds and 1,400 pouud.s, that could make them- .=elv('s extremely disagreeable. "T.ic best thing that could hap- pen to awaken tiie public in Eng- land to a sense of its position if that someone, preferably a French- man or a German, should have t.ha goodn<'ss to direct a largo dirgib'e balloun to hang over the Bsni: '* England. Tho ciicitement it v.ould cro^to wou.U be wouuuriui, una it would liring home to the minds of tho people of England tliat w« could not always have England t<J ourselves." ( Sir Hiram Maxim is by no means sceptical as to the possibili- ties of a German aerial invasion. 'I should say there is ao doubt about it," b<3 said, "that machines could be built to-day of trombO to 100 horsepower, slightly larger than the Wriglit machine, wlucU would travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour, tarry a load of ha.( a ton, and remain in the air fiv« hours at a time. "Such machines would coat, if thoroughly well madeâ€" and they must be for military purposes -^ .€l,o(KJ each, and each one would be able to land, say, twcufcy men on the English coast in one night. To take 100,000 soldiers across in the darkness of one night would re- quire 6,000 machines, eo stiiig sev- en aud a half.miJLigiW^eniug. CHILD NOT TO BLAME. "My infant, madam," said the lady in the bus with dignity, "ap- propriated and clawed your ninit, not from mere wantonness, but un- der the impression that it \\as a pussy eat, as I have no doubt it once was." Only blind beggars are allowed to solicit alms in the streets of Madrid. SENTENCE SiERMONS. Hatred always hinders. Giving grudgingly is sowing opar- ingly. It will not make you Godlike to call others godless. It takes more than a few words to wUsh the world. â-  The cynic is one who has found stolen fruits not so sweet. To praise a good action is to par- ticipate in its repetition. He cannot defend the truth who is afraid oi any truth. It takes adversity to show wheth- er we have any real prosperity. He who has nothing to do always docs worse than nothing. Getting sore at the world is a ready way of faming yourself in the race. He does not know what forgive- ness is who is too lazy to resent a wrong. Trying to get even with an enemy is a sure v.ay of sinking below him. The worst of all failures are those who can never fail because they never try. The man who ha,"! nothing but re- flection puts his hcadlig.it on the caboose. It's a waste of time to fi.x up your statistics for the benefit of tho recording angel. Many a man thinks he is a saint because he has dreams of heaven every Sunday. Tho man who talks to plea.se him- self soon has an audience well pleased with itself. One resolution to do the right thing is worth a bushel of resolu- tions not to do wrong things. If your faith docs not justify it- self by it;i fruits there's little use worrying over its root.s. It's no use preaching against tha sins of people in a way that pro- vokes them to profanity. There never was a church that went down except it had first fail- ed to get down and serve men. More aches than help come from the honey the preacher puts into his surmou on Saturday night. HOW J'UKY FACK DEATH. Of (he Sp\os, Women More Quickly (rive in to Inevitablo. -V Briliwh medical man thus tells his experience of how men and wo- men face death : Tell the man of higiier type and greater intelli- gence, he says, that he is facing de.ith, a.id he begins to fight, dc- niand.s a consultation, talks about going to Bpe'-ialists and flghts grim- ly to the f.nis!). Tell a woman the .sarno fjK ts, and she lies back to await her fate. .Ml women arc fat- alists. On the other 'iand, tell a man that he has one chance in a thousand to recover if he will un- dergo nn operation, and lv> will trust to his own strength aii<u' en- durance rather than undergo the knife. The woman will choose the thoMsandili chance, and submit to the opeiatlc-n wj»-h astouudltir calmiiusx. 1