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AFRICA.*

Africa has well been called the mysterious continent. Some of the earliest civilizations of the world arose on its soil. It largely influenced the early condition of Asia and Europe. It is one of the largest portions of the globe. It touches Asia, is almost a part of Asia, and is separated from Europe by only a narrow frith, and yet it has less to do with the great movements of modern times than any of the petty continents, like Australia, or the islands of the South Sea.

Filled with teeming populations, large villages, thriving cities, where there are merchants doing business to the amount of a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, productive beyond almost any other continent, the longest known, it is yet to-day the least known, and has less influence upon the world at large than many small principalities. It is now coming to the front. Commercial, scientific, and religious interests are centering in the continent. It is taking its part in literature. The most successful literary venture of the year, when it was published, was Stanley's "Dark Continent." It is the great theater for bold adventures. It is brought on to the stage. In Paris they have brought our friend, King Mtesa, whose name you see at the head of Victoria Nyanza, on to the stage, as the hero of the Black Venus. Of course, Chautauqua must have lectures on Africa. The lecture this after'noon will be chiefly devoted to the physical condition of the country, after brief introductory statements with reference to modern explorers. We can not understand any field where Christian work is to be done unless we know something about the physical aspects of the land.

breadth of the continent. Stanley, as you know, crossed from Zanzibar, and went down the Congo river. But a year before him an English gentleman had taken the same journey as far as Nyangwe, and struck immediately through Central Africa to Benguela. Let us look at the continent. in its physical aspect, first of all. The wonderful thing to those of us who think we understand something about geography is the vastness of the continent. I suppose that many think they can grasp in their minds about five thousand miles, which is about the length and breadth of the continent. That measurement is about equivalent to a line drawn from the mouth of the Columbia river across the breadth of our whole continent and across the ocean to the shores of Ireland. We think we have a great country in America, but this single desert of Sahara is larger than the whole of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains;. three times as large as the Mediterranean sea, and ten times as large as all Germany. And Central Africa, where missionary interest now centers, from about ten degrees north to an equal distance south of the equator, is larger than the whole of the United States east of the Rocky Moun-tains, and has greater populations to-day.

The equator very nearly subdivides Africa, though a somewhat larger portion of the land lies north. Therefore, its temperature is very high, Nearly all the land is in either tropical or temperate climates; and yet it escapes be-ing burnt up as it would naturally be, by reason of the great elevations of the land and the abundance of the water systems, Just under the equator, with the rays of the sun all the year pouring down fiercely upon it, is a mountain very much higher than Mount Blanc, as high as Mount Blanc and Mount Washington on top of it, covered with perpetual snow. In 1862 Baron Vanderoeken climbed the mountain

and got up fourteen or fifteen thousand feet, and then was.

The great explorations of the continent have been made within the last fifty years, and the most important within the last twenty-five years. In the year 1788, the great Eng-driven down by a wild snow storm. There are other moun-lish society, the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, had its origin, in what was called the African Association. As soon as that association was formed it inaugurated explorations, and singularly enough, the first explorer it sent to Africa was an American; as one of the last, and one that has done so much to open the great continent, also was an American. The first was John Ledyard, who in 1788 started from this country and made his way into Egypt, and died at Cairo when he was about to make his journeys through the deserts. The last, as you all know, was Stanley, the last great American explorer. Dr. Livingstone's brother, indeed, was an American and went out from his Massachusetts parish and joined him in his final explorations. Stanley journeyed in Africa as an American citizen. I was told in England, when I asked about the bearing of Stanley before the great societies, that he was not quite as gentle and polite as might have been expected from a man receiving the honors that were bestowed upon him. "Why," said an American gentleman who knew him intimately, "there was one very curious scene at the dinner given to Stanley by the Royal Geographical Society. An English gentleman, in great pleasure over what had been done, spoke of Stanley as carrying the flag of England through the dark continent. Stanley sprang to his feet and said: 'No, sir; I did not carry the English flag. I let my servants carry the English flag. I carried the stars and stripes.' It is worth remembering that the earliest explorer of the Geographical Society, and one of the latest great explorers, was an American. The Germans have done a great work in exploring Africa. The first one that crossed the whole breadth of the desert from Tripoli to the Gulf of Guinea, was a German, Gerhard Rohlfs, in 1865. There have been very few journeys made through the *A lecture delivered in the Amphitheater at Chautauqua, August 1880, by Rev. J. O. Means, D. D., of Boston, Mass.

tains nearly as high. The elevation of the whole interior is about fifteen hundred feet above the sea level. The average level of this region of southern Africa is twenty-five hundred feet. This great lake of Victoria Nyanza, larger than the State of New York, on the borders of which we are today, small as it appears on the map, is thirty-eight hundred feet above the sea level. Other elevations are so great that. Africa escapes many of the natural results of a region under such burning heat. Then, also,, its immense water systems save the land from aridity, and makes it wonderfully fertile. The smallest of the large rivers, the Zambesi, is the Mississippi of Africa. It rises not far from the Atlantic and sweeps over the whole breadth of the continent to the Indian ocean, and has a larger basin than the Mississippi. The Congo, with its head waters locking into the Zambesi, Stanley says, has four thousand miles of navigable waters. After passing the large cataracts at Stanley Pool, there are eight hundred miles of clear water before you come again to obstructions. The Niger river rises in these mountains, some two hundred miles from the Atlantic, and not far from the sources of the Senegal. The French are now making explorations to connect these two rivers. The Niger probably flows farther than the Congo itself. Then we have the Nile, whose length by all measurements is one eleventh of the circumference of the globe. Stanley makes it four thousand miles. With all these fertilizing floods forming channels of communication, the country is saved from aridity, and is wonderfully productive. Its population is one-sixth of the population of the globe, and yet it feeds them easily, and could feed twice as many. It raises all the cereals of America and Europe, wheat, barley, oats, and maize. It raises potatoes, rice, and certain products which do not grow in any of our climates, and yet which constitute chief parts of the food of the whole world. Its fruits are all the fruits of the tropics, and many of the temperate

zones.

It grows cotton, hemp, tobacco, and the staple articles which form the basis of commerce. It yields certain articles which can be found nowhere else. The ivory pro duct of the world is almost wholly from Africa. The statements which are made in regard to it seem incredible. But a statement which I saw first in a French periodical, l'Afrique, I have since had occasion to investigate, and from other sources gathering the amounts of ivory shipped to England, it does not seem, on the whole, to be an exaggerated statement, namely, that the quantity of ivory annually exported from the continent involves the destruction of fifty thousand elephants. Within a few years there has grown up in South Africa, and in other parts of the continent, an immensely profitable trade in ostrich raising, yielding profits to those engaged in it beyond the oil wells of Pennsylvania.

are also semi-civilized people, we should call them, who are partly Mohammedan and partly heathen, occupying the Soudan, south of the Sahara. The population here cannot be classed with pure barbarians. Winwood Reade, an English gentleman, who had several times resided four or five years on the coast, and who made one journey inward from Sierra Leone toward the head-waters of the Niger, during his travels conversed with the Mohammedan merchants and travelers, and says as the result of his inquiries that a traveler might start and cross this whole region eastward and come out at Cairo, or go through the desert and come out at Tunis, and, except when in the desert, sleep every night in a village, and in every village he would find a Mohammedan school. In many of the large cities he would find merchants who could easily furnish on demand, to any one who should offer adequate securities, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money. In many of these large walled cities with populations of a hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand people, he would find Plato and Aristotle in Arabic translations, studied by the scholars, and he would find the African gentleman on horseback with his chain armor on, such as our ancestors wore in the middle ages, with his sword dangling by his side. Thus, there is a semi-civilization all through this immensely populous region. There are other portions of the land which may be called barbarous. Some of the barbarous kingdoms are of great extent. In other portions the social condition is that of a people who have been broken up and disintegrated, and have very little civil coherence, chiefly because of the slave trade. Of the domestic institutions the most characteristic is polygamy. We are in danger of making extravagant statements, and I use round numbers for convenience. It is not possible to make all the exceptions which would probably be made in general statements, but it is a fair general statement to say that, on the whole, polygamy prevails throughout the whole continent. The family is only a cattle kraal on a slightly elevated scale. Every man has as many wives as he can buy or sell, and every wife is a slave, and every female slave is a wife. Cameron, in crossing the continent, came to a region where he found polygamy prevailing to a most awful extent, the king having in his harem aunts, cousins, nieces, and even daughters. He said the bed-room furniture of the king was made up of the members of his harem, many of them on their hands and knees, forming comfortable couches, and others lying prostrate on the ground, forming a sort of carpet.

There are great mistakes or misapprehensions in regard to the people of Africa. The people are interesting, and the land is interesting because of the people. The first mistake is that they are all supposed to be very much alike. There is as great variety in the populations of Africa as in the populations of Europe. Scotchmen and Turks are both called white men, and live in Europe, but we would make no greater mistake if we supposed that every European was a Scotchman or a Turk, than we make when we suppose every African is a negro. In the northern parts of Africa, all along the region of the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean, are people who are classed by some ethnologists as of the same race with ourselves. They are straight nosed, oval featured, of swarthy complexions, straight hair, with none of those marks which we attribute generally to the African South of them, from the Senegal eastward, is another people, the Foulahs, some of the finest looking people on the earth. They have many marks of the negroes. They are black or copper-colored. Many of them have the straight facial angle and fine forms. One of them, a young prince, that I met at Cape Mount, seemed to be the very picture of the Apollo Belvidere. South of these are the negroes proper, dwelling in the region of the Gulf of Guinea, and stretching to the Nile and beyond. Then another great African people inhabit the region stretching down to the Cape of Good Hope. They have many marks of the pure negro, yet with many striking differences. The Zulu Caffre is a specimen of them. I was talking with one of our missionaries who was among the Zulus many years, and asked him what he thought of our taking negroes from America, when they had been educated, to work in our mission field. "Well," said he, "I have never seen any American negroes to compare with our Zulus. They look like a different kind of people." Dr. Livingstone, who perhaps was a little prejudiced in favor of the Africans, said of the Manyuemas that he would be willing to match a company of them for form and fulness of the head, and for fineness of features against the whole Anthropological Society of Great Britain. You would say they were fine men, physically and intellectually, and by God's blessing on the Gospel of Christ will become so morally and religiously. Besides these great classes of Africans, are the Bushmen or Hottentots, and there are also Dwarfs and Albinos in some parts of the Continent. The social state of the Africans is no less interesting. There are on the continent all the varieties of social state known to man. To begin with, in South Africa we have civilized states. South Africa was colonized at just about the same period that America was colonized, and the advanced civilization of Europe may be found there-pros-parts the chief dress is a straw hat, or a string of beads. Inperous cities, with schools and colleges, large public and private libraries, fine painting galleries, and all the appliances of a refined social life. The northern part of the continent is occupied, as you know, by the Mohammedan people, chiefly, and they stretch down through the Sahara. There

There are exceptions which should be stated to all that is true of the awful condition of women in Africa, and of their awful degradation. Up among the Niamniams, the travelers tell us, there appears to be great conjugal affection, and the slave traders play upon it, for, if possible, they capture a man's wife or wives, and the husband is willing to give anything in his power to regain them. While women are sacrificed as beasts almost, yet an incident is told of a young woman-one of the travelers beheld the scene himself-who, when she was to be delivered over to a hoary-headed old polygamist, and was refused permission to have the man whom she loved, as every other defence failed her, seized an assegai and plunged it into her breast, and fell dead at the door of her hut.

The dress of the people in certain portions is very graceful. We should see something like the old Roman toga if we were among the Mandingoes and Foulahs, a dress they call the tobe falling gracefully from the shoulders. In other

asmuch as they have no pockets in such dresses they enlarge the lobe of the ear by making a larger hole than our genteel ladies make, and put in plugs till the lobe of the ear comes down to the shoulder. In the large hole that is thus made they carry their snuff boxes, or perhaps they extend

the upper lip by drawing it out and making an incision until it projects two inches. Some tribes insert a large plug in the lower lip. Tattooing is practiced. Large rings of copper or brass are worn. Many of the elegant women are des<cribed as wearing rings nearly to their knees, of many pounds weight, making it almost impossible to walk. Their most fashionable attire is in the arrangement of the hair, which is sometimes done up so that it lasts six months. The hair is dressed out in all directions; clay is worked into it, so that they make all kinds of shapes of their heads. Then they are obliged to have a little stool with a hollow in it, so that when they lie down at night the delicate tracery of their hair may not be injured.

I have not spoken of slavery; there is not time, and I think enough has been said in the public prints in our country. The travelers who have been there tell us that no one can begin to depict the awful desolation which slavery has brought upon the land.

Cannibalism prevails through great breadths of territory. The Secretary of the French Evangelical Society, who for twenty-five years was a missionary among the Basutos, has visited cannibal caves where he saw half burnt skulls and shoulder blades; and in portions of the caves where they held their feasts were spots where the flesh had been piled up until the blood had soaked through into the limestone rocks and left ineffaceable marks. So recently as the year 1859 human flesh was sold in the markets in the Cameroons as any flesh would be sold. Some travelers apologize to a certain extent for cannibalism, by saying that, though these people eat human flesh, perhaps it began with the notion that it would make them brave. "Here is a brave soldier; I have killed him; if I eat his flesh I shall gain his courage and his skill." Also, it seems to be true that a fearful appetite is developed in comparison with which the appetite of many for strong drink is almost nothing. The story was told of a young girl, the wife of a polygamist, who was captured by the cannibals and carried to their cave. Great exertions were made to restore her, and they finally succeeded in winning her back, but in a few months she escaped, and they found she had returned to the cannibals. She had tasted of human flesh, and preferred to go and dwell among those who ate it. At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, last summer, a traveler was present who had just returned from his explorations, and in the course of his remarks he spoke of the fact that many of the most intelligent races he saw were cannibals. Thereupon many of the members who had been in Africa arose and said that the best races, the most hopeful in many respects, were the cannibal races. In talking with the Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society in Great Britain, in regard to the work in which they were engaged, and asking how it would do to work in those regions in which there were so many cannibals, he said: "Why, some of our missionaries are cannibals' children. We have the sons of fathers and mothers who were cannibals when our missionaries went out to the Cameroons, and those sons are now working at the mouth of the Congo to establish Christian missions." While it is necessary to describe these people as being so loathsome, let us understand that there may be traits of the cannibal tribes which will make them by and by ready to do noble work in promulgating the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In connection with the cannibalism of Africa perhaps it is proper to speak of the low estimate of human life which seems to prevail all through the continent. It appears, for instance in their funeral rites. I will not repeat what I suppose many are familiar with, the awful sacrifices made by some of the kings in former times, but there are statements of recent occurrences which all, perhaps, may not be so familiar with. I say their funeral rites, but they do not

restrict their sacrifices of human beings to funeral rites. The first visit that was made King Mtesa, at the head of Victoria Nyanza, was in 1861 by Captain Speke, of the British Indian service. In honor of his reception he said that there were human sacrifices made. When Dr. Livingstone saw that account he denied it, with a good deal of earnestness defending the Africans, and said he thought Captain Speke must be mistaken; that there must have been some criminal trial which had been going forward, and these people were executed after judicial investigation. Therefore, it became a question of some importance to know whether they were accustomed to honor great guests by the sacrifice of human life. In the year 1874 Colonel Long, then in the employ of the Pasha of Egypt, in connection with Colonel Gordon, penetrated with a small Egyptian company as far as Mtesa's capital, and was received in great pomp. He describes his reception. He was received by the King in a hall of audience of immense breadth. He wondered how they were enabled to get such a breadth of roof for their hall of audience. It was very finely fitted with tapestry-the tapestry in this case was cotton cloth-and he looked up, admiring the fine proportions of the hall and its walls, and saw near the upper part of it the "Wachusett Mills" stamp on the cloth. Our cotton cloth, when they find a piece that has the mills' stamp on it, is sure to be put by the wearer in the most conspicuous place, as being an article of adornment. In this hall where Mr. Long was received stood the King. A little way back, commanding all the entrance, his executioners were arranged by the posts, with a cord around their foreheads knotted in front, and at a signal the executioners went out, and a file of slaves was brought in front of the open door and sacrificed. And that was repeated, says Colonel Long, though not to so great an extent, every time the King received him to audience. He has changed that now, given

it up in a measure.

But now, to speak of their funeral ceremonies, just in the region west of Victoria Nyanza there was the death of a king not long before the visit of one of our travelers, and he described the services held after his death. The body was sewed up in a cow skin, and one of the finest and largest huts was taken, and the body put into the center; then his choicest wives and choice virgins were placed with him, and a number of cattle, and the building was hermetically sealed and all were left to perish there. Commander Cameron, in his journey across the continent, describes the death and burial of a chieftain, where the stream of a river was diverted from its bed and a deep pit dug, and the body of the dead chieftain placed in it. The report of the people declared that a hundred of his wives were buried alive with him. The other statements were that ten or fifteen were placed, one to support his dead body, and the others round about, with ten choice virgins; then the earth was heaped on and slaves slaughtered over them, their blood to soak down through the earth, and the stream of water was made to flow in its channel again.

I ask you to bear with these chapters of horror that we may have our pity wrought upon as it needs to be, and that we may understand the degradation of the people who, as they suppose, out of honor to guests, or to their gods, or to their dead friends, perform such ceremonies. Before the Zulus were Christianized this was their funeral service. The founder of the military power of the Zulu people, the one who trained their armies so that they came to be equal to coping with English generals, and did defeat them at first, died in 1828. His mother died not many years before him, and when she died the greatest ceremonies took place that were ever known. The statement was that on the day of her death there was a great gathering of the whole people. Seventy thousand, it was thought, were gathered near

the kraal where she was buried, and they began to beat one another and to cut one another in sign of sorrow. It was stated that probably seven thousand people perished on the first day of mourning. Then she was buried; the grave was dug as usual in the center of a cattle kraal. The queen mother, with great ceremonials, was laid in the grave. And in her grave also ten of the choicest virgins of the land were buried alive, and blood sprinkled on her grave, and then the cattle driven over it, as was their custom. Not content with this, a year of mourning was commanded by the king, and an army of observation of ten thousand men kept guard a year in honor of the queen mother, and if anywhere in Zululand that year a father's heart and a mother's heart were made glad by the birth of a child, the infant babe was slaughtered, and the father and mother slaughtered, that there might be no joy in the land. These are awful accounts. It seems incredible that anywhere under the light of the sun such things can have been going on, and are going on.

There is no time to stop to speak here of scenes, some of which I have known from personal inspection; of witchcraft delusions; of punishment of witches; some of you perhaps have read our periodical, the Missionary Herald; in the number for July accounts were given of some of these awful barbarities, and yet this people, so degraded, and seemingly so blood-thirsty, are capable of receiving, and long to receive, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and will be made glad by it. The cord of God's love has dropped down on Zululand, and many are now rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and believing in him, have found peace and joy. I hope to-morrow to be able to say something about the results of Christian missions, even among those who seem most degraded, when it seems almost hopeless to think that they, out of their hardened and imbruted condition, can be brought to Christ. The missionaries who have labored there have been blessed by God in finding some of the most wonderful fruits of his grace. I will close what I have to say this afternoon by giving a story of the conversion of an African chief, in the way of whose conversion there seemed at first to be every possible obstacle, but from whose paths the Holy Spirit of God moved away the obstacles, and prepared for the coming of the Kingdom.

Libe, the uncle of Moshesh, a Basuto chief, witnessed the arrival of the missionaries with great displeasure. "Why are these strangers not driven away?" said he one day to Khoabane. "They do us no harm," said Khoabane; "let us listen to what they say. No one obliges us to believe them.” "That is what you and Moshesh are always repeating. You will find out your mistake when it is too late." Libe was nearly eighty years old. He soon left the neighborhood for a distant hill side to procure good pastures for his flocks, and to escape from our preaching. He soon saw with vexation that we had found our way to his dwelling.

At the first sound of our voice, a smile of scorn and hatred played on his lips. "Depart," cried he; "I know you not. I will have nothing to do with you or your God; I will not believe in him until I see him with my own eyes." As the missionary persisted in his endeavors, Libe became furious, and said, "Young man, importune me no more; if you wish me to listen, go and fetch your father from beyond the sea; he, perhaps, may be able to instruct me."

The violence of his animosity was specially shown at the interment of one of his daughters, at which I was invited to officiate by her husband. The procession had preceded me, and I was following slowly to the grave, praying the Lord to enable me to glorify him, when I saw Libe rushing toward me with a rapidity which only rage could give him. His menacing gestures plainly showed his design, and I trembled at the prospect of being obliged to defend myself.

Happily his sons ran to my aid; they respectfully begged ' him to retire, but he was deaf to their entreaties, and a struggle was the inevitable consequence. The wretched old man reduced his children to the grievous necessity of laying him on the ground, and keeping him there during the whole service. He ended by knocking his head violently against the ground. At last he ceased, being quite worn out, and casting on me a look of which I could not have believed any man capable, he loaded me with invectives. After this, we went to see Libe no more; but we sent him friendly messages by his neighbors.

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What was my surprise one day on receiving an invitation to go to him; the messenger that he sent was radiant with joy. "Libe prays," said he with emotion, "and begs you to go and pray with him." Seeing my incredulity, the pious Isiu went on as follows: "Yesterday morning Libe sent for me into his hut and said, 'My child, can you pray? Kneel down by me and pray God to have mercy on the greatest of sinners. I am afraid, my child, this God that I have so long denied, has made me feel his power in my soul. I know now that he exists; I have not any doubt of it. Do you think God will pardon me? I refused to go and hear his word while I was still able to walk. that I am blind and almost deaf, how can I serve Jehovah?' Here," added Isiu, "Libe stopped a moment, and then asked, 'Have you your book with you?' 'Yes.' 'Well, open it and place my finger on the name of God.' I did as he wished. 'It is there, then,' he cried, 'the beautiful name of God. Now place my finger on that of Jesus, the Savior." Such was the touching recital of Libe's wonderful conversion, and I soon had the pleasure of assuring myself of its reality. For nearly a year we shared the happy task of ministering to this old man, whom grace had rendered as docile as a little child. He was baptised in his own village. This ceremony attracted a crowd of people, who wished to see him who had persecuted us, and who now preached the faith which once he sought to destroy. Four aged members of the church carried the neophyte, who was too feeble to move alone, and placed him on a couch in the midst of the assembly. We thought it our duty to ask him to give an account of his faith. "I believe," said he, without hesitation, “in Jehovah, the true God, who created me, and who has preserved me to this hour. He has had pity on me who hated him, and has delivered Jesus to death to save me. I have no more strength; my days are ended. Take me to thyself; let death have nothing of me but these poor bones. Preserve me from hell and the devil. Oh, my Father, hear Jesus who is praying to thee for me! Oh, my Lord! Oh, my Father!" The good old man forgot himself so completely in these pious ejaculations that my colleague was obliged to interrupt him by asking: "Do you still place any confidences in the sacrifices you have been accustomed to make to the spirits of your ancestors ?" "How can such sacrifices purify? I believe in them no more; the blood of Jesus is my only hope." "Have you any desire you would like to express to your family, and to the Basutos?" "Yes; I desire them to make haste to believe and repent. Let them all go to the house of God and listen meekly to what is taught there. Moshesh, my son, where art thou?" Here Moshesh covered his eyes to hidehis emotion. "And thou, Letsie, my grandson, where art thou? Attend to my last words. Why do you resist God?" Are your wives an objection? These women are your sisters, not your wives. Jehovah created but one man and one woman, and united them to be one flesh. Oh! submit yourselves to Jesus, and he will save you. Leave off war, and love your fellow creatures." "Why do you desire baptism?" "Because Jesus has said that he who believes and is baptised shall be saved. Can I know better than my Master tells me?" It is the custom in our stations to re

peat the ancient form of renouncement, before receiving baptism. It had been explained to Libe, and he had perfectly understood it, but it was impossible for him to learn it, or even to repeat it after the minister. "I renounce the world and all its pomp," said my colleague. "No," exclaimed Libe, "I do not renounce it now for I did so long ago.' "I renounce the devil and all his works." "The devil," interrupted the happy believer; "what have I to do with him? He has deceived me for many long years. Does he wish to lead me to ruin with himself? I leave hell to him-let him possess it alone."

According to a wish, very generally expressed, Libe was surnamed Adam, the father of the Basutos. He died one Sunday morning, shortly after his baptism. One of his grandsons had just been reading to him some verses from the Gospels. "Do you know," said the young man, "that to-day is the Lord's day ?" "I know it," he replied, "I am with my God." A few moments after he asked that a mantle might be spread over him, as he felt overpowered with sleep; and he slept to wake in this world no more.

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There is a story of some mountains of salt in Cumana, which never diminished, though carried away in much abundance by merchants; but when once they were monopolized to the benefit of a private purse, then the salt decreased, till afterwards all were allowed to take of it, when it had a new access and increase. The truth of this story may be uncertain, but the application is true; he that envies others the use of his gifts decays then, but he thrives most that is most diffusive.-Spencer.

Let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far; for nature will lie buried a great time and yet revive on the occasion of temptation; like as it was with Æsop's damsel, turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very demurely at the board's end till a mouse ran before her.-Bacon.

DIFFICULTIES OF SCRIPTURE.*

"In which are some things hard to be understood." So writes the apostle Peter of the epistles of his fellow apostle Paul; listen to his language: "Account the long suffering of our Lord salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also. according to the wisdom given unto him, wrote unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which epistles are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable." Nor are these difficulties of Scripture confined to the epistles of St. Paul; the Bible teems with them. Let me mention some of them. There are metaphysical difficulties, e. g., the creative act, the compatibility of the divine purpose with human free

dom, the incarnation, the person of Christ, the Trinity. Again, there are doctrinal difficulties, e. g., hereditary sin, propitiation, imputation, regeneration, the second advent. Again, there are ethical difficulties, e. g., the problem of innocent suffering, the command to offer up Isaac, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, the permission of polygamy and slavery, the imprecatory psalms, the commendation of such characters as Lot and Jacob, Samson and David. Again, there are scientific difficulties, e. g., the doctrine of providence, the power of prayer, the miracles of Scripture generally. Once more, there are what I may call circumstantial difficulties, e. g., the variation in the ancient manuscripts, the ambiguities of interpretation, the discrepancies as to persons, places, times, numbers, etc. Such are some of the difficulties of Scripture. A formidable topic, surely.

But I hear some of you objecting. What though these difficulties exist? Is it wise to remind the public of them? Would it not be better to pass over them in silence? Why bring them into prominence by selecting them as the theme for a lecture?

My answer is as follows: Not only do these difficulties exist; they are, as a matter of fact, persistently paraded before the community; they are the talk not only of the lecturer, but also of the factory. Even the most devout Christians are sometimes troubled by them. What then shall we do with these difficulties? Affect to ignore them? That would be foolish and even cowardly. It is falsehood, not truth, that fears ventilation. Frankly acknowledge their existence and meet them as skillfully as we can? That would be wise and manly. This, in fact, is one of the principal functions of the Christian ministry. Like Paul himself, we too are set for the defence of the Gospel, and one of the stoutest ways of defending the Gospel is to remove misconceptions concerning it. For many of these difficulties are absolutely groundless, being no difficulties at all. Others of them are soluble, at least in great part. Still others of them are absolutely insoluble; and a great point is gained when it can be philosophically shown that they are inherently incapable of solution, and now may the spirit of God rest upon us as we ponder the difficulties of Scripture.

And first, Scriptural difficulties must exist. For God is | infinite and man is finite. The bounded can never enclose the boundless. Canst thou by sounding find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven. What canst thou do: deeper is it than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. This is the reason why all worship, even the most thoroughly Christian, is in a certain sense idolatrous, or image-worship; that is to say, the God we worship is, practically speaking, a

*A lecture delivered in the Hall of Philosophy at Chautauqua, August 9, 1880, by the Rev. G. D. Boardman, D. D., of Philadelphia, Pa.

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