SELF-MADE POVERTY.

6.

The following from Mr. Spurgeon on the subject of Self-Made Poverty," and the relation of drunkenness and vice thereto, is also true of Chicago as well as of London:

"I would not say hard words against poverty; wherever it comes it is bitter to all; but you will mark, as you notice carefully, that, while a few are poor because of unavoidable circumstances, a very large mass of the proverty of London is the sheer and clear result of profuseness, want of forethought, idleness, and, worst. of all, drunkenness. Ah! that drunkenness, that is the master-evil. If drink could be got rid of we might be sure of conquering the devil himself. The drunkenness created by the infernal liquor-dens which plaguespot the whole of this huge city is appalling. No, I did not speak in haste or let slip a hasty word; many of the drink-houses are nothing less than infernal; in some respects they are worse, for hell has its uses as a divine protest against sin, but as for the gin-palace, there is nothing to be said in its favor. The vices of the age cause three-fourths of the poverty. If we could look at the homes to-night, the wretched homes where women will tremble at the sound of their husband's foot as he comes home, where little children will crouch down with fear, upon their little heap of straw, because the human brute who calls himself a man' will come reeling home from the place where he has been indulging his appetites-if you could look at such a sight and remember it will be seen ten thousand times over tonight, you will say, 'God help us by all means to save some.' Seize the

great axe to lay at the root of this deadly upas-tree, and to work constantly with it till the huge trunk of the poison tree begins to rock to and fro, and we get it down, and London is saved from the wretchedness and misery which now drips from every bough."

A PROTEST.

All the senses utter their protest against the use of intoxicating liquors. Before the tongue of a child can articulate, if it is touched with alcohol, it shrinks and shrivels under the liquid fire, and the face of the little innocent shows plainly that the law of nature has been broken. On its coral lips is written in crimson syllables, "Thou shalt not pour the poison of intoxicants down the throat of the unoffending child."

The nostrils are offended with the odor of rum; and the delicate membrane, being irritated by the smell, utters a very emphatic protest by sneezing, shaking the system from head to feet. The sense of smell, like a faithful sentinel, warns faculties of the approaching enemy, fires its gun, and creates a sensation throughout the nervous system.

the

"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red!" is an appeal to the eye as well as to the heart and understanding. The colors of the wine and of other alcoholic compounds, often repeated in the eyes of excessive drinkers, utter a protest against the poison which makes the "eyes red." The ears are annoyed and pained with the wail of woe which comes from the heart and lips of the victims of intemperance. When the burning compound touches the nice and tender membrane of the mouth,

it covers it with blisters, and nature "placards" the roof of the mouth with sores, which are plain protests against the use of rum. Digestion, respiration, circulation, and secretion join in the protest.

WHAT ANSWER?

"1. When did it begin to be a known fact that in the Southern vinelands, where everybody drinks, there is no drunkenness?'

on

"2. Was it when Noah, the first grape-grower and wine-maker record, exhibited the first instance of drunkenness on record, by drinking only the 'pure' but fermented juice of the grape?

"3. Was it when the vines of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah' supplied the wine,' which is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps?' (Deut. 32: 32, 33.

"4. Was it when Lot was made drunk with wine presented to him by his daughters for the very purpose, and others still more abominable?

"5. Was it when Aaron and his sons were forbidden to drink wine when they went into the tabernacle of the congregation, that they might put a difference between the holy and unholy, and not die as did Nadab and Abihu?

"6. Was it when Solomon, by divine inspiration wrote:

"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." "It is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted."

7. Was it when Elah, King of Israel, drank himself drunk in the house of his steward, and was there killed by Zimri?

"8. Was it when Benhadad, King of Syria, was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, and thirty-two kings with him?

"9. Was it when Belshazzar, the King of Babylon, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousands, exciting himself to deeds of impiety, and all the city was drinking and reveling, till Cyrus took the city and the king was slain?

"10. Was it when Isaiah, the prophet, said:

"Wo to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, (the rulers of Israel at Samaria), whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!

The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet." And when he added concerning the residue of the people (Judah), "But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of their wits through strong drink; they err in vision, they err in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean."

WHAT ARE YOU DOING, FATHER?

A gentleman was paying a brief visit to an intimate friend. As he was about to take his departure, his friend said, "Come with me. I have some very fine old wine I want you

to taste.

The gentleman followed his friend, and soon a well-filled glass was presented to him, with the words, “I am sure that you will enjoy that.”

The gentleman took the glass with evident embarrassment, for this visit had led him to feel that the fine old

wine was becoming necessary to his friend; and yet he feared to offend him by giving expression to his fears. The proffered glass was set aside almost untasted. A little son, a bright boy six or seven years of age, had followed his father and his companion to the wine-cell; and what was the surprise and pain of the friend to see the little fellow, when he thought himself unobserved, walk stealthily up to the glass which the visitor had put down a moment before, and drink the contents with evident relish.

Ah! thought the friend, while the father is furnishing choice wines for the entertainment of his guests, he is opening a pit beneath his feet into which he himself may fall, and drag after him the dearest objects of his love.

H. H.

DR. WILLARD PARKER ON TO

BACCO.

In an address, delivered to the students of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, a few years ago, Dr. Parker says: "Tobacco and rum are twin-brothers. Tobacco depresses, and the user then craves liquor to stimulate him.”

"The French public revenue from tobacco, from 1812 to 1832, was an nually $5,600,000; of late years it is $36,000,000. During the former

period there were in France, at any given time, 8,000 lunatics and para lytics; now there are 44,000. It will be seen that the two totals increase in nearly an even ratio-six and a half times as much tobacco, five and a half times as much lunacy and paralysis. In this whole period the increase of population has been only from 30,000,000 to 38,000,000.

"When Louis Napoleon learned this fact, a few years ago, he caused a comparative examination to be made of the smokers and the non

smokers in all the public schools and educational institutions, and the results to be tabulated. The nonsmokers were decidedly superior in physical health, intellectual acquirements, and moral deportment. Upon this, the use of tobacco in the public institutions of education was by law forbidden, and thirty thousand tobacco-pipes were broken in one day."

After enlarging somewhat on the baneful effects following the use of this narcotic, Dr. Parker closed with some forcible observations upon the Christian duty of abstaining from the slow killing of himself with tobacco by a minister; which he said is just as clear as the duty of not cutting one's throat; and with a reference to the slow operation of tobacco, he gave the young gentlemen a good specimen of their own profession, by reading to them a text out of the big Bible on the desk, from Ecclesiastes, and most closely to the point: "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

BLESSINGS OF PROHIBITION. P. T. arnum, Esq., said in a lecture. delivered in 1872: A short time ago I was in Greely, Colorado, a colony three years old, and in which town no liquor was sold. It was founded with a clause against liquor shops forever. Two years and a half ago a fair was held, and the proceeds ($91) were put in a fund for the poor. After the lapse of two and a half years there still remained $84 in the fund, and they do not know what to do with it.

THERE is nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a great one. Poverty treads upon the heels of great and unexpected riches.-Bruyere.

HAPPINESS AT HOME.

Domestic happiness depends in a very great degree on the enjoyment that is derived from simple pleasures. If a mother devotes herself entirely to work, she cannot make an attractive home for her husband and children, any farther than the wants of the body are concerned. A boy will like to come home at meal times, and to sleep, if his mother supplies him with good bed and board; but if that is all she prepares for him, he will seek entertainment in the streets at other hours, and each year of his life will find him less able to enjoy the innocent pleasures that belong to a happy home. A girl who sees her mother so devoted to household care that she allows herself no time for anything else, learns to look upon domestic duty as mere drudgery, and avoids it as far as she possibly can.

There is nothing children wish for so much as sympathy, and this can be given without interfering with any domestic avocation. There is

nothing in sewing, or cooking, or washing, or ironing, that need absorb the thoughts so that a mother cannot talk to a child, or listen to its storybook, while see is engaged in them. I have observed that women who thus keep their sympathies open to their children do not grow nervous, and prematurely old, like those who fix their minds entirely upon the work that engages their hands, and who have only impatient words to give their children when they try to talk with them while they are at work.

There is nothing in the recollections of my own childhood that I look back upon with so much pleasure as the reading aloud of my books to my mother. She was then a woman of many cares, and in the habit of engaging in every variety of household work. Whatever she might be doing in kitchen, or dairy, or parlor, she was always ready to listen to me, and to explain whatever I did not understand. There

was always with her an under-current of thought about other things, mingling with all her domestic duties, lightening and modifying them, but never leading her to neglect them, or to perform them imperfectly. I believe it is to this trait of her character that she owes the elasticity and ready social sympathy that still animates her under the weight of almost four-score years. How much I owe to the care and sympathy she gave childish years, I cannot mea

to my

sure.

I am induced to speak of my own personal experience on this point, because mothers not unfrequently deny that they can talk and work at the same time; and find in their various needful occupations a ready excuse for giving their children short answers, and keeping them away from their presence as much as possible. My purpose is to recommend nothing as a duty that I have not seen practised with success, and which I am not sure is entirely within the power of every parent who is willing to perform the duties belonging to that holy office.

all avails nothing if she is unfaithful to his trust, or profusely squanders in pleasure and dissipation those sums which toil and application gained; but if she unites in mutual endeavors, or rewards his with an endearing smile, with what confidence will he resort either to his merchandise or farm; fly over lands; sail upon the seas; meet difficulty and encounter danger-if he knows that he is not spending his strength in vain, but that his labor will be rewarded by the sweets of home. How delightful is it to have a friend to cheer, and a companion to sooth the solitary hours of grief and pain! Solitude and disappointment enter into the history of every man's life, and he is but half provided for his voyage, who finds but an associate for happy hours while for his months of darkness and distress, no sympathizing partner is prepared!

Prudence and foresight can neither ward off the stroke of disease, nor prevent the calamities which are ordained by Heaven. Affluence can

not purchase release from pain, nor cool a fever in the blood; yet there is an ear opened to the married man's complaints; a heart ready to sympathize in his sorrows; an eye bedewed with tender drops of compassion; and a life that is absolutely bound up in his; and as enjoyment derives additional relish from anticipation, so misery loses the poignancy of its barb in the bosom formed for sympathetic kindness.

A SWEET THING IN GIRLS.

There is an idea common among young girls which ought to be combatted by every intelligent woman; it is that in becoming a housekeeper, and especially if called upon to do the greater part of the work, she might just as well be uneducated;