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« YflDR CB EEf AND B ELIEION ^Riurch Service or Prayer Meeting May be the Opposite of a Holy Place. The path of the just is as a shin- ing light shiniag more and mor« twith the perfect day. â€" Prov. iv. 18. , "Either religion is everything to one or it is nothing," so a good ttaiany say, but the aaying n.«an8 more tlian tl»ey n>ean. It would be a pity if the religion of forms or of oarrowiag philosophy became the «hole of a man's world. It would be a fine thing if the high motives «f religion permeated all things in •11 our worlds. Wo have bcconi« so accustomed to calling certain things and acts aacred whil« others we call secu- lar, to drawing clean linos of aep bration between religion and lifo that it is exceedingly difficult for any of us to constantly make all life mean religion and to make re ligion mean the whole of life. Here are our creeds and our churches, with their customs and activities; these, wo say, are relig ion. Here are our homes and our occupations ; they make life. This do we separate the essentially in- separable and confound the tools and products of things with the things themselves. The churches are the agencies of religion, the communal expressiofis of the spiritual life of peoples; tha creeds are their attempts to state their understanding of rolig'ou* experience and to formulate theories of the mysteries of THE HIGHER LIFE. Church and creed are but tools and expressions of religion? they nei- ther constitute it uur do they make It. Religion is not a department or section of the life. It is a rajt've and method of living. It is ou* life in the consciousness of its highest values. You can be just as truly relii^ioua in making money as in saying a mass; you can be juiib as truly pious in making a pudding as in going to a prayer meeting. It often happons that one's piety is better expressed in daily rom- monplaco living and duties than in special ecclesiastical exercisoi. A church service or a prayer raeot'ng may be the opposiw of a holy pNce, while some home, where a mother if too absorlwsd iu the care o( iho children to think of church, may glow with a divine glory. Either God is everywhere or there is no God. any where for us; our FRANCE VERSUS GERMANY IN CASE OP WAE WICH COUN- TRY WOULD WIN! A Hililury Export Gives His Opin* ion of the PoHition of the Two Powers. Things are very different now from what they were in 1870. Then the French Government was inept and corrupt. "The army," the Emperor was assured, "is ready down to the last button on the last gaiter." As a matter of fact, it was quite • .. !;„;,„ .,„.,.„(„^ unready. And when it did take the either our religion operalea _ i i iu i-. u nr r\ti^ ii u ij -,.j j„*j.,^i^= field the French War Office was throush, molds, and dctermioea ui i ui- i iu i • • i J ti f 1 ;»„,,;„ „„ able to mobilize at the beginmug every act and all of life or is an , , , „„. „„„ " ° * . nn V ii.hn,if. 'inn nnn mAn ncrmnat. einjily, formal, and usele'as bur den to us. The religion you can confine to a corner of your lifo finds its grave tlit.re only about 300,000 men, against Germany's 640,000. True, in four weeks' time this first instalment of J0O,O00 was more than doubled, but the same rela- You may measure any faith and -'-" """"'«^. ""•' ^"« ..amo â„¢.»- .u may U^st your own by its pow- *V« disproportion he d good for to vitalize all your life, to pjr Germany had by then 1.124,000 meate and direct ^very motive, to make itself felt as the con&tant de- terminative force of your life. Whatever does this for you, that i? your creed and your religion. No matter what dreams of li(r nxen under arms The result was seen in such over- whelming disasters as that at Se- dan, when on September 1st, less than six weeks at-ter the declara- tion of war, MacMahon's army of . ,• , . .• , „ . 150,000 men was annihilated and ing buss, what mystic pleasures or . . â-  ' i, „ , , . , ",,,•' ^ . ' , „ _ the Emperor taken prisoner; and exa tation may become yours ..„, ,. », » . ^ i i . ,, , I- • J f ;t that at Metz, a lew weeks later, through your religious devotion, ik . .. .. L u i t v o J o I when three marshals of trance, sixty-six generals, 0,000 officers, and 173,000 men, with 500 pieces of i!( all A MOCKERY AND DELUSION unless its power is such that it ' artillery, were made prisoners of goes with you on the street, guides ^ war. your actions and your bearing to- That was Germany's tiiumph ward your fellows, and translates and Franco's humiliation; but it its dreams into deeds. was also Franco's lesson. She When the religion, or creed, or learned it thoroughly. She will organization, sect, or opinion fills never be caught napping again, all a iiian's mental horizon hisj To-day she can put 3,500,000 men heart is chilled, an eclipse of the into the field. It is true that soul takes place. But the religion â-  against those Germany claims to that is like a well of water within be able to pit 4,330,000. refreshes and cheers him oontinu- -â-  â-  â-  ally. lie only is religious who is al This, however, is largely a paper estimate, and an exaggerated one. In effect, unless all the experts are ways religious, always facing to- j deceived, the available armed fore- ward things true, seeking the high- 1 es of the two nations aro numeri- or and full life for himself and fori cally about equal, all, making all his life tell for the best in all life, and somehow with his wholesome cheer and high faith and idealism, making us believe in goodness, and truth, and. love after 1 ficioncy is to be taken into account. all. "" ~ WAITING FOR REVENGE. But only numerically. There is no comparison between the two if ef HENRY F. COPE. IE S. S. LESSON INTERNATIONAL LESSON, APRIL 4. Xosson I. Peter and Cornelius. Acts 10: 1-48. Golden Text, Acts 10 : 85. .. Introduction. â€" What indicates that Luke thought the story of Peter and the ceuturion a very im- portant one? The fulness of detail with which it is given. And wha^ was its importance J It was one of the chief steps in tiie transition of Christianity from a Jewish sect to a world-religion. The narrow ex- clusiveness of the Jews, which had fortunately kept their religion purj for 80 many centuries, was a for xnidable barrier to this extension. Christ himself hod preached only to Jews. That was necessary, f(<r the time of liis ministry was too brief for a larger field, and the Jews at first would not have listened to a broader gospel. But Christ bade his disciples go into all the world, and preach the good news to all mankind. The time had ooine to break down the barrier of Jewish exclusiveness and carry out Christ's larger thought. I. The Vision of Cornelius the Gentile.- Verses 1-8. Who was the Gentile who was to show Peter that a man who was not a Jew or a Jewisli proselyte was fit to become & ('hristian 1 He was a ceuturion, corresponding to our captain, the head of a company of soldiers num- bering one hundred when full. This company was part of the cohort called the Italian hand, because made up <jf Romans horn in Italy. Where was the cohort stationed 1 At C'aesarea, on tlio Bamarian coast, about thirty-thre,o miles north of Jn]>pa, where Peter was. Caosarea was a wealthy and im- portant city, built by tlerod the Great, and named after Caesar Augustus. What was the name of this cen- turion 1 Cornelius, indicating per- haps that ho bolongcyd to the fam- ous Cornelian family (gens or clan), which counted the Scipios and Sulla among its members. II. The Vision of Pctrr the Jew- Verses 9-10. As the centurion's mesHerigers, having spent a night on the way, were approaching Joppa about noon the next day, Peter in his. turn was supernatur- ally prepared for the coming event. What was this preparation! It was a vision, reeeivp-d upon the housetop. The sixth hour (noon) was "a set time of devotion witn J»iou8 Jews." He was very hungry, or he "probably had not yet broken his fast." I III. How the Visions Brought ^Them Togethojv^erned 17-20, and ' been h.ap- Ion came to Irs from C'or- The Gorman soldier to-day is not the man ho was forty years ago. Then he was a patriot, allanie with the zeal that is born of patriotism, nelius had made enquiry for J There is little of that left in him Simon's house (the Orck word im-i now. The brutality of his super- plies a careful search through the iors, continued through a long streets), and while Peter was medi-i course of years, has driven all that tating on his vision, they were sort of thing out of him. There even at the gate, and calling for, will be plenty of German officers him. Before word of his visitors and non-commissioned officers shot could reach him, the Holy Spirit 'in the back by their own men if in some way made Peter conscious, war comes. The army, too, is known to be deeply infoctod with the virus of Socialism. And Socialism in Ger- many is a very powerful force in- deed, and violently revolutionary. Last year 3,260,000 Socialist vot- ers went to the polls, nearly 25 per 'cent, of tho total inumbor of the electors who voted. In other words, one voter in every four is B Socialist. We may assume that of their coming, and bode him go with them. EGGS OF STEEL. Deadly Weapons Carried by Ser- vian Soldiers. Though Servia has told the pow- ers in a series of notes that she does not want war, she is still very | tho same ratio holds good in the active in getting her army into army â€" amongst tho rank and file, fighting trim. Her soldiers are to be armed with bombs, of which five classes are being mode â€" the in- fantry bomb, the artillery bomb, the cavalry bomb, the large bomb, and the "egg-shaped" bomb. Every eecoud infantryman car- ries five bombs of tho first type, which explode by fuse and percus- sion, and have an effective range of sixty yards. The average weight (,f each missile is about 2)/, pounds. The details of the training of the bomb-throwers are extremely inter- esting. In the first place, men are supplied with stones of suitable Vi'eight, and spend a considerable time practising with these. Then they are given dummy bombs, with which they go through another se- vere course of practise. Finally tho real article is en- trusted to them, and they are di- rected to hurl them at specially prepared plank targets, the result of each throw being carefully not- ed. The targets stand as high as a man, and the effect of a single well-judged shot must be seen to be believed. The second type has been served out to tho artillery, and is a pure- ly percussion bomb. There is a parachute attachment which en- sures tho vertical descent of the inis.sile yards. that is to say. Well, that makes '1,000,000 Socialists in arms. Will they fight, or will they not, remains to ne seen. They themselves are never tired of declaring that they will not. The French army, on the other hand, is intensely patriotic. Its members are burning to avenge the disasters of Metz and Sedan, to wipe out the terrible humiliation in- rticted upon their country on that black day in January, 1871, when tho first German I'^iiiperor was crowned in the Palace of Ver- sailles, and his troops paraded in pomp in their hundreds of thou- sands through the principal streets of Paris. Above all, too, it is anxi- ous to recover Alsace and Lorraine. GERMANY'S ARMY IS RUSTY. It is for things such as these that men fight, and to tho death. It was of Maju.ba we in England were thinking when we went to war with Kruger in 1899. But Majiiba was a pinprick compared to what F'rano/e suffered at the hands of Ger- many in 1870-71. Imagine King I'Mward a prisoner of war, our armies doatroyed or papture<l, our country overrun and dismembered, and tho Kaiser crowned in Westininatar Abbey, The range is about fifty | while his legions march in triumph tlirough I/ondon after it has suffer- Tho third type is supplied to the ed homhardnieiit by his artillery, cavalry, and is so devised that it' If this hnpponed to us, would we may Le fired from a carbine. With! not fight like demons to get "a bit this bomb very deadly results have of our own back" if ever we got been obtained at a distance of 300^ the chancot yards and over. | Of course we would. And so will Tho fourth type is larger than France. She has bon preparing for the others, and is intended for use it for thirty-seven years. Nursing in storming entrenchments. Judg-| her wrath. Brocnling over her re- ing by the feel of it, it must weigh vcnge. Perfecting hor arrange- something more than four pounds. ] monts. Waiting. Watching. Dril- The different bonihs described are lin«t. being steadily nianii facta rod at half | Germany, on tho other hand, baa a dozen places in Servia, ami a; allowe<l herself to become more or very largo number must be already li^ss rusty; while, of late years at available. Finally there is the fifth type â€" the egg-shaped bomb. Dynamite in all events, money that fhouid have boon spent upon a very necersary army has been divert-ed to build- one form or another is known to! ing up an altogether unnecessary bo the charge in the four regular] navv. 'This, of course, is the Kai- types, hut the composition of the sor's doing. A strung fleet is his explosive in the last-mentioned is pot holiliy. kept a profc.ind secret. The ef- The remilt hns been to ettrnnge foet produced by tho explosion of from him V-trge mnsses of his sub- (iD« of these steel eggs is r.othinj jnots. Tho inhaMt.iwts of the less than devastating. ' South German inland statesâ€" Sax- ony, Bavaria, Baden, Wurtemburg â€"are quite willing to submit to be heavily taxed for the upkeep of tho army. But they are not at al! wil- ling to pay for a navy into the bar- gain, and have said so at the polls. For this reason it is by no means certain that South Germany would not rather be a source of weakness to North Germany if war came, in- stead of a tower of strength, as in 1870.â€" Pearson's Weekly, â€" ♦ SENTENCE SERMONS. Self-esteem does not develop self- reliance. A soft answer never has a sting in it. Professional spectators get least fun out of life. Courage is simply the conquest ol our fears. Self-depreciatiou aoon ceases if it be not contradicted. Knoklcdge is power only so far as it is practised. No man bears his burden better "by adding your blame to it. You can complete a good wor?r, but you can never end it. Life is pretty sure to be tragedy to those who take it only as a play. New thought is like new coin, the brass seems, as good as tho gold. The greatest wonder in the char- acter of the angels is that they en- dure all the Eaiutd. The proof of an education lies in a mind so tilled that prejudices gain no root. Conscience is simply our sense of moral social responsibility. All men would try to be meok if thoy were dead sure of the promise to the meek. The man who thinks he is gen- erous to a fault is often generous only to his own. It's often our failings that hold our friends, but we do not need to multiply such anchors. The far off vi.sion comes half v/ay to those who follow it faithfully. Somo^olks always sing, "O to be nothing" before they sing, "Here, Lord, 1 give myself away." WANT OCEAN SANATORIUM. Proposal to Fit Up Sailing Ship for Consumptives. Some particulars are given in the British Journal of a proposal to provide an ocean sanatorium for tuberculosis. The suggestion is to be up a sailing ship of about 2000 ttms, for not more than 50 patients, each to be provided with a separ- ate largo and well-ventilattxi ca- bin. The deck would be used for what is commonly called the veran- dah treatment. The intention of tho promoters is that the ship should cruise in the neight)orhoo<i of tho Canaries, where it would have tho advantage of tho trade winds, and of a very equable cli- nmte, wliile a port would not be far distant in case of tho onset of ba<l wejither. It is intended th.at the ship shall carry an adequate 'medical staff. Our contemporary says that the working of a scheme of this kind would be watche<l with sympathetic interest by the medical profession, and that there would he no lack of patients if tho terms are not prohibitive. + WH.VT A WIFE NEEDS. Good Temper and Cheerful Disposi- tion Among tho Essentials. She needs a good temper, a cheerful disposition, and a know- ledge of how hor husband should l:e treated. She needs a capability of looking on the bright side of life and refusing to bo worried by small things. She needs a secure grasp of such subjects as are of interest ti men, and should not be above studying even polities in order to understand should her husband speak of them. She needs a sym- pathetic nature in order that, should sorrow fall upon them, she may be able to gi\e comfort to her husband. She needs to understand something of sick nursing. A wife with no notion of what to do in case of illness is but a useless thing. She needs considerable tact and pati- ence â€" the one to enable her to know when to remain silent and 'vice versa, and the other to put up with him when his temper is ruffled. ALMOST TOO KIND. " A traveller, recently returned from India, was giving his impres- Mons. "What a country it is!" he ex- claimed. "There everybody keeps dozens of servants. I had four whose whole bu.siness was to look after my pipe. One brought it to n.n, another filled it, a third light- ed it for me " "And the fourth?" "The fourth smoked it for me. Tobacco never agreed with me I" ALL FOR HIM. Hubbyâ€" "Yes, dear, you look nice in that dress ; but it cost me a heap of money." Wife â€" "Freddie, dear, what do I care for money, when it is a ques- tion of p1ea,sing you?" ; â€" + Hubâ€" "But if you like the young fellow, Kate, why do you object to our daughter marrying him?" Wife â€" "Oh, she'll marry him for all that; but I want to give her a chance to say, when they quarrel, that 'Mother didn't want me to marry you, anyway." FINANCIERS OF JAPAN MITSUI FAMILY ABE KINGS OP COMMERCE. They aro Factors in Manufacturing, Exporting, Mining, Banking, Etc. Have you heard of the Mitsui family 1 It is the richest of all Japan, and one of the richest of the world. What the Rothschilds are to Europe and Rockefeller is to the Unitc-d States the Mitsuis are to Japan. They may also be compared with the Astors and the Vanderbuts, and their undertakings include such as have made the fortunes of Krupp, Marshall Field, Stephen Girawi, and John Wanamaker. They are famous as merchants, miners, manufacturers, exporters, bankers, and financiers. They have a capital running high into the tens of millions of dollars, and they do a business of hundreds of mil- lions a year. In some years the foreign trade of this family is equal tc one-seventh of the whole fore- ign trade of Japan. Its coal mines produce about one-third of all the coal mined in the Empire, and they supply a great part of that used in tho ports of East Asia. The Mitsuis own great cotton mills and furnish about one-third if the Japanese exports of cotton yarn. They- have other factories and foundries throughout the Em- pire, and their trading and bank- ing institutions are in ALL THE BIG CITIES, This family has also its branch cs- tablichments iu tho leading sea- ports of China, and iu llongkong, Manila, Singapore, and Bombay, li has branches in /vustralia and Java, and also in, San Francisco, New York and London. In some years ic ships as much a.s 5,000 bales of raw silk to the United States, and it has a fleet of good-sized steamers, which carry its merchandise to and from Shang- hai, Hongkong, the Philippines, li.e Straits Sottlemenl.s, Burmah and India. There is no more thriving corporation in tho world to-tlay, and just at this time, when we are talking of the Japano:>e as being on the edge of bankruptcy, it is surprising to come into contact with an institution like this. The Mitsui house is a joint asso- ciation, consiiting of eleven fami- lies or partners, who have pooled their capital in their joint name under the .system of unlimited lia- bility. The bank, for instance, which has a capital of 5,000,000 yen and a surplus of i 1,500,000, inserts a statement in all of its banking advertisements that it is owned by the members of the Mitsui family, and that they as partners assume au unlimited responsibility for all its debts. As a result the people know that all the wealth of the family is back of the bank, and it has the highest credit. Its de- posits are now about 70,000,000 yen, or ALMOST $35,000,000. The same rule prevails as to all the obligations of the eleven fami- lies. The properties are all held in common, altiiough each family may have independeut property of its own. In the Alitsui establish- ments, however, there is no parti- cular property to which anyone can enter his absolute claim. The in- stitutions are managed by thd Mit- | Bui family council, occording to tho rules laid down by one of the heads ff the family who lived more than 200 years ago. This making the family, and not the individual, the head of an institution is in accord- ance with the social organization of Japan. Here the individual is sub- servient to the family, and the rights and obligations of the family should outweigh those of any of its members. FROM BONNIE SCOTLAJiD NOTES OF INTEREST FROM HES OINUS AND BRAES. Wbat Is Coins oo In iho nigblands and Lotvlands of Auld Scotia. Roller skating has become fash- ionable in Dundee. Montrose lunatic asylum at Sun- nyside is to be extended. Niddrie school, Jidinburgh, is to be enlarged at a cost of £850. Francis Cullen, draper. Canon.- gate, Edinburgh, got three year* for setting his shop on fire . Bonuington church, which is si- tuated at Bennington Brae, was practically destroyed by fire rec- ently. On the 30th ult. Agnes Robertson (31) got an arm torn off by the ma- chinery in Camperdown jut© works, Lochee. In Dundee last year the fire bri- grade was called out 180 times. Tho loss within the city boundaries by fire was $146,230. Mr. John 'forraiice, grain mer- chant, Hamilton, died recently. H« had been in business in Hamilton for nearly half a century. St. Leona'd's paper mills, Lasa- wade. Midlothian, were destroyed by fire, the damage being e^stimated at from $75,000 to $100,000. Some sensation was caused with- in Calder IronworKs by a workman finding a canister of explosives on a limestone heap within the works. Greenock Infirmary report says that last yiiar 909 were received in the medical and surgical depart- ments, and that 1,147 accidents wore treated. In 1S89 the late Mr. Alex Twee- die, Glenisla, lost a pair of field glasses while deer stalking on the Grampians. They have just been found, and practically uninjured, coming wedding of Miss Maud Coats to the Marquis Douro, eld- est son of the Duko of Wellington, ami great grandson of "The Iron Duke." Paisley Town Council passed a resolution calling upon Councillor Brown to resign, in view of his ro- cent conviction at Ayr for defraud- ing the Glasgow and Southwestern RailMay. At Linwood, near Paisley, a blackbird, which is the possessor of two formed heads, has been seen. It has two hills, and can pick and make use of both, but whether it can pass food through both cannot Paisley is much interested in tho yet be stated. ARISTOCRATS MAY EMIGRATE Emperor William of Germany is desirous that impecunious aristo- crats who cannot make a living in Germany should emigrate to Ger- man South-west Africa, and be- come useful members of that Ger- man colony. He has lent Baron de Schmid $12,500 to enable him to settle in German South-west Africa, and begin life again as a farmer. Baron do Schmid was a land own- ei in Alsace-Lorraine, whose estate was near that of the Kaiser at Ur- villo, and with whom his Majesty was very friendly. The baron lost his money and was obliged to sell the estate. ..*- There was an old soldier, who said to a friend, "My wife does look after ine well. She even takes off my boots for me." "When you come home from the club?" tho friend asked. "No â€" when I want to go there." The Major (thinking to have some fun out of Pat's ancient and skinny steed) â€" "Good morning, Pat I" "Good morning, yer honor!" "That's a fine horse you're driv- ing." "It is, yer honor." "Draws well, doesn't it?" "It does, yer honor. It draws the attention of every, idiot that passes 1" FOUR FISH IN ONE CAST. Two Poreh and Two Trout, .Accord- ing to This Angler's Story. It is something after all to be the hero of a record, even if it docs not mean much, and perhaps the successful landing of four fish on one cast is not unworthy of being rescu€4 from oblivion, says^ wtit:_ er in the Field. It happened with me here on the Shannon some few years ago in the la.st or very nearly the last of my seasons with the wet fly, and is the mora remarkable as I have not fished witli four flies on my cast half a dozen times in my life. I was fishing from a boat anchored at the tail of the strong broken water of the weir, and rose aud hooked what I saw was a trout of about half a pound. Presently as I ^as playing him his motions seemed to become most erratic ; ho would pull heavily down and then instantly there would b« slack, or a movement down stream Would become a movement up with a suddenuess quite bewildering, ai;d for a few minutes I could make neither head nor tail of the action that was g>jing on below. At last on the line coming closer I saw thero was a good sized perch on the highest dropper, and presently I saw a second perch ou the lower, while a moment \fiter I was aston- ished to see that my trout was also still on the point with a smaller trout on the dropper next him. None of the fish was large, of course, though the perch next mo was quite a pound ; but I saw thero was scarcely a possible chance to get all four into the boat safely, so hauling up the stone and ropo which held me, I quietly started paddling for the shore a hundre^d yards off wilh alternate strokes of the oars. Strange to say, I reach- ed the low bhelving shore without a single fiah escaping and slipping cut of the boat drew the whoU string ashore in triumph. The four fish were about two pouiid.H in weight, and I had as applauding gallery of several young fellows on the bank wh<mi it took me all my time to restrain from rushing into the shallow water to scoop out the struggling fish when they saw the extraordinary catch I was trying to drag ashore. HIS CATCH. Irate Sq|uireâ€" "Hi I you, (irl You're fishing in my waters. I de- mand what you've caught." Anglor-"All right, guv'nor. I've cp.ught a cold and I'm catching the rhi'imitica, and you're welcome to I both of "oai " ♦ .. J \