THE LIBRARY. FROM Friends' Book Association we have received specimen pages of the forthcoming Revised Version of the Bible, to be ready on the Fifth month of the pres ent year. is considered in the chapters treating of the domestic life of the Hindoos, Parsees, Mohammedans, etc. This first issue of the great work is the joint property of the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and the Cambridge and Oxford editions are uniformimas once vigorously preached by the churches, and in type, style and price. It is to be furnished in various styles of binding, from the richest Levant to cloth boards, in prices varying from $1 to $52.50. All who are in any degree studious of the ancient Scriptures will be glad of this careful revision, and will feel it a necessity to have a copy for reference, though most mature persons will still prefer to read the accustomed words of the old. We understand that the amendments, though numerous, are rather unimportant, and do not interfere with the beauty of the simple English of the King James translation, with which we are so familiar. The present thoughtfulness among us to acquaint our youth with the latest investigations of competent and conscientious Biblical critics is founded on a concern for the propagation among us of a knowledge of real truth. In order to give instruction to others, we must have the right armor and the weapons of the true teacher-the knowledge of the best that has been written on the subject, and the power of presenting evidences clearly and logically. If this is the steady, zealous aim of our teachers, we cannot doubt that we shall have a good measure of success in showing that our principles and testimonies are not only conformed to right reason and to ordinary human experience, but they are, in a large, true sense, Scriptural, as our Apostolic Quaker Fathers claimed them to be. We hold that every First-day school should be furnished with a copy of the revised edition of both the Old and New Testament. The Bible is going to be more to liberals at the end of the nineteenth century than it has been at any time since the beginning.-Gannett. FROM Porter & Coates, of this city, we have received Anna Harriette Leonouens' Life and Travel in India. Of this book much may be said in the way of praise. It is agreeable in style, most interesting in matter, admirable in illustration, and it is true that it shows the religious and historical development of the Aryan race, from the time of their descent from the high lands of Central Asia, to their settlement on the banks of the Indus and Ganges-the origin of caste, sutteeism, infanticide, and other monstrous innovations which gradually crept into the pure and simple nature worship of the "Rig Veda." She begins her narrative thus : In that most delightful of all Indian months, the cool month of November, with the distant booming of a great gun that announced its arrival, the steamer from Aden came to anchor in the harbor of Bombay, bringing me among its many pas sengers. Here I was in this strange land, a young girl fresh from school, now entering upon a life so different, one which I was to lead through a long term of years. We have received, from J. B. Lippincott & Co., a neat volume, from the pen of Horatio G. Kern, entitled Mysteries of Godliness. It is no great task to read these 200 small pages, but we have found it strangely uninteresting. The author has noted the gradual sinking away from popular credence of certain dogyet set down religiously in orthodox confessions of faith. These he has assumed to unfold in such wise that they may again be accepted heartily, and take their old place as a darkening influence over human intelligence. But we accord full sincerity to this laynian writing to laymen," hoping that, as he evidently is seeking light, the true light will manifest itself to his soul, enabling him "to vindicate the ways of God to man. We cite the words of a sage of other times, who, after solitary communion with the blessed Spirit, who does "prefer beyond all temples the upright heart and pure," could affirm " that the best and most certain knowledge of God is not that which is attained by promises premised and conclusions deduced, but that which is enjoyed by conjunction of the mind of man with the supreme intellect, after the mind is purified from its corruptions, and is separated from all bodily images, and is gathered into profound stillness." CURRENT EVENTS. dent Cleveland during the period since last report, are Domestic.-Among the nominations made by Presithe following: Henry G. Pearson, to be Postmaster at New York City. To be Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States: William R. Roberts, of New York, to Chili. Charles W. Buck, of Kentucky, to Peru. Richard B. Hubbard, of Texas, to Japan. To be United States Consul at Hamburg, Germany, William W. Lang, of Texas. To be Consul at Liverpool, England, Charles T. Russell, of Connecticut. To be Commissioner of Agriculture, Norman J. Colman, of Missouri. To be Collector of Internal Revenue, District of West Vir ginia, Jonn T. McGraw, of West Virginia. To be Collector of Internal Revenue, Fifth District of North Carolina, Andrew J. Boyd, of North Carolina. To be Naval Officer at New Orleans, Henry P. Kernochan, of Louisiana. DURING the special session of the United States Senate just closed, the President sent in 170 nominations, of which 156 were confirmed, 2 rejected and 12 not acted upon. The Washington Star says: 'It seems to be generally agreed among Senators that the fact of certain nominations having been left over without action does not signify that there is any disposition among the majority to antagonize the President." THE U. S. Senate adjourned without day, Fourth month 2d. THE Women of Philadelphia, under the title of the Women's Sanitary Committee," have effected or Now we are at a loss to know why we do not have the date. This omission must be acknowledged to be a defect in the book, though it is not a very vital one,ganizations in the various wards of this city, and are for we know that this landing in India was prior to her experiences at the Siamese Court, and may be adjudged to have happened some 30 years ago. She introduces the reader to life and travel, such as they were before the establishment of telegraph and railroads in India. She gives amusing glimpses of her own housekeeping experiences in India, as well as many striking pictures of the strange, complex life of the different races now found in Hindostan. The inner life and social conditions of the women of India rapidly circulating and obtaining signatures to petitions declaring the sanitary condition of the city to be such as to invite an epidemic and render its resistance impossible. The petition closes with the following good strong words: We claim that the lives of our citizens demand that prompt and vigorous measures be enforced to remedy the existing evils as far as possible. The plea of the women is being extensively signed by the heads of the most reputable business houses and by good citizens generally. RIEL's rebellion in Manitoba, Canada, is believed to be consequent upon a want of the accustomed justice and accuracy of the Dominion authorities in the defense and care of the Indians upon their reservations. It is hoped, in this case, that a righting of all wrongs, instead of a war of extermination, may be found possible. SERIOUS news from the Northwest is to the effect that 300 Cree Indians have taken up arms in the Riel rebellion, and are in possession of the town of Battlefor 1. The uprising of the tribes has, all along, been the danger most dreaded by the Dominion authorities. ties. They realize the difficulty of Indian warfare. THE vast expansion of our family of States has made the old division into Eastern, Middle, Southern and Western unsatisfactory. How will this do, which is proposed by the Census Office? The grouping proposed by the Census Office is into North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Northern Central, Southern Central and Western States. Under this system Kentucky is among the Southern Central States. By this arrangement the Western States begin about the 104th degree of west longitude, Colorado being the easternmost of the Western States. The line of the Allegheny or Apalachian Mountains is the general divide between the South Atlantic and the Southern Central States. The southern boundary of Pennsylvania divides the North Atlantic from the South Atlantic States, and its western boundary is the line between North Atlantic and Northern Central. Foreign. The total number of colliers who recently went on strike in Yorkshire against the 10 per cent. reduction in wages is 25,000. THE latest news from Europe concerning the Anglo-Russian quarrel is not altogether reassuring. Russia appears to be playing very assiduously her old game of delay, under cover of which she gains another and greater advantage. Measures had to be promptly taken for the defence and care of railroad property and rights at Panama. canal company saved its books and $160,000 in specie. All the railroad company's books were lost, but the There is great suffering from want of food and water. FROM Mexico we learn of the repulse of Gov. Barrios, of Guatemala, who had made an attack on the San Salvador frontier. It is hoped that now negotiations may be entered upon which will settle the matter. THE state of affairs on the Isthmus continues so unsettled that Secretary Whitney has decided to send an additional force to Aspinwall. SENOR BATRES, Minister to the United States from Guatemala, discredits the reports of the death of President Barrios. A telegram to the Galveston News from El Paso, Mexico, says: Official information was received here last night, via the Mexican Central Telegraph line, that General Barrios had been killed in battle on the San Salvador frontier. ITEMS. A PROTEST, according to the Pall Mall Gazette, is on foot for establishing a pneumatic tube between Brussels and Paris. The time letters and cards will take in transmission by this method is estimated at half an hour. It is also proposed to make parallel tubes connecting London and the French capital, the time of transmission in this case being a full hour, and the total cost to get them into working order is set down at under £2,000. If these tubes act without getting clogged the telegraph revenue may expect to fall off, and the policy of running new lines in the metropolitan district on account of the new sixpenny messages will be questioned. GOVERNOR PIERCE, of Dakota, has issued a proclamation appointing Wednesday, April 15, as Arbor Day in that Territory, and recommending that it be devoted to tree planting and other work tending to beautify and make pleasant the homes of the people. He says: "I particularly commend to the Regents, Trustees, Directors, and other officers of the Territorial lic and private schools the observance of this day. Under a law passed by the late Legislature, a reward of $2 per acre is given for land planted with trees (except black locust and cottonwood) and maintained for three years. With this additional incentive it is hoped the day designated will be generally observed throughout the Territory.” London, Fourth month 4th.-The Cabinet at its session this afternoon had under consideration the acceptance of England's proposals concerning the Afghan boundary line as sent to Earl Granville, British Foreign Minister, by Prime Minister de Giers for Russia. M. de Giers, in answer to Earl Granville's proposal that Russia agree to confine the dispute between the two powers to a zone including all the de-institutions, and to teachers and pupils of all the pubbatable points, and to be called the zone of survey, as deliminated by England in the proposal, agrees to do so provided the zone be extended southward to the foot of the Parapamisan range of mountains. Baron de Staal, the Russian Ambassador to England, has sent a separate communication to Earl Granville. It is stated that this document urges England to agree with Russia to abandon all military preparations and demonstrations in reference to the Afghan frontier until the conclusion or failure of the pending negoti ations. THE French defeat in China has occasioned a great excitement in Paris, which has caused the downfall of the Ferry ministry. ON Fourth mo. 1st Ferry handed President Grevy a despatch which had just been received, stating that the Chinese Government had accepted Ferry's proposals for peace, and wished to fix a date for the evacuation of the positions now occupied by the Chinese. The despatch was dated subsequent to the defeat of the French force at Lang Son. COMMANDER KANE, of the Galena, has sent to the Secretary of the Navy the following despatch, received Fourth month 1st: Aspinwall is in ashes, burnt by insurgents to escape capture by government troops. The Pacific Mail dock, the railroad property on the north end of the island, and the canal property at Crispal, are the only buildings saved. The shipping is safe. I have all my force on shore protecting property. My ship is crowded with refugees. Thousands are destitute and without shelter. By the ship canal now completed vessels of large tonnage are able to sail at once to the port of St. Petersburg from the Gulf of Finland without as heretofore undergoing transshipment of cargo at Cronstadt. The canal, which is 17.4 miles long, runs from the Island of Goutoniew, in the Neva, to the Cronstadt roads, and has an average depth of twenty-two feet, and a portion of the Neva has been dredged to the same depth. "TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE." VOL. XLII. PHILADELPHIA, FOURTH MONTH 18, 1885. No. 10. EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY AN ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS. COMMUNICATIONS MUST BE ADDRESSED AND PAYMENTS MADE TO JOHN COMLY, AGENT, AT PUBLICATION OFFICE, No. 1020 ARCH STREET. TERMS :-TO BE PAID IN ADVANCE. The Paper is issued every week. The FORTY-SECOND VOLUME commenced on the 14th of Second month, 1885, at Two DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS to subscribers receiving it through mail, postage prepaid. SINGLE NUMBERS, SIX CENTS. IT IS DESIRABLE THAT ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS COMMENCE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE VOLUME. REMITTANCES by Mail should be in CHECKS, DRAFTS, Or P. O. MONEY-ORDERS; the latter preferred. Money sent by Mail will be at the risk of the person so sending. AGENTS:-EDWIN BLACKBURN, Baltimore, Md. BENJ. STRATTAN, Richmond, Ind. Entered at the Post-Office at Philadelphia, Penna., as second class matter. THE SHEPHERD KING. ration is wonderfully preserved to mankind in the copious book of the psalmody of the Jewish worship. Read at a Conference at Race Street Meeting-house, Fourth This book has shown its sincerity and its power that month 12th, 1885. We have dwelt with delight on the admirable natural qualities of the Sweet Singer of Israel; the qualities that mankind, always and everywhere, have loved. And who has been so loved as this peerless son of Jesse? His name, David, is the synonym of Darling, and he surely was the darling of his father's house, of his city, of his tribe, of the warlike host, of the King, of the royal Prince, and of the whole people of his race. But others have had genius, beauty, heroic devotedness, the gifts of the poet and the singer, and yet have failed to be the blessing and the joy of their times that King David was. One writer cites Lord Byron as such a supremely gifted man, who failed to be any real blessing to the nation of his birth or to the age in which he lived. Hold their characters up, side, by side for a moment and we see the great point of differentiation. "The Spirit of the Lord was with him." And his religious sensibility was equal to his measure of Divine favor. The "God consciousness was strong with him through all his days of trial and proving. The supreme test of absolute power was now to be applied to this universal genius, this dar ling of God and man. The simple record, so pitiless and undisguised in its exposition of the life of the Second King of Israel, and his own voice of praise, joy, trust, thanksgiving, as well as of contrition, humility, deep repentance and prayer for resto has been the precious companion of deyout souls through all the long generations of man, from his days to our own. These Psalms were the inmost soul of the man whom Samuel could characterize as being "after God's own heart." David at Hebron was not yet the elect of Israel. But his noble qualities, his generous and patriotic ardor in the cause of his stricken country, and the prudence and dignity of his bearing, must have soon won for him the enthusiasm of Judah (his tribe) now the leading tribe, in the general desolation, having almost alone escaped conquest by the Philistines. Abner, Saul's cousin, and his Captain of the Host remains faithful to the fallen house, and wins back for Saul's son, Eshbaal, the most of his father's kingdom, except Judah. A dreadful civil war must waste the strength of Israel ere the people recognize their true monarch, and Abner is convinced of the incompetence of the son of Saul, and is ready to declare in favor of David. Abner falls by murder, as does the son of Saul, and the voice of all Israel salutes David as King. He is again anointed in this, his thirtyeighth year. The prophets and priests of his country are on his side, and all the men of wisdom hastened to acknowledge him. He soon wins the fastness of Jebas, the future Jerusalem, for his capital, and Mount Zion, the western hill of Jerusalem becomes the City of David. Jerusalem becomes the mountain throne of the son of Jesse. A splendid vantage ground was this for a warrior king. The mountains | render to Jehovah the city, henceforth his own, lent were all around it as a bulwark; Olivet was close at additional vividness to the scene. The procession hand; Mizpeh was farther off; to the north lay had approached the ramparts amid the chants of Gibeon of Saul and Ramah the home of Samuel and Priests and Levites in alternate choirs, proclaiming the school of the prophets; away in the eastern hori- the glory of Him who was drawing nigh, and the zon lay the purple hills of Moab. Concerning it, purity required from all who ascend into His holy this is the rejoicing song of David (Psalms cxxii): hill. Then, as if addressing the warders on the walls, "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. a chorus demanded that the gates be thrown open. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact to-Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, gether whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the House of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." The King of Tyre enters into alliance with David, and sends him, down the coast, cedar timbers for the building of a royal palace on Mount Zion. The King's house, in due time, arose. By its doorway was the Throne of Judgment, and upon this throne he ascended in state, and all men might approach him for justice and protection. A poet king was this, full of fire and fervor; strong in his affections, impulsive, heroic, ambitious, the most intense and the most gifted of the men of his age; did he escape the pollution of sin? Could he endure the test of unrestrained power, of adulation, and of the sunshine of unbroken prosperity? Once more the Philistine host comes up to battle, but King David is able to hurl them back in such utter dismay, that they even leave their poor idol gods upon the stricken field, where they are burned by order of the king. David ascribes his victory to Jehovah. In due time the power of the cruel, enslaving, ravaging Philistine is broken forever, and upon their land is laid the yoke of tribute to Israel. The powers of Egypt and of Assyria are broken and a Jewish Empire of good dimensions centers at Jerusalem David feels the importance of centralizing the national worship. He prepares a sumptuous tabernacle on Mount Zion, summons a national assembly and invites all the tribes to attend the removal of the Ark of the Covenant from Kirjath-jearim, on the outskirts of the hills of Judah to the City of David. The people were to gather at Kirjath-jearim, to bring up thence the Ark to the Mountain-City, henceforth to be the Sanctuary of all Israel. The Poet King is believed to have prepared the Ps. xxiv for this great ceremonial occasion. Nearly 1,000 of the most eminent Priests and Levites, with the great civic and military leaders were appointed to take part in the solemnity. Borne on staves by Levites comes the Ark, and the cry rises from the Host: Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest: Thou and the Ark of Thy strength. Then, after sacrificial offerings, the vast procession moves on amidst flourishes of trumpets, blown by mighty men of valor. The turbaned Priests and white-robed Levites follow in long array, the musicians and poets, the dignitaries and princes and the king himself, wearing the long white ephod of the high priest, and bearing his harp. And so with solemn rejoicings and sacred song comes the Ark to Jerusalem. Geikie thus describes its entrance into the gates: "A formal summons to sur ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.' The warders, hesitating, answer with the chant, Who is this King of Glory? The reply comes in triumphant strains, 'The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.'' Then in grand antiphonal choirs sweeps in the procession while the Shepherd King again offers sacrifices, and the sacred choirs unite in a magnificent Psalm of thanksgiving, prayer and praise, and all the people say Amen! This was indeed a glorious day for David, when he could thus install the national worship in his capital city. "Jehovah has come from Sinai into His Sanctuary." The whole earth shall turn hither to see the solemn worship of the Most High. Princes shall come to Jerusalem from Egypt, and Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands to God. Such were the splendid hopes, the great resolves, the devout aspirations of this triumphant day; and it must have seemed impossible to King David that he ever should fall into gross sin, or that he ever should do acts of cruel wrong by virtue of his sovereign power. The tone of these great Psalms is not such that we need ascribe to him merely material ideas of the Divine Personality, or that he weakly ascribed to the Ark miraculous powers; but to common minds, at this period of the history of man's development, spiritual ideas of the reality of that great, comforting, sustaining, upholding Divine, Spiritual Essence that only the most spiritual and enlightened of the Sons of Men can yet attain to, were very rare. We know but very little of David's religious counsellors, Nathan and Gad. But it must be safe to attribute to Nathan great boldness and singleness of heart, in the cause of righteousness. He who sang in the joy of his heart that goodness and mercy had followed him all the days of his life, and who felt the assurance that he should dwell in the House of the Lord forever falls into terrible crime that seems inexpiable as well as shameful. Nathan comes to his throne of judgment with his parable of the little ewe lamb. The king recognizes the sin which the prophet seems to attribute to one of his people, and pronounces fierce retribution against the man who had no pity. With stern and solemn emphasis the seer checks him in his denunciation with the word "Thou art the man !" and that the king shall not fail to see and feel the extent of his transgression, he tells him plainly: "Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife." David's swift repentance was characteristic of his warm, passionate nature, and the speedy death of his little child, he appears to have felt to be in the nature of a judgment upon his sin. He was now about fifty and his life according to the standards of the age had been noble, free from base crime; but now the hero king was dishonored before God and man. The famous LI Psalm, expresses his deep humiliation and of the magnates of the east, and is not regarded as infringing seriously the law of righteousness. Slowly indeed does mankind advance in ethical ideas and ever the tendency is backward, as men neglect to consult the Divine Oracle in the heart and depend on priestly rather than heavenly guidance. We know that in time the penitent king did find the peace of God, and that he did retain the confidence and trust of the elders in Israel, and the loyal love of his people. It was in his very nature to be beloved. The hero king, the leader and ministrant in the public worship of Jehovah, the splendid Psalmist, whose songs of triumph, of trust, of ascription, of repentance and of thanksgiving, have edified the Church of God through all the succeeding ages, was a man of more varied gifts, perhaps, than any other in all his--he the beloved of Jehovah, gifted with every noble tory. And it has been seen that his character, "the beloved of the people" has clung to his memory through all the generations. The numerous family of the king was divided into many households, and among them occurred wrongs, quarrels, and at length murder, of which the due punishment seams to the Father King, well nigh impossible. His estrangement from the beloved Absalom, the revolt of the wayward favorite, and then the terrible heart sorrow that followed the death of the rebel prince are very familiar. His doom it was to flee from his royal house in Jerusalem, and retreat, weeping and wailing, from his regal seat and then only to be restored to his rightful place by a sorrow that crushed and humbled him more than did any other reverse and misfortune. Did he think, as he rested in the little fortress city beyond the Jordan, of the dark stains that sullied and defaced his career affection, every heroic impulse, spiritual insight, prophetic light and the blessed capability of seeing himself in the darkest times, in his true colors. He who was called the man after God's own heart had sins enough, and black enough. Says Stanley, "His prayers are the simple expressions of one who loathes sin because he has been acquainted with it, who longs to have truth in his innermost self, to have hands thoroughly clean, to make a fresh start in life with a spirit free, just and new." His " repentance" was change of life and mind, and he is so far above the materialism of his age, that he does not seek to expiate crime by the sacrifices of the Levitical ritual. No weapon formed against him could prosper. It is a Jewish tradition that the King of Moab, broke the trust which David had reposed in him, and put to death the aged parents confided to his charge. (Stanley.) A swift, terrible war follows, which exterminates one-third of the nation of Moab, and reduces the remainder to subjection, astonishing the surrounding peoples. An insult, a jesting indignity to an embassy turns the sword of King David against the Kingdom of Ammon, and that people are utterly overthrown and exterminated Says Carlyle, "What are faults, what are the outwith what seems to us the most dreadful cruelty. ward details of a life, if the inner secret of it, the We cannot account for such deeds, much less justify remorse, temptations, the often baffled never ended them, but the destruction of a seat of Moloch wor- struggle of it be forgotten? . . . . David's life and ship was really in the interests of civilization and history, is written for us in those Psalms of his, I perhaps needful for the right progress of ideas of consider the Psalter to be the truest emblem ever spiritual truth and righteousness. The god Moloch | given us of a man's moral progress and warfare here was a hideous, hollow colossal image of brass. The below. All earnest souls will ever discern in it the body was of human form, with the head of a bull, faithful struggle of an earnest human soul toward and was of the nature of a furnace. On occasions of what is good and best. Struggle often baffled—sore worship, a fire was kindled in the interior until the baffled-driven as into entire wreck; yet a struggle idol glowed with heat. Then into the outstretched never ended, ever with tears, repentance, true unconarms of Moloch were placed little tender babes-querable purpose, begun anew ("Heroes and Herobeloved of human hearts. The anguish of the heat worship.") caused the child in its struggles to fall into the lap of the idol where the heat was yet greater, the parents standing by and endeavoring to soothe their little ones they could not save. Many hundreds were sacrificed at times, and I know not that the revolting notions of undeveloped man, concerning the acceptable service of the Infinite Ruler were ever more hideously displayed. It was not in the power of King David, if he ever so earnestly desired, to raise this savage race to the level of Jehovah worship. Their destruction may have seemed a religious necessity. The polygamy of David was a variation from honored customs in Israel, and it was the center from which arose many sins and many sorrows. But we The prophets Nathan and Gad remained his friends and counsellors until the days came when old and stricken in years, he blessed and admonished his splendidly gifted son Solomon, his appointed successor and laid down his head in death-"he slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David." He had reigned over Israel 40 years; seven years in Hebron; and thirty and three in Jerusalem. To his successors he left a kingdom reaching from the head waters of the Orontes and Euphrates on the north, to the wilderness of Paran on the south, and from the River of Egypt and the Great Sea on the east, to stately Tadmor in the Syrian sands on the S. R. west. must conceive of him as he was an oriental despot GOD offers to every mind its choice between truth |