Dr. Sweetzer observes that, "All those mental | come. Here and there we pick one up and avocations which are founded in benevolence, with microscope and filter paper we extract or whose end and aim are the good of mankind, being from their very nature associated with agreeable moral excitement, and but little mingled with the evil feelings of the heart, as envy, jealousy, hatred, must necessarily diffuse a kindly influence throughout the constitution."

NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES.

from it its secret story. So far we are not certain that it tells of anything but matter which never felt the breath of life. But several microscopists of acuteness and reputation have risked the statement that they see in its faint markings the unmistakable details of old vitality. That the fossils of other worlds are there imprisoned and await our study. They have worked up the genus to which the remains belong, have examined their organs and placed the animal in its scientific position. If this be true, and till the microscopists settle the question, we must rest in doubt, the astronomers will have before them the apparently hopeless task of determining to what other worlds to credit these old organisms. There is then a possibility that the remains of old life, if not the seeds of new, will be brought to us by comets, and a good chance for research and a capital one for speculation is involved in these inconstant messengers. They must have an office in the universe. Where shall we find it?—The Student.

THE SCHOOL OF FAITH.

Comets as Messengers.-Comets derive some importance from the fact that they are our only material messengers from our system to any other. The undulations of light and electricity travel across this great void, and the former tell us of the mineral resources of other worlds. We read iron in the sun and hydrogen in Sirius and carbon in the comets, as certainly as our chemist tells us that iron is in the brown ore we take him from our fields. But can we ever do more than this? Can we know of life on other worlds? Is there not a courier between us laden possibly with some of their vital forms? Wild and speculative though the thought may seem, it is not absolutely hopeless. For these celestial messengers do go from our system to theirs and from theirs to ours. It is a span hope- We are dull learners in the school of faith, lessly inconceivable to any other sun, yet a and it requires many a severe lesson to teach comet going away from us in a parabola, and us implicit trust. God, therefore, dealeth safely out of our confines, must go on in one with us as with sons, often frustrating our general direction across this stupendous chasm plans, and leading us by ways we knew not till it begins to feel the pull of another sun. It to better results than the ones for which we will rush in among her planets, it will pass hoped or planned. When, out of frequent through her system, twice, going and return- disappointments and failures, we reap a rich ing. For now its career in that direction is harvest of spiritual blessing, and find, withal, stayed, and it cannot go past the dead weight that our real wants have been supplied in of the huge sun, but it sways off in a new unexpected ways, we perceive that God is direction. Its wild course from sun to sun, leading us, and learn by actual experience from system to system, can only be stopped the lesson so precious in trial, that "He by collision with some other object, a remote careth for us.' That lesson, well learned contingency; or by some self-destroying begets the habit of casting our care upon him. agencies which would change the ever-moving If our Almighty and loving Heavenly Father comet into a mass of ever-moving meteorites. is always caring for our interests, there is These, no longer kept in a solid body by the surely no need for us to worry about them. central attraction, would scatter about and Then come emancipation from undue anxiety many of them would rain down on the worlds and a realization of the truth of the promise: of these suns, around which their self-sustain-"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose ing momentum is carrying them. They thus rain down upon us. But where have they been? What message do they tell us? How many suns have they visited since they started on their perilous journeyings till they have finished their race on our little earth? How many millions of years have elapsed since their creation? How old are the news we would hear from them? They came to us with a speed greater than that of the telegraph message, but they have come from so far and in so tortuous a line that their news is very old indeed. But none the less wel

mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in Thee."— Central Christian Advocate.

ITEMS.

the marriage service by a Methodist congregaTHE word "obey" has been stricken from tion in Canada.

THREE dredges and pile drivers with a large number of workmen have arrived at Sandwich, Massachusetts, and work will be commenced at once upon the Cape Cod Ship Canal.

ON the 11th inst., the first through train

over the Northern Pacific Railroad passed | have been prepared in various studies.—N. Y. through Pittsburg en route for New York, Tribune. containing 200 Oregon pioneers, not one of the party having settled in Oregon later than 1854.

NOTICES.

FRIENDS' FREEDMEN'S SCHOOL, MOUNT
PLEASANT, S. C.

ON the night of the 9th inst., three earthquake shocks were felt in San Francisco. They were the most severe felt in several years. Earthquakes are reported to have occurred during the night and morning at seve-again appeal to Friends for aid to meet the ral places along the coast.

In the public schools of New Haven, Conn., a new course of study called "newspaper geography," has been adopted. This consists of requiring the student to trace out on his map places referred to in news reports of the daily

papers.

FERNS, of which several thousand species have been described, formed a very important part of the earth's vegetation in early geological ages, as is apparent from remains brought to light in the coal fields. They now grow all over the world, but especially in the warm and moist climates. In the Antilles they comprise about one-tenth of the vegetation; in Oceanica, one-fourth or one-fifth; in St. Helena, one-third; in Juan Fernandez, one-half, and in England one-thirty-fifth.-Exchange.

LATE despatches state that none of the persons injured by the cyclone at Arcadia, Wis., on the night of the 8th inst., will die. The storm'came from the southwest, and upon its approach "the air was so charged with electricity that lights could not be made to burn. The atmosphere was of a reddish-green color, with a strong sulphuric odor, and the roar of the tornado was deafening. Barns and outbuildings were torn from their foundations, dashed to fragments and scattered in all directions."

As the school season is just now opening, we

necessary expense. Our buildings are in good
condition, and the schools large and flourish-
ing. As funds are needed only for the support
of the teachers, we hope that the compara-
tively small amount required will be speedily
contributed, so that a guarantee of payment
for the whole school term can be given them,
as it is too far and expensive to send them
away on an uncertainty as to how long their
services will be needed.
HENRY M. LAING, Treas.
No. 30 N. Third st., Philadelphia.

The Annual Meeting of the Association of Friends for the promotion of First-day Schools within the limits of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, will be held at Race Street Meeting-house, Philadelphia, on Seventh-day, Eleventh mo. 3d, 1883, at 10 o'clock.

The various Unions are requested to forward reports before the day of the meeting. EMMA WORRELL,

ISAAC C. MARTINDALE, } Clerks.

RICHMOND, IND., Ninth mo. 27th, 1883. In accordance with the closing minute of Friends' Union for Philanthropic Labor, held at Waynesville, O., by adjournments from 9th mo. 22d to the 26th of same, inclusive, the Executive Committee have called a meeting of said Union, to be held at Lombard Street Meeting-house, Baltimore, Md., commencing Septem-Tenth month 26th, at 10 A. M., it being the Sixth-day preceding Baltimore Yearly Meeting. On behalf of the Executive Committee.

ADVICES by mail from Batavia of September 1st show that the earthquakes which occurred in and about the Strait of Sunda did but little damage to property in the city of Batavia, and that only a few fishermen were drowned there by the tidal waves. The advices, however, confirm the reports sent to the Associated Press of the extent of the disaster on the southern coast of Sumatra and the southwest coast of Java.

PROFESSOR WAIT, of Cornell University, has now in successful operation a novel method of instruction, which he has invented and developed himself. About two years ago, he began giving instruction by letter to a personal friend who was unable to enjoy the advantages of a university course. The plan worked well. The text-book chosen was divided into a number of sections. On each of these Professor Waite prepared an elaborate syllabus, enlarging on the subject from every point of view, and furnishing a list of questions. The pupil took each syllabus separately, mastered as much as possible of it, and sent by mail to the Professor the points which had proved too difficult to be mastered. Provision was made for a thorough examination at stated intervals, which could also be conducted by mail. In this way the idea grew, until now Professor Wait has a class of thirty-one professors in colleges in the United States and England; and complete courses of instruction

W. C. STARR, Clerk.

A Peace Meeting will be held in Friends' Meeting-house, at Gwynedd, on First-day afternoon next, Tenth mo. 21st, at 2 o'clock.

Speakers from Philadelphia will be present.
All are invited to attend.

The Monthly Temperance Conference, under care of Committee of Western Quarterly Meeting, will be held at West Grove, on Firstday, the 21st inst., convene at 2 o'clock. A general invitation is extended.

ELLWOOD MICHENER,} Clerks.

ELMA M. PRESTON,

A Conference on Temperance, under the care of the Quarterly Meeting's Committee, will be held at Friends' Meeting-house, Merion, on First-day, Tenth mo. 21st, at 23 P. M.

Train leaves Broad Street Station at 1 P. M. for Elm Station. Returning, leaves Elm at 5.25. Also at Maiden Creek, on the 28th inst., at 2 P. M.

Train at Broad and Callowhill streets, at 6.30 A. M.

་

FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER.

"TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE.'

PHILADELPHIA, TENTH MONTH 27, 1883.

luding to Woolman's labors for the abolition | of slavery, he says: "A far-reaching moral, social and political revolution, undoing the evil work of centuries, unquestionably owes much of its original impulse to the life and labors of a poor, unlearned workingman of New Jersey, whose very existence was scarcely known beyond the narrow circle of his religious Society. Looking back to the humble workshop at Mount Holly, from the standpoint of the Proclamation of President Lincoln, how has the seed sown in weakness been raised in power?

"It is only within a comparatively recent period that the journal and ethical essays of this remarkable man have attracted the attention to which they are manifestly entitled. In one of my last interviews with William Ellery Channing, he expressed his very great surprise that they were so little known. He had himself just read the book for the first time, and I shall never forget how his countenance lighted up as he pronounced it beyond comparison the sweetest and purest autobiography in the language."

centuries since the advent of Christ, lived nearest to the Divine pattern.

The author of "The Patience of Hope," whose authority in devotional literature is unquestioned, says of him: "John Woolman's gift was love-a charity of which it does not enter into the natural heart of men to conceive, and of which the more ordinary experiences, even of renewed nations, give but a faint shadow."

Every now and then, in the world's history, we meet with such men, the kings and priests of humanity, on whose heads this precious ointment has been so poured forth that it has run down to the skirts of their clothing, and extended over the whole of the visible creation; men who have entered, like Francis of Assisi, into the secret of that deep amity with God and with his creatures which makes man to be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the forest to be at peace with him. In this pure, universal charity there is nothing fitful or intermittent, nothing that comes and goes in showers, and gleams and sunbursts. Its springs are deep and constant, its rising like that of a mighty river, its very overflow calm and steady, leaving life and fertility behind it."

We must silence every creature, we must silence ourselves also, to hear in the profound stillness of the soul this inexpressible voice of Christ. The outward word of the gospel itself, without this living, efficacious word within, would be but an empty sound."

The poet Charles Lamb, probably from his friends, the Clarksons, or from Bernard Barton, became acquainted with it; and on more than one occasion, in his letters and Essays Looking at the purity, wisdom and sweetof Elia, refers to it with warm commendation. ness of his life, who shall say that his faith in Edward Irving pronounced it a Godsend. the teaching of the Holy Spirit-the interior Some idea of the lively interest which the guide and light-was a mistaken one? Surely fine literary circle gathered around the hearth it was no illusion by which his feet were so of Lamb felt in the beautiful simplicity of guided that all who saw him felt that like Woolman's pages, may be had from the diary Enoch, he walked with God. "Without the of Henry Crabb Robinson, one of their num- actual inspiration of the Spirit of Grace, the ber, himself a man of wide and varied culture, inward teacher of our souls," says Fincton the intimate friend of Goethe, Wordsworth" we could neither do, will, nor believe good. and Coleridge. In his notes for First month, 1824, he says, after a reference to a sermon of his friend Irving, which he feared would deter rather than promote belief: "How dif. ferent this from John Woolman's journal I have been reading at the same time! A perfect gem! His is a schöne Seele, a beautiful soul. An illiterate tailor, he writes in a style of the most exquisite purity and grace. His moral qualities are transferred to his writings. Had he not been so very humble, he would have written a still better book; for, fearing to indulge in vanity, he conceals the events in which he was a great actor. His religion was love. His whole existence and all his passions were love. If one could venture to impute to his creed, and not to his personal character, the delightful frame of mind he exhibited, one could not hesitate to be a convert. His Christianity is most inviting-it is fascinating!"

One of the leading British reviews a few years ago, referring to this journal, pronounces its author the man who, in all the

Thou, Lord," says Augustine in his Meditations, "communicatest thyself to all; thou teachest the heart without words; thou speakest to it without articulate sounds." Never was this divine principle more fully tested than by John Woolman; and the result is seen in a life of such rare excellence, that the world is still better and richer for its sake, and the fragrance of it comes down to us through a century, still sweet and precious.— Mt. Holly Paper.

THE Christian life is one of faith, hope, love, obedience; the life of God in the soul of man. We are born into that life by a determination to obey God and do His will. We grow up by daily obedience, daily trust, daily prayer.-J. Freeman Clarke.

MOZOOMDAR ON INDIA.

The distinguished East Indian teacher, the Babu Mozoomdar, representing the Brahmo Somaj, was welcomed by a company of representative citizens at the Hotel Vendome, Boston, on the evening of the 9th inst.

The interesting and eloquent stranger was greeted with sympathetic words by Dr. Joseph T. Duryea, of Boston, who asked him to speak of the land of his nativity, its weal or woe, and of its aspirations.

With fervid eloquence, the Hindoo replied to his Christian friends, describing with earnestness the great results to be hoped for from the interchange of thought and of religious inspiration between the East and the West. He spoke of meeting Prof. Tyndall some years ago in London, when the philosopher said to the Indian teacher, “Light once came from the East, and from the East light shall come again." From the great throb. bing soul of the East-from that fountain which has sent forth the various streams that have fertilized the arid world with truth and love and heroism, is again to come revivifying light.

In regard to the caste system, he spoke of the efforts of the Brahmo Somaj to break down the barriers. He continued:

In India, in former times, the institution of caste was a monstrous evil, and down to the present day its baneful influences are felt. But the Brahmo Somaj is surely and forever setting aside the restrictions of that baneful institution-not by directly violating them, not by carrying out any violent measures, but by preaching and acting upon the principle of the brotherhood of man. When you hear it, it seems a very hackneyed, trite, worn-out motto; but, when you come to act out the brotherhood of man in the relations of your society, in the relations of your home, in the relations of your church, you find out that no greater task can be conceived than taking men and women by the hand as brothers and sisters.

We began by having common meals at our anniversary festival. We called upon our Brahmin brothers to tear the sacred thread from their necks. The sacred thread is made of a few strips of cotton twisted together. It is not very fragrant, nor very white, worn next to the skin. It is believed to conceal with a mystic influence the essence of the ancient Scriptures and of unnamable sanctities. We called upon Brahmin brothers then

We used

to tear this off from their necks.
in those days to keep small censers in which
there was fire, and into these we would throw
the obnoxious thread. For a long time that
went on; but, finally it seemed an absurdity,
and it was given up. We had, as I say,
common meals at anniversary times; but the
people scoffed at us, and said, 'These men
perpetuate the distinctions of society all
around the year, only at the end of the year
they eat together and break caste.'

When the younger generation entered the Brahmo Somaj, they went on fixed plans. They said the pulpit of the Brahmo Somaj should in future not be the exclusive possession of Brahmins, but that every man who was wise and pure and devout, whether he were a Brahmin or one of the inferior castes, should occupy the pulpit. And all those sleepy, grand-looking, heavy, learned men who sat in the pulpit were told that, if they did not distinguish themselves by wisdom and piety they would be dethroned, and men of inferior castes should occupy their place. They were convulsed with wrath. A great howl of indignation was raised, and it seemed as if the Brahmo Somaj was going to break. But the younger men said, "If the Brahmin is wise, we shall respect him; if unwise, we will degrade him to the occupation of the porter.

Then came the consideration, if we are to be sincere men, men of conviction, how can we go on marrying our children within our own castes, when there are so many worthy men and women outside? Why not marry members of different castes? Why not marry widows? Widows in India are unmarriageable. If a woman becomes a widow when ten years old-and many do become widows at that age-she has to remain a widow forever. Widows have sometimes to pass twenty-four hours in our burning, dreadful climate, without a drop of water. They have to abjure all the comforts of life. They used to be burned with their dead husbands; but the founder of the Brahmo Somaj, with the help of government, put an end to this. They remained, however, celibates, which was neither for their own good nor for the welfare of society. So we said we must marry our widows again, if they want to marry. Then another howl arose: "The widows to marry! What are these men coming_to? We shall not let them remain in the Brahmo Somaj. We shall turn them out." And we were turned out. continued these marriage reforms. We said, "Let the Brahmin woman marry the inferior caste man and the inferior woman the high caste man." But, after all, English education has loosened the structure of caste in

But we