before he would venture to get up. Great was the pride of the little one as, at length, it led the father in triumph by the hand into the breakfast room. door. Then old and young ran up and down stairs to bring him his proper garments quickly. Just as the bell ceased tolling "he would emerge from the study with his coat very much awry, come down the stairs like a hurricane, stand impatiently protesting, while female hands that ever lay in wait, adjusted his cravat and settled his coat collar, calling loudly the while for a pin to fasten together the stubbed little bits of paper, which being duly dropped into the crown of his hat, and wife or daughter, like a satchel on his arm, away he would start on such a race through the streets as left neither brain nor breath till church was gained." This headlong zeal sometimes brought One feature in this busy man's life impresses one very sadly. He began his ministry with a salary of $300; then it was increased to $400. Later, at Guilford it was $800. Later still, perhaps, it was more, but it never sufficed to support him. His first wife tried to help matters along by using her own inheritance. This was soon exhausted. Despite her close economy, thrift, and hard work, she repeatedly had to remind her husband that their bills were not paid and they were running in debt. The faithful, devoted pastor's wife bore her cross with uncom-him into ludicrous dilemmas; as when plaining and patient silence. It told on travelling in the deep mud of Kentucky her health, and as her husband thought the stage stuck. As Beecher started helped to hurry her to a premature across a ditch for a rail, his companion, grave. Roxana Beecher died a martyr's Rev. Dr. Brainard, said, "Stop, Doctor, death! Amid the luxurious homes of let me go. I have boots on and you her husband's parishioners they left her shoes. to want the ordinary comforts of life, whilst they praised her noble qualities before and after her death. A very interesting work has, of late years, been written on the history of the parsonage in Protestant Germany. The American Church furnishes abundant material for a similar work, which might many a sad tale unfold, descriptive of the silent and unpublished martyrdoms of many a parsonage at the hands of people to whose spiritual welfare the pastor devotes his ripest thoughts and best years. "" Lyman Beecher, as it often happens with very intellectual men, was not given to orderly and precise habits. He preferred having his study in the topmost room in the house. The preparation for many of his great public efforts was put off to the last few hours During the day he was concerned with every body's affairs. An hour or two before the time for service he would rush into his study, throw off his coat, settle his muscles with a few swings of the dumb bells, then hurriedly scrawl an outline of his thoughts on bits of paper as large as the palm of his hand. Amid the rush of his thoughts the bells rang. Loud and long they rang, but he heeded them not. "We shall certainly be late," said a soft voice at the "No, I haven't shoes on; they are both there, sticking in the ditch.' "" This wading through the tough Kentucky mud in his stocking feet could not dampen his ardor to lift the stage out of the ditch. He was determined to do his best at his work and amusements. Whether sawing on the fiddle or on the wood horse he strove to excel. It cost him many an effort before he could play Auld Lang Syne, Bonnie Doon, and Mary's Dream. Money Mu k and College Hornpipe he c uld never master. After most vigorous attempts at these he invariably broke down with an emphatic pshaw. 66 His faith was as trustful as that of a child, and often his pity gave ere charity began." 66 One day he came to his wife in a great hurry and said, Wife, give me five dollars. One of the students needs help." 66 Why, husband, that is every cent we have." "I cannot help it, the Lord will provide," and away went the last five dollars. The next day he held up a fifty dollar wedding fee before the face of his wife in great glee, saying, "Didn't I tell you the Lord would provide?" At Lane Seminary, his income for a while was only the voluntary gifts i of some friends. Every morning, at family devotions, he would pray with emotion, "Give us this day our daily bread," and was thankful at evening when they had had enough to eat. Some of the boys wore the secondhand clothing of friends. One morning his son found him in his study weeping, holding an open letter in his hand. With streaming eyes, he said, "Tom, you can get some boots now here's some money; and your mother can get you a vest from and now you'll stay with me." " At another time a friend in Boston received from him the following note :"Dear brother, the meal in the barrel is low, the oil in the cruise has failed. Send me a hundred dollars." His last years were peaceful, and spent with his children. Kind friends paid him the annual sum of $500. For the kindness received he always thanked God first, and then the donors, because He had inclined them to give him help. In his closing life his mind was most of the time obscured, but peaceful. On his eighty-first birth-day, on his way to one of Professor Stowe's lectures in Andover Seminary, "he laid his hand on the top of a five-barred fence, which he cleared at a bound." The body, so puny and unpromising at its birth had by careful nursing and temperatehealth-inspiring habits developed into that of an athlete; and its mental tenant was an athlete as well. Human he was, in the strong and weak elements of his character. But surely a manlier man than Lyman Beecher is rarely found. According to his convictions he fought the good fight, kept the faith and finished his course. did it from choice. Duty, however hard and stony, was to him a pleasure. In reply to the question put to him at the close of life, Could he choose, would he rather go to heaven or begin life anew, he answered, with an emphatic shake of the head, "I would enlist again in a minute." And be IF the Lord lead you in a rough way, it is to keep your heart humble before him. SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSONS. DECEMBER 4. 1881. Second Sunday in Advent. Luke 21:25–33. KEY-NOTE: "When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of LESSON XLIX. The Coming Prophet.-Deut. xviii. 15-22. QUESTIONS. will not hearken unto my words which he shall 20. But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. 21. And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? 22. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. and men? Who is the perfect Mediator? John i. 14, How is the mediatorial work of Christ now carried forward among men? Eph. iv. 11-12. VERSE 19. What was the duty of the Israelites in regard to the words of the prophet? Were they always mindful of this duty? Jer. xxv. 4. What does God here say He will do to those who hearken not to the words of the prophet? Did He often punish the Israelites for their disobedience to the prophets? How ought Christian people to regard the words of their pastors and teachers? In whose name do these speak? Luke x. 16. Can they then be despised with impunity? 20. How many classes of false prophets are distinguished here? What punishment is threatened them? Are there persons now who speak in the name of God things that are not true? Are these false prophets? Are they guilty of a great sin? Are there also those who speak in the name of other gods? Is this a sign of the approaching end of the world? Matt. xxiv. 11; 2 Pet. ii. 1. VERSES 21-22. How were the Israelites to detect the false prophets? To which class of false prophets does this test apply? Does it also apply to those speaking in the name of other gods? How were they to be proved? Deut. xiii. 1-5. How are we to distinguish false teachers from true? Matt. vii. 16; Rom. xii. 6; 2 Tim. i. 13; 1 Tim. vi. 3-5. 2. Every eye shall now behold Him, Shall the true Messiah see. NOTES. The theme of the second fully revealed. Compare John i: 18 and Sunday in Advent is the second coming Heb. i: 1-2. The promise implies that of Christ, or His coming in glory, at the people of Israel should never be the end of this world, to judge the quick without a prophet or divine teacher, to and the dead. The Gospel for the day make known to them God's will and gives us the signs in nature and history, lead them in the way of salvation. which will precede that second coming From among thy brethren. In order to of Christ. These signs are the things reveal Himself to men, God makes use referred to in the key-note (from the of men, not of beings of another world Gospel), which herald the advent of the or another kind. He puts His word into kingdom of Ged, or the glorious reign the mouth of chosen men, possessing apof Christ in the new and renovated titudes and susceptibilities for divine earth. But, though we are bidden to impressions, and these then become teachobserve these signs, we must not suppose ers and guides of others. Like unto me. them to be data for the arithmetical God raised up Moses as an organ for the computation, in advance, of the time of communication of His will to Israel. Christ's second coming. They are signs, In like manner He raised up others after not for science, but for faith, which, him. Moses was thus a type of all the moreover, make their appearance not prophets who came after him, and espeonly once, but in progressive series of cially of Christ, in whom the line of the increasing intensity. Old Testament prophets culminated, and who is the absolute revelation of God. The Coming Prophet.-Our lesson is in the book of Deuteronomy (second law), so called from the fact that it contains a repetition of the laws which had been previously promulgated in Israel, with important additions and modifications fitting them to a new age. Verse 15. The Lord thy God. A phrase that occurs two hundred and eight times in this book of Deuteronomy. It always involves an allusion to the covenant, and designates the people of Israel, whom Moses is addressing here, as the people of God in a peculiar sense. A Prophet. A prophet is one who speaks under the influence of God and Verse 16. The event referred to in this verse occurred at the time of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. Horeb. The general range of mountains of which Sinai, from whose top the law was given, forms a single prominent peak. In the day of the assembly, i. e., when the people were assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai in order to hear the announcement of the law. Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord. The terror produced by the phenomena accompanying the revelation of the law, is mentioned in Exod. xx. 18-25. That for God. This is the primary significa- I die not. It was a common idea in the most ancient times, that no one could see or hear God and live. Even the manifestation of God's power in the phenomena of nature has always inspired men with fear. The reason of this is that men are sinners. For this reason the Israelites were not able to hear God speaking to them at Mount Sinai, and requested Moses that he might act as mediator between them and God, and speak to them the words of God. tion of the English word prophet (from Greek pro, for, instead, and phemi, I speak, hence to speak for or instead of another) and also of the Hebrew word of which this is a translation. A prophet is, therefore, not simply one who predicts future events, but one who declares the secret things of God, whether they pertain to the present, past or future-one who speaks the words which God puts into his mouth, and thus acts as the interpreter and messenger of God. This promise of a prophet here does not refer to a single prophet only, who was for a mediator. He treated the Israelto come after Moses, but to a line of ites according to their capacity, and prophets, who were to come after him made His further communications to and carry forward the process of reve- them through Moses, who had been raised lation, until it should become complete up and especially endowed for this purin Christ, the absolute prophet, in whom pose. See Exod. xx. 22. I will raise the whole being and counsel of God are them up a prophet. God not only rec Verses 17-18. They have well spoken. Thus God approved of Israel's request |