Punxsutawney Spirit, 1896-03-18

              PATENT SHIRT WAIST. f»E Mother's Friend. Mark Twain III. Wearing cr Washing. No Buttons can b3 Tom cffl either tn lioui;lit Mining Slum's. "SPECIAL" Misses Shoes! -^OF^- —SB coooeoo In Box Near Door* 78c PER PER PAIR. ()0 pair misses shoes, sizes Si to '2's. All new. "otxl styles, wel? worth one dollar a pair, at E. CUMNNGHAM & SON, 96 Pr Button lO 2i, 30 3, 11 3i, » 4, H 41 7 5, 12 51, 1 0, 1 til, 1 7, 71, 1 8. Ladies Fine Dress Shoes Were $2.50 To $4 Per Pair. Your Choice For $1.25. 25 Pr Lacs 1 8 4 3k 4 4 22  30 Pr Congress1 «*•»»•»«•3 *•««• ■«.•«• 25 Pr Ladies Button Shoe fit 756. GOSPEL IN PAGAN CREEDS. REV. HARTMAN'S SERMON. Yours for Bargains. JOHN B. BAIR. 3-4 Pair Chllds 1.25 to ISO. Your Choice for 75c Sizes—Five 8%, three g, six g'/2, ten 10, ten \Q%. lb Pairs Misses Shoes, 1.50 and $2 Goods for $1, Sizes—Six No. 11, two No. n]/i, six No:' 12, four 12%, eight No 13, twelve No. sixteen N0.1, fourteen No. \fo, seven No. 5. * NEW LINEOFTHESE GOODS Kqually Divine. All Truth is God's Truth, and it is All lander looks for a future home of I gonial summer sun, where flowers perennial bloom, where frosts and ; frigid winters are unknown. The Indian buries his com rude with his moccasins. his blanket, his pipe, his bow and arrows, expecting to | meet him again in a happier hunting mound. Christ said "In my i father's house there are many mansions. ] go to prepare a place for yon," Cicero said, "There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage of a future existence : and this takes the deepest root and is most discoverable in the greatest geniuses and most exalted spirits." Dear friends, how are we to account for these doctrines of the Bible prevailing so universally liefore the Hible was written? Let us remember too, that they prevailed in all parts of the world ages before the days of inter-communication. To spread such ideas over the world in these dark days would require millcniiuns. The only solution of this question is that men have been religious all over tile world and through all time, or over since the beginning of the race. Slowly but surely character, has been developed and manifested in the institutions mhI literatures of the world. The best ideas that have grown from the experience of all people have a place in our Hible and our forth. The religious spirit of all people has been yearning for the manifestation of (Jod as he was revealed in Christ. When the fullni •ss of time was collie Christ appeared. Of his work in the onward development of the race we are to speak next Sunday. Loudon, March 1.'!. A dispatch from Bombay says tlmt Samuel L. Clemens, 1 lu> American humorous writer, known ns Murk Twain, is seriously ill at .ley pore. Mr. Clemens started abroad six months ago oil a tour around the world*. The failure of Webster and Co., hook publishers, of New York,left him nearly penniless. He, therefore, started 011 his present tour to recuperate his fallen fortunes. Tho Mother's Friend docs away entirely ! i'.ii the sewing on of Buttons. It is supplied with an adjustable belt, which is easily taken vis when the waist is washed; the buttons arc liveted on the belt, consequently can not be torn iff, either in wearing, washing or ironing. JUST RECEIVED! H. J. LOEB. ST. ELMO STORE Hats and Shoes. New Sprino Starts. PRICE, 50 and 75 CENTS. All Coods Are Wa iastad Fas! Co ors. (MEN'S AND BOY8' FURNISHER. "On my departure Secretary Thurber handed mo a check for 150,000 shares of gilt-edgo stock, / the President .doubtless being the / real buyer." ii, ,'js /a '"I obtained an audience with the President hoping thereby to shako hands with hint and, to my surprise, I was detained for an hour and a half, although it was Cabinet day, with ((Ue lions relating tt> Cripple Creek. The President inquired particularly about certain mines, with some of whose managers hois personally acquainted. "He said: 'You certainly have the greatest gold camp in tluw world.' He took a fancy to av specimen of roasted sylvanito ore, which he insisted on keeping, although I offerd to express it to him from New-York, where I wished to exhibit. Colorado Springs, Frank Perkins, who has returned from Wash- ington, tells of an intorestiiigintorview with President Cleveland, in which the latter was the interviewer. lie says. We are tho inheritors of the worlds best efforts. Not a single meritorious deed lias been lost. The plans and labors of many, who worked for, and dreamed of better things to come, in the ages past, are ripening into fruitage in these latter days. Tho fathers did not live in vain, however wide of the mark they might have toiled. Each succeeding generation is made 1 ichor, wiser, and better by tho experience of its ancestors. The mantles of the fathers have fallen on the sons, with a double portion of their spirit. We have been enriched by their failures and defeats, as well as by their victories and successes. The best legislative wisdom of all nations is pouring into our jurisprudence. Our music is the condensed sweetness of ages of melody. Our mechanical appliances express the concentrated cunning of centuries of genius. Our science and philosophy are the compiled wisdom of all tho world's great sages. The myriad trophies of brush and chisel adorn our modern art galleries. Our mammoth institutions of benevolence, our magnificent shrines, our world-reaching enterprises, our international comity, and our matchless spirit of brotherhood are all the result of an agegathering consolidation. Our life I is cosmopolitan, both civic and i spiritual. We are in debt to the barbaric ages for many of the problems of existence that it required milleniums to solve. For many of tho commonest benefactions that .bless our age, multiplied armies of "the fathers groped, toiled and died to purchase. The foundation stones of our splendid civilization were chiseled into form and laid in place by rustic hands in the twilight of time. Our religion is as truly cosmopolitan as our civil organizations, and all tho peoples of the world havo contributed the richest results of their struggles and devotions to make it what it is. Of some of tho fundamentals of our Christianity contributed by tho different pooples of tho world we are this morning to speak. Tho first idoa taught in the Bible, to which I call attention, as being taught with varying degrees of clearness, by ancient peoples, is that of the creation. Nearly all nations have some traditions concerning the creation. The story of Genesis represents the beginning God, who at sundry time* and in divers am liners, spoke in time past unto the fathers by t he prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. Hew. 1:12. i Miss Lizzie H. K. Torrence will occupy the room opposite Hotel Whitney with a full line of mlllinary and fan«y Ribbons in the latest Persian, Dresden and ChameleoA designs, imported direct from the manufacturers. Reserve your orders until you examine these goods. / New Millinery. Onr Easter Opening on April 2nd, 1896. : ous impulse that is that has prompted such sacrifices a.s the heathen world has made ! Every thing has lieon sacrificed toapi>caso the gods. The richest fruits of the ground as well as the most perfect fat lings of the flock, as in the case of Cain and Abel, have been sacrificed to God to appease his anger and to alone for conscious imperfections. The practice of human sacrifices is worldwide. This is one of the later phases of heathen offerings because supposed to be the best. Men would give the best to (Jod. The mother gave her darling babe because she thought that the gods required the best we have. The idea was correct, but how unfortunate the method ! The old testament system of sacrifices pointing to Christ emphasized the idea of blood, or the giving up of life. Many good people sfill place more emphasis on the blood, than they do on the life which the blood represents. They place the stress on the suffering and death, rather than on the joy and the living. It is not the suffering and death of Christ that saves, but that all conquering power that survives the tomb. It was his works among men, his example and his life that mivcs tin' world. The pagan idea of sacrifice was in large part correct. It was right to give the best to God. This was the supreme lesson taught by Christ, the complete sacrifice of the whole being to the service of the world, l'aul caught the idea, lie said present the body a "living sacrifice." When ever the human family learns how to take the best care of the whole being, and brings a well rounded manhood to I lie altar of God, not-to be slain, but to render a cheerful, hopeful and etlicient service to the race, then the highest idea of sacrilice, taught vaguely by all the heathen religions and < completely exemplified in the life of Christ, will have served its highest purpose. i The doctrine upon which our entire christian system is based is that of the immortality of the soul. II is not death, but the issues beyond the grave thai renders dying so fearful. A belief in a future and immortal life is well nigh universal. The most barbarous nations express the belief in some form. Many believe in future rewards and punishments. Their ideas of heaven arc largely controled by present conditions. It is a place the reverse of all that is unsatisfactory in this life. They are to bo freed from all pain ami are to enter into the highest pleasures of which they are capable of forming any conception. In the Veda tlie immortality of the soul, as well as personal immortality and personal responsibility after death are clearly taught. The Chinese say when a person dies that "he has returned to his family." They worship their ancestors, positive evidence of their faith in the future life. The word death is not found in all the writings of Confucius. The Egyptians had a dwelling place for the dead and also believed in a future judgment. Their magnificent system of embalming tlio body grow out of the idea that the departed spirit would have use for the body in the future. The Persians believed in regular hierarchies of spirits, good and evil, through which tho soul was to pass to endless light or darkness. The Polynesians bclieve that we live in a many storied building, with cellars descending beneath. Wo ascend or descend as wo live. The Mohammedans believe in a paradise of the grossest sensuality. The Green- A man boarded the fast train on the Baltimore and Obkf, railroad at Salom. III., on  day night and ondoayoredt^fetfM Possibly this most prevalent idea of pagan people harmonizing with the fundamcntul doctrines of ehris tianity is that of sacritiee. All men, however crude, or however cultured have expressed a feeling of moral imperfection, with a corresponding fear of (he divine displeasure. The whole conduct of all of the unschooled people of the earth, proves that man has recognized himself to he a moral being with moral responsibilities. There has been everywhere a deep prevailing sense of imperfection. Both the feeling of imperfection and responsibility are intensilied with the growth of the spiritual life. The wiser and better men become the more susceptible they are of human limititntions and moral obligations. How cat) mortal man feel otherwise than imperfect in tin? presence of the Infinite and unknowable I This is the normal impulse of all rational creii tures. Hut men in their earliest developments have always been impressed that (hid was displeased with their ignorance and error. The great burden of all the religious ceremonies of the heathen world has been to appease the wrath of an angry (tod. The! shadow of ignorance has been mi:- ; taken for a frown of wrath. Not only in the heathen world, but in . the christian church, until recent years, the most horrible inonstros- ! itieshave been proclaimed bv lead- : ing theologians. With an open ! Bible in hand the leaders of the j churches and the makers of the creeds, until within the last quarter of a century, have proclaimed : the horrible barbarism of infant damnation. The burden of the messages purported to bo from a God of love was to "flea tho wrath to come." Are we to wonder that heathen mothers would feed tho crockodilcs with their innocent babes in order to appease the wrath of tho gods, when wo attribute a far worse deed to our Heavenly Father? Which is the worse, for a sincere, but ignorant heathen to sacrifice her children to tho momentary devouring of tho crockodilos, or for the christian church to teach and preach tho burning of innocent, sinless babes in tho flames or an inextinguishablo lake of fire and brimstone? Both the sacrificing and tho burning were supposed to appease the anger of the Deity. What a mighty religi- I could arrive. Another fundamental doctrine. ; of scripture, found to be the expression of almost ii u 'verssil belief, is that concerning > coming of the Messiah. The , sire for, and the expectation of, a Messiah to cnme, did not I turn alone in the hearts of Jewish priests and prophet*. , Tile whole* world has desired such a deliverer, anil many nations have had definite views with reference to his appearing. Hinduism treats of nine incarnations of whom Buddha was admitted to bo one. 15ut these have not met the expectations of the people. They are yet unsatisfied. There is to come the tenth, Avator, greater and mightier than all others. He is to .corye at a time of great and universal wickedness and establish a kingdom of righteousness on the earth. The intense desire of the human soul for a more tangible revelation of God, is manifest in the faith of the Teutonic and Norse religions. They worshipped their deities in the deep darkness of the forest shades. They were fierce and barbaric, but they yearned for a Messiah. They had a promise of his corning. Haldr, one of the sons of Woden, had passed away but was to return, endued with power to deliver mankind from sorrow and death. When the gods had served their time he was to return and establish a glorious kingdom. China, Japan and India have all had their Messiahs. In modern as well as in ancient times, nations have looked for deliverers of some kind. When the first missionaries arrived at the Hawaiian islands they found that the people were dissatisfied, and had thrown away their idols. The Koreans were found waiting for the arrival of delivers. 'I lie Mexicans at the time of the Spanish conquest were looking for a Messiah. Indian traditions have abundant references to expected delivers. The old Jewish prophets sighed for the coming of Him who should take the government on his shoulders, and establish a world-wide and glorious kingdom. The whole world is longing for a better understanding of God, and is perpetually inspired with the hope of a brighter day yet to come. There is also :i universal belief concerning the apostacy of t he race. Man finding himself in a state of imperfection, and feeling within himself the prophecy of things greater than he has ever achieved, ' and being utterly ignorant of the sources and processes of his existence, would naturally feel him-1 self an apostate. The traditions of nearly all people bear testimony ' to their belief in the original holiness of their progenitors. In the British Museum there is a very old Babylonian seal bearing the figures of a man and woman stretching out their hands toward a fruit tree, while behind the woman lurks a serpent. Another fragment bears the inscription of a tree of life as guarded 011 all sides by a sword. Another describes a delectable region surrounded bv four rivers. 1'roffessors Rawlinson and Delitzseh both regard these as references to tho Garden of Eden. The Hindoo legends are agreed in tho belief that man is the last product of creative wisdom and the master work of God. They believe the first race were upright, innocent and happy. The beings thus created by Brahma were endowed with perfect faith, resided where they liked, labored against no obstructions in their movements, and were freed front toil by the observance of sacred institutes. I There are also Buddhist legends of Ceylon, representing the original races as being spotlessly pure, having ethereal bodies which moved through space at will. They had 110 need of sun or moon. Their pence was perfect until one of their race tasted a strange substance from the earth. lie induced others tomcat, all knew good and evil and lost their luippy estate. African tribes have a tradition that God was formerly very near to them, when a women who had boon pounding fruit in a mortar entered his presence with a pestle in her hand, kindling the anger of their God, whereupon I10 withdrew into the heavens and listened to men 110 more. After long pleading ho sent his chief minister, bringing rain and sunshine, his rainbow also appearing in the sky. This tradition is not unlike the beliefs of many modern christians concerning the anger and absense of Jehovah. The Koreans of Burmah had a story of tho early temptation and apostacy of their fathers through tho influence of an evil spirit. Many other races with no definite ideas, have , vague impressions of a golden age in tho past. There has been every- , where a pathetic feeling of something lost, of a degeneracy, of divine displeasure and forfeited fa- 1 vor. Man being divine, with a thirst for tho highest, and yet limited, and ignorant of the laws of , his being, nothing would be more natural than to suspect that men had onco seen better days. Aspiring to be perfect, not being so, and not knowing why, the conclo- , sion of apostacy would be the only , natural one at which the mind 1 (is formless, dark and chaotic. Prof. Itawlinson quotes from an Assyrian account of the creation found upon the clay tablets in the palace of Assur-tmn-ipal, which describes the creation as resembling that of Genesis, with a striking accord in the general order. According to an Ktrnsean sage, God created the world in six periods of 1000 years each. The order here is in almost perfect hiymony with the Biblical history. The Persian Avesta leaches that the supreme Ormuzd created th. world in six periods of a thousand years each, with striking agreement with Genesis. The tradition of the Odshis, a negro tribe of Africa, represents the creation as having been completed in six days. The ltig Veda and the Chinese records furnish us with similar traditions from those ancient lands. On the Western hemisphere, both north and south, the tribes have expressed belief in the creation of the world by one God, though with some confusion with reference to the order. In almost all nations the liible idea of creation prevailed in pro-historic times, with a greater or less degree of clearness, and it is interesting to note that both the Biblical account and most heathen traditions agree, as to the order of creation, with the geological record of modern science. Truth, whether evolved by the experience of ages, whether revealed by the spirit of God, or whether discovered in the chemical labrator.y, is equally divine and is God's agency for the salvation of the world. PUNXSUTAWNEY, PA., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18,1896. Wtyt |Jnnx0tifattmt|) Spirit 1|| l m NO. 41 vol. xxm. piirIT cm r® ** VXtiLdP I u ALL * ' - - r a 1