There is a legend that on the night of the exodus a young Jewish maiden, the first born of the family, was so troubled on her sick bed that she could not sleep. "Father," she anxiously inquired, "are you sure that the blood is there?" He replied that he had ordered it to be sprinkled on the lintel. The restless girl would not be satisfied until her father had taken her up and carried her to the door to see for herself; and lo! the blood was not there! The order had been neglected, but the father made haste to put on his door the sacred token.

There was to be a prize fight and a Sunday School picnic on the same day and two boats were waiting at the wharf to carry passengers to the respective places. Two men were late. One was going to the prize fight, the other to the picnic and they ran to catch their boat. The picnic boat was just shoving off from shore and the saloon-keeper man by mistake got on it and the picnic man by mistake got on the other boat. When the man who wanted to go to the picnic heard the swearing and saw the drinking and gambling and found that he was on the wrong boat he begged the captain to let him off but he would not. He had to endure the smoke and foul language. When the man going to the prize fight heard the singing and prayer and godly conversation and saw his blunder he pleaded with the captain to shove to shore, but he would not; then said he to the captain, "Let me off anywhere; put me on a rock-anywhere but here, for this is hell."-The Expositor.

A country minister passing the home of one of his parishioners, saw her standing by a broken line of newly

washed clothes, which lay in the dust. She was tired and it meant that she must gather them up and wash them all over again. But she was not groaning nor weeping, nor complaining. She was singing the doxology. Her pastor stepped up to her and said:

"Madam, are you singing because your clothes are in the dust?"

She replied cheerfully:

"I am singing while they are in the dust."-Exchange.

A boy came to the door of a lady's house and asked if she did not wish some berries, for he had been out all day gathering them.

"Yes," said the lady, "I will take some."

So she took the basket and stepped into the house, the boy remaining outside, whistling to some canary birds hanging in their cages on the porch.

"Why don't you come in and see that I measure your berries right?" said the lady; "how do you know but I may cheat you?"

"I am not afraid," said the boy, "for you would get the worst of it."

"Get the worse of it?" said the lady; "what do you mean by that?"

"Why, madam," said the boy, "I should only lose my berries, and you would make yourself a thief. Don't you think you would be getting the worst of it?"

The boy was right. He who steals, or does anything wrong or mean, just to gain a few cents or a few dollars, burdens himself with a sin which is worse than all the gain. Let this be borne in mind-the one who does a wrong to another always gets the worst of it.-Selected.

Dr. Albert Barnes, the great Biblical Commentator, was called at one time to visit a dying parishioner who, when his pastor came to his bedside, said: "Doctor, I have not heard a sermon for twenty years. Tell me how to be saved." Surprised at his words, Dr. Barnes said: “From your demeanor I thought you one of my most attentive hearers." But the man replied, “Alas, doctor, I have always taken that time to plan my business for the next week."

ADDRESSES ITALICIZED FOR

SUGGESTION

Selections from Lincoln's Addresses italicized for suggestions for speeches.

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

NOVEMBER 19, 1863

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final restingplace for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather,

to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MARCH 4, 1861

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have, in succession, administered the executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.

I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the

Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national government. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever-it being impossible to destroy it except by some action nct provided for in the instrument itself. Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it-break it, so to speak, but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MARCH 4, 1865

Fellow-Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil