 Addressed to Congress on resigning his commission by George Washington, this is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Mr. President, the great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands, the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with dividends. A dividends in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which however was superseded by a confidence and the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the union, and the patronage of heaven. The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations, and my gratitude for the interposition of providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen increases with every review of the momentous conquest. While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge in this place the peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in particular those who have continued in service to the present moment as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress. I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act with my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them to His holy keeping. Having now finished the work assigned to me, I retire from the great theater of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission and take my leave of all the employments of public life. End of Address to Congress on Resigning His Commission by George Washington. Keltz and Keltophiles. Science in the modern world has many uses. Its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich. The word kleptomania is a vulgar example of what I mean. It is on a par with that strange theory always advanced when a wealthy or prominent person is in the dock. That exposure is more of a punishment for the rich than for the poor. Of course the very reverse is the truth. Exposure is more of a punishment for the poor than for the rich. The richer a man is, the easier it is for him to be a Trump. The richer a man is, the easier it is for him to be popular and generally respected in the cannibal islands. But the poorer a man is, the more likely it is that he will have to use his past life whenever he wants to get a bed for the night. Honor is a luxury for aristocrats, but it is a necessity for hall-porters. This is a secondary matter, but it is an example of the general proposition I offer. The proposition that an enormous amount of modern ingenuity is expended on finding defences for the indefensible conduct of the powerful. As I have said before, these defences generally exhibit themselves most emphatically in the form of appeals to physical science. And of all the forms of which science, or pseudoscience, has come to the rescue of the rich and stupid, there is none so singular as the singular invention of the theory of races. When a wealthy nation like the English discovers the perfectly patent fact that it is making a ludicrous mess of the government of the poorer nation like the Irish, it pauses for a moment in consternation, and then begins to talk about kilts and juteons. As far as I can understand the theory, the Irish are kilts and the English are juteons. Of course the Irish are not kilts any more than the English are juteons. I have not followed the ethnological discussion with much energy, but the last scientific conclusion which I read inclined on the whole to the summary that the English were mainly kilts and the Irish mainly juteons, but no man alive with even the glimmering of a real scientific sense would ever dream of applying the terms kilts or juteons to either of them in any positive or useful sense. That sort of thing must be left to people who talk about the Anglo-Saxon race, and extend the expression to America. How much of the blood of the Angles and Saxons, whoever they were, they remains in our mixed British, Roman, German, Dane, Norman, and Picard stock, is a matter only interesting to wild antiquaries. And how much of that diluted blood can possibly remain in that roaring whirlpool of America into which a cataract of Swedes, Jews, Germans, Irish men, and Italians is perpetually pouring, is a matter only interesting to lunatics. It would have been wiser for the English governing class to have called upon some other god, all other gods however weak and warring, at least boast of being constant, but science boasts of being in a flux forever, both of being unstable as water, and England and the English governing class never did call on this absurd deity of race until it seemed for an instant that they had no other god to call on. All the most genuine Englishmen in history would have yawned or laughed in your face if you had begun to talk about Anglo-Saxons. If you had attempted to substitute the ideal of race for the ideal of nationality, I really do not like to think what they would have said. I certainly should not like to have been the officer of Nelson who suddenly discovered his French blood on the eve of Travalgar. I should not like to have been the Norfolk or Suffolk gentlemen who had to expound to Admiral Blake by what demonstrable ties of genealogy. He was irrevocably bound to the Dutch. The truth of the whole matter is very simple. Nationality exists and has nothing in the world to do with race. Nationality is a thing like a church or a secret society. It is a product of the human soul and will. It is a spiritual product, and there are men in the modern world who would think anything to do, anything, and do anything rather than admit that anything could be a spiritual product. A nation however, as it confronts the modern world, is a purely spiritual product. Sometimes it has been born in independence like Scotland. Sometimes it has been born independence and subjugation like Ireland. Sometimes it is a large thing co-hearing out of many smaller things like Italy. Sometimes it is a small thing breaking away from larger things like Poland. But in each and every case its quality is purely spiritual or if you will purely psychological. It is a moment when five men become a sixth man. Everyone knows it who has ever founded a club. It is a moment when five places become one place. Everyone must know it who has ever had to repel an invasion. Mr Timothy Healy, the most serious intellect in the present House of Commons, summed up nationality to perfection when he simply called it something for which people will die. As he excellently said in reply to Lord Hugh Cecil, no one, not even the noble Lord, would die for the meridian of Greenwich. And that is the great tribute to its purely psychological character. It is idle to ask why Greenwich should not co-hear in this spiritual manner, while Athens or Shvara did. It is like asking why a man falls in love with one woman and not with another. Now of this general spiritual coherence, independent of the external circumstances or of race, or of any obvious physical thing, Ireland is the most remarkable example. Room concord nations, but Ireland has conquered races. The Norman has gone there and become Irish. The Scotchman has gone there and become Irish. The Spaniard has gone there and become Irish. Even the bitter soldier of Cromwell has gone there and become Irish. Ireland, which should not exist even politically, has been stronger than all the races that existed scientifically. The purest Germanic blood, the purest Norman blood, the purest blood of the passionate Scotch patriot, has not been so attractive as a nation without a flag. Ireland, unrecognised and oppressed, has easily absorbed races, as such trifles are easily absorbed. She has easily disposed of physical science, as such superstitions are easily disposed of. Nationality in its weakness has been stronger than ethnology in its strength. Five triumphant races have been absorbed, have been defeated by a defeated nationality. This being the true and strange glory of Ireland, it is impossible to hear without impatience of the attempt so constantly made among her modern sympathisers to talk about kilts and culticism. Who were the kilts? I defy anybody to say. Who are the Irish? I defy anyone to be indifferent or to pretend not to know. Mr W. B. Yates, the great Irish genius who has appeared in our time, shows his own admirable penetration in discarding altogether the argument from a Celtic race. But he does not wholly escape, and his followers hardly ever escape. The general objection to the Celtic argument, the tendency of that argument, is to represent the Irish or the kilts as a strange and separate race, as a tribe of eccentrics in the modern world immersed in dim legends and fruitless dreams. Its tendency is to exhibit the Irish as odd, because they see the fairies. Its trend is to make the Irish seem weird and wild, because they sing old songs and join in strange dances. But this is quite an error. Indeed it is the opposite of the truth. It is the English who are odd, because they do not see the fairies. It is the inhabitants of Kensington who are weird and wild, because they do not sing old songs and join in strange dances. In all this the Irish are not in the least strange and separate, or not in the least Celtic, as the word is commonly and popularly used. In all this the Irish are simply an ordinary, sensible nation, living the life of any other ordinary and sensible nation, which has not been either sodden with smoke or oppressed by moneylenders, or otherwise corrupted with wealth and science. There is nothing Celtic about having legends. It is merely human. The Germans, who are, I suppose, Geutonic, have hundreds of legends wherever it happens that the Germans are human. There is nothing Celtic about loving poetry. The English loved poetry more perhaps than any other people, before they came under the shadow of the chimney pot and the shadow of the chimney pot hat. It is not Ireland which is mad amistic. It is Manchester which is mad amistic, which is incredible, which is a wild exception among human things. Ireland has no need to play the silly game of the science of races. Ireland has no need to pretend to be a tribe of visionary support. In the matter of visions Ireland is more than a nation. It is a model nation. End of Chapter 13, Celts and Cultophiles by Gilbert K. Chesterton Christianity as the Absolute Contemporaneousness with Christ by Søren Kierkegaard from Preparation for a Christian Life, published in 1850, translated by Lee M. Hollander in 1923. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Christianity as the Absolute Contemporaneousness with Christ With its invitation to all that labour and our heavy laden, Christianity has entered the world, not as the clergy whimperingly and falsely introduce it as a shining paragon of mild grounds of consolation, but as the Absolute. God wills it so because of his love, but it is God who wills it, and he wills it as he wills it. He does not choose to have his nature changed by man and become a nice, that is to say humane, God, but he chooses to change the nature of man because of his love for them. Neither does he care to hear any human impertinence concerning the why, and wherefore of Christianity, and why it entered the world. It is and is to be the Absolute. Therefore all the relative explanations which may have been ventured as to its why, and wherefore, are entirely beside the point. Possibly these explanations were suggested by a kind of human compassion, which believes it necessary to haggle a bit. God very likely does not know the nature of man very well. His demands are a bit exorbitant, and therefore the clergy must haggle and beat him down a bit. Maybe the clergy hit upon that idea in order to stand well with men and reap some advantage from preaching the gospel. For if it's demands are reduced to the purely human, to the demands which arise in man's heart, why then men will of course think well of it, and of course also of the amiable preacher who knows how to make Christianity so mild. If the apostles had been able to do that, the world would have esteemed them highly also in their time. However, all this is the Absolute. But what is it good for then? Is it not a downright torment? Why, yes, you may say so. From the standpoint of the relative the Absolute is the greatest torment. In his dull, languid, sluggish moments, when man is dominated by his sensual nature, Christianity is an absurdity to him, since it is not commensurable with any definite wherefore. But of what use is it then? Answer? Peace. It is the Absolute. And thus it must be represented, that is, in a fashion which makes it appear as an absurdity to the sensual nature of man. And therefore it is, ah, so true and in still another sense, so true when the worldly wise man who is contemporaneous with Christ condemns him with the words, he is literally nothing. Quite true, for he is the Absolute. And being Absolute, Christianity has come into the world, not as a consolation in the human sense. In fact, quite on the contrary, it is ever reminding one how the Christian must suffer in order to become or to remain a Christian, sufferings which he may, if you please, escape by not electing to be a Christian. There is indeed an unbridgeable gulf fixed between God and man. It therefore became plain to those contemporary with Christ that the process of becoming a Christian, that is, being changed into the likeness of God, is in a human sense a greater torment and wretchedness and pain than the greatest conceivable human suffering, and moreover, a crime in the eyes of one's contemporaries. And thus will it always be, that is, if becoming a Christian in reality means becoming contemporaneous with Christ. And if becoming a Christian does not have that meaning, then all your chatter about becoming a Christian is a vanity, a delusion, and a snare, and likewise a blasphemy, and a sin against the Holy Ghost. For with regard to the Absolute there is but one time, namely the present. He who is not contemporaneous with the Absolute, for him it does not exist at all, and since Christ is the Absolute it is evident that in respect to him there is but one situation, contemporaneousness. The three, or seven, or fifteen, or seventeen, or eighteen hundred years which have elapsed, since his death, do not make the least difference one way or the other. They neither change him nor reveal either who he was. For his real nature is revealed only to faith. Christ, let me say so with yet most seriousness, is not an actor. Neither is he a merely historical personage. Since being the paradox, he is an extremely unhistorical personage. But precisely this is the difference between poetry and reality, contemporaneousness. The difference between poetry and history is no doubt this, that history is what has really happened, and poetry what is possible, the action which is supposed to have taken place, the life which has taken form in the poet's imagination. But that which really happened, the past, is not necessarily reality except in a certain sense. Namely, in contrast with poetry, there is still lacking in it the criterion of truth as inwardness, and of all religion there is still lacking the criterion the truth for you. That which is past is not a reality for me, but only my time is. That which you are contemporaneous with, that is reality for you. Thus every person has the choice to be contemporaneous with the age in which he is living, and also with one other period, with that of Christ's life here on earth. For Christ's life on earth, or sacred history, stands by itself, outside of history. History you may read and hear about as a matter of the past. Within its realm you can, if you so care, judge actions by their results. But in Christ's life here on earth there is nothing past. It will not wait for the assistance of any subsequent results in its own time. Eighteen hundred years ago neither does it now. Historic Christianity is sheer moonshine, and un-Christian model-headedness. For those true Christians who in every generation live a life contemporaneous with that of Christ have nothing whatsoever to do with Christians in the preceding generation, but all the more with their contemporary Christ. His life here on earth attends every generation, and every generation severally as sacred history. His life on earth is eternal contemporaneousness. For this reason all learned lecturing about Christianity, which has its haunt and hiding place in the assumption that Christianity is something which belongs to the past, and to the eighteen hundred years of history. This lecturing is the most un-Christian of heresies, as everyone would readily recognize if he but tried to imagine the generation contemporaneous with Christ as lecturing. Now we must ever keep in mind that every generation of the faithful is contemporaneous with him. If you cannot master yourself so as to make yourself contemporaneous with him and thus become a Christian, or if he cannot as your contemporary draw you to himself, then you will never be a Christian. You may, if you please, honor, praise, thank, and with all worldly goods reward him who deludes you into thinking that you are a Christian, nevertheless he deceives you. You may count yourself happy that you were not contemporaneous with one who dared to assert this, or you may be exasperated to madness by that torment, like that of the gadfly, of being contemporaneous with one who says this to your face. In the first case you are deceived, whereas in the second you have at least had a chance to hear the truth. If you cannot bear this contemporaneousness and do not bear to see this sight in reality, if you cannot prevail upon yourself to go out into the street, and behold, it is God in that loathsome procession, and if you cannot bear to think that this will be your condition also if you kneel and worship him, then you are not essentially a Christian. In that case what you will have to do is to admit the fact unconditionally to yourself, so that you may above all preserve humility and fear and trembling when contemplating what it means really to be a Christian. For that way you must proceed in order to learn and to practice how to flee to grace, so that you will not seek it in vain, but do not, for God's sake, go to anyone to be consoled. For, to be sure it is written, blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, which word the priests have on the tips of their tongues, curiously enough at times perhaps even to defend a worldly finery, which, if contemporary with Christ, would be rather incongruous, as if these words had not been said solely about those contemporaries of his who believed. If his exaltation had been evident to the eyes so that everyone without any trouble could have beheld it, why, then, it would be incorrect to say that Christ abased himself and assumed the guise of a servant, and it would be superfluous to warn against being offended in him. For why in the world should one take offense in an exalted one arrayed in glory, and how in the world will you explain it that Christ fared so ill, and that everybody failed to rush up admiringly to behold what was so plain? Ah, no, he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. Isaiah 53 verse 2. And there was to all appearances nothing rebarcable about him, who in lowly guise, and by performing signs and wonders, constantly presented the possibility of offense, who claimed to be God in lowly guise, which therefore expresses, in the first place, what God means by compassion, and by oneself needing to be humble and poor if one wishes to be compassionate, and in the second place what God means by the misery of mankind, which again in both instances is extremely different from what men mean by these things, and which every generation to the end of time has to learn over again from the beginning, and beginning in every respect at the same point where those who were contemporary with Christ had to start. That is, to practice those things as contemporaries of Christ. Human impatience and unruliness is, of course, of no avail whatsoever. No man will be able to tell you in how far you may succeed in becoming essentially a Christian, but neither will anxiety and fear and despair help one. Sincerity toward God is the first and the last condition. Sincerity in confessing to oneself just where one stands. Sincerity before God, in ever aiming at one's task. However slowly one may proceed, and if it be but pralling, one is at any rate in the right position, and is not misled and deceived by the trick of changing the nature of Christ. Who, instead of being God, is thereby made to represent that sentimental compassion which is man's own invention, by which men, instead of being lifted up to heaven by Christianity, are delayed on their way, and remain human, and no more. The moral. And what then does all this signify? It signifies that everyone in silent inwardness before God is to feel humility before what it means to be in the strictest sense of Christian. Is to confess sincerely before God what his position is, so that he may worthily partake of the grace which is offered to everyone who is not perfect. That is, to everyone. And it means no more than that. For the rest, let him attend to his work and find joy in it. Let him love his wife, rejoicing in her. Let him raise his children to be a joy to him. And let him love his fellow men, and enjoy life. God will surely let him know if more is demanded of him, and will also help him to accomplish it. For in the terrifying language of the law this sounds so terrible because it would seem as if man, by his own strength, were to hope fast to Christ. Whereas in the language of love, it is Christ that holds fast to him. As was said then, God will surely let him know if more is demanded of him. But what is demanded of everyone is that he humble himself in the presence of God under the demands of ideality. And therefore these demands should be heard, and heard again, and again, in all their absoluteness. To be a Christian has become a matter of no importance whatever. A memory, something one is anyway, or something one acquires more readily than a trick. In very truth it is high time that the demands of ideality were heard. But if being a Christian is something so terrifying and awesome, how in all the world can a man get it into his head to wish to accept Christianity? Very simply, and if you so wish, quite according to Luther, only the consciousness of sin, if I may express myself so, can force one, from the other side, grace exerts the attraction, can force one into this terror. And in the same instant the Christian ideal is transformed, and is sheer mildness, grace, love, and pity. Looking at it any other way, however, Christianity is, and shall ever be, the greatest absurdity, or else the greatest terror. Approaches had only through the consciousness of sin. And to desire to enter in any other way amounts to a high crime of less majesty against Christianity. But sin, or the fact that you and I individually are sinners, has at present either been done away with, or else the demands have been lowered in an unjustifiable manner, both in life, the domestic, the civic, as well as the ecclesiastic, and in science which has invented the new doctrine of sin in general. As an equivalent one has hit upon the device of helping men into Christianity, and keeping them in it, by the aid of a knowledge of world historic events, of that mild teaching, the exalted and profound spirit of it, about Christ as a friend, etc., etc. All of which Luther would have called stuff and nonsense, and which has really blasphemy, aiming as it does at fraternizing impudently with God and with Christ. Only the consciousness of being a sinner can inspire one with absolute respect for Christianity. And just because Christianity demands absolute respect it must and shall, to any other way of looking at it, seem absurdity or terror. Just because only thereby can the qualitative and absolute emphasis fall on the fact that it is only the consciousness of being a sinner which will procure entrance into it. And at the same time give the vision which being absolute respect enables one to see the mildness and love and compassion of Christianity. The poor in spirit who acknowledge themselves to be sinners, they do not need to know the least thing about the difficulties which appear when one is neither simple nor humble-minded. But when this humble consciousness of oneself, for example, the individuals being a sinner is lacking, I, even though one possessed all human ingenuity and wisdom and had all accomplishments possible to man, it will profit him little. Christianity will, in the same degree, rise terrifying before him and transform itself into absurdity or terror until he learns either to renounce it or else by the help of what is nothing less than scientific propagutics, apologetics, etc., that is, through the torments of a contrite heart, to enter into Christianity by the narrow path through the consciousness of sin, and of Christianity as the absolute contemporaneousness with Christ. By Soren Kierkegaard Paul Jennings, who was born a slave on President Madison's estate in Montpelier, Virginia, in 1799. His reputed father was Benjamin Jennings, an English trader there, his mother, a slave of Mr. Madison, and the granddaughter of an Indian. Paul was a body servant of Mr. Madison till his death, and afterwards of Daniel Webster, having purchased his freedom of Mrs. Madison. His character for sobriety, truth, and fidelity is unquestioned, and as he was a daily witness of interesting events, I have thought some of his recollections were worth writing down in almost his own language. On the 10th of January, 1865, a curious sale of books, coins, and autographs belonged to Edward M. Thomas, a colored man for many years messenger to the House of Representatives, was sold among other curious lots. An autograph of Daniel Webster containing these words, I have paid $120 for the freedom of Paul Jennings. He agrees to work out the same at $8 per month to be furnished with board, clothes, washing, etc. Reminiscences of Madison. About 10 years before Mr. Madison was president, he and Colonel Monroe were candidate rivals for the legislature. Mr. Madison was anxious to be elected and sent his chariot to pick up a Scotchman to the polls, who lived in the neighborhood. But when brought up and cried out, put me down for a Colonel Monroe, for he was the first man that took me by the hand in this country. Colonel Monroe was elected, and his friends joked to Madison pretty hard about his Scotch friend, and I have heard Mr. Madison and Colonel Monroe have a hardy laugh over the subject for years after. When Mr. Madison was chosen president, we came on and moved into the White House. The East Room was not finished and Pennsylvania Avenue was not paved, but was always in an awful condition. From either mud or dust, the city was a dreary place. Mr. Robert Smith was then Secretary of State, but as he and Mr. Madison could not agree, he was removed, and Colonel Monroe appointed to his place. Mr. Eustis was Secretary of War, rather a rough, blustering man. Mr. Gallatin, a tip-top man, was Secretary of Treasury, and Mr. Hamilton of South Carolina, a pleasant gentleman, who thought Mr. Madison could do nothing wrong, and who always concurred in everything he said, was Secretary of the Navy. Before the War of 1812 was declared, there were frequent consultations at the White House, as was the expediency of doing it. Colonel Monroe was always fierce for it, so were Messrs. Laundez, Giles, Poetras, and Pope. All Southerners, all his Secretaries were likewise in favor of it. Soon after the War was declared, Mr. Madison made his regular summer visit to his farm in Virginia. We had not been there long before an express reached us one evening, informing Mr. M of General Holt's surrender. He was astonished at the news, and started back to Washington the next morning. After the War had been going on for a couple of years, the people of Washington began to be alarmed for the safety of the city, as the British held Chesapeake Bay with a powerful fleet and army. Everything seemed to be left to General Armstrong, then Secretary of War, ridiculed the idea that there was any danger. But in August, 1814, the enemy had got so near, there could be no doubt of their intentions. Great alarm existed, and some feeble preparations for defense were made. Commodore Barney's flotilla was stripped of men who were placed in battery at Bledensburg, where they fought splendidly. A large part of his men were tall, strapping Negroes, mixed with white sailors and Marines. Mr. Madison reviewed them just before the fight, and asked Commodore Barney if his Negroes would not run on the approach of the British. No, sir, said Barney. They don't know how to run. They will die by their guns first. They fought till a large part of them were killed or wounded, and Barney himself wounded and taken prisoner. One or two of these Negroes are still living here. Well, on the 24th of August, sure enough, the British reached Bledensburg, and the fight began between 11 and 12. Even that very morning General Armstrong assured Mrs. Madison there was no danger. The President with General Armstrong, General Winder, Colonel Monroe, Richard Rush, Mr. Graham, Tench Ringgold, and Mr. Duvall rode out on horseback to Bledensburg to see how things looked. Mrs. Madison ordered dinner to be ready at three as usual. I set the table myself, and brought up the ale, cider, wine, and placed them in the coolers, as all the cabinet and several military gentlemen and strangers were expected. While waiting at just about three, as Suki the house servant was rolling out of the chamber window, James Smith, a free-colored man who had accompanied Mr. Madison to Bledensburg, galloped up to the house waving his hat and cried out, Clear out! Clear out! General Armstrong has ordered a retreat. All then was confusion. Mrs. Madison ordered her carriage and passing through the dining room caught up but silver she could crowd into her old-fashioned reticule and then jumped into the chariot with her servant girl Suki and Daniel Carroll, who took charge of them. Joe Bowlin drove them over to Georgetown Heights. The British were expected in a few minutes. Mr. Cutts, her brother-in-law, sent me to a stable on 14th Street for his carriage. People were running in every direction. John Freeman, the colored butler, drove off in his coachee with his wife, child, and servant. Also a feather bed lashed on behind the coachee, which was all the furniture saved, except for part of the silver and the portrait of Washington, of which I will tell you by and by. I will here mention that although the British were expected every minute, they did not arrive for some hours. In the meantime, a rabble taking advantage of the confusion ran all over the White House and stole lots of silver and whatever else they could lay their hands on. About sundown, I walked over to the Georgetown Ferry and found the President in all hands, the gentleman named before, who acted as sort of bodyguard for him, waiting for the boat. It soon returned and we all crossed over and passed up the road about a mile. They then left us servants to wander about. In a short time, several wagons from Bladensburg, drawn by Barney's artillery horses, passed up the road, having crossed the long bridge before it was set on fire. As we were cutting up some planks, a white wagoner ordered us away and told his boy Tommy to reach out his gun and he would shoot us. I told him he had better have used it at Bladensburg. Just then, we came up with Mr. Madison and his friends, who had been wandering about for some hours, consulting what to do. I walked on to a Methodist ministers, and in the evening, while he was at prayer, I heard a tremendous explosion and rushing out saw that public buildings, navy yard, rope walks, and etc. were on fire. Mrs. Madison slept that night in Mrs. Lugs, two or three miles over the river. After leaving that place, she called in at a home and walked upstairs. The lady of the house, learning who she was, became furious and went up the stairs and screamed out, Miss Madison, if that's you, come down and go out. Your husband has got mine out fighting and you shat stay in my house, so get out. Mrs. Madison complied and went to Mrs. Miners a few miles further, where she stayed a day or two and then returned to Washington, where she found Mr. Madison at her brother-in-law's, Richard Cutts on F Street. All the facts about Mrs. M I learned from her servant, Suki. We moved into the house of Colonel John V. Taylor, corner of 18th Street and New York Avenue, where we lived till the news of peace arrived. In two or three weeks after we returned, Congress met in an extra session at Wad Getz, old shell of a house on 7th Street, where the general post office now stands. It was three stories high and had been used for a theater, a tavern, an Irish boarding house, etc. But both houses of Congress managed to get along in it very well, notwithstanding it had to accommodate the patent office, city and general post office, committee rooms, and what was left with the Congressional Library at the same time. Things are very different now. The next summer, Mr. John Law, a large property owner about the Capitol, fearing it would not be rebuilt, got up a subscription and built a large brick building now called the Old Capitol, where the Sasej prisoners are confined and offered it to Congress for their use till the Capitol could be rebuilt. This cokes them back, though strong efforts were made to remove the seat of government north, but the Southern members kept it here. It has often been stated in print that when Mrs. Madison escaped from the White House, she cut out from the frame the large portrait of Washington. Now in one of the parlors here, and carried it off, this is totally false. She had no time for doing it, it would have required a ladder to get down. All she carried off was the silver in her vacuole, as the British were thought to be but a few squares off and were expected every moment. John Souset, a Frenchman, then doorkeeper and still living, and McGraw, the President's gardener, took it down and sent it off on a wagon with some large silver urns and such other valuables, as could be hastily got hold of. When the British did arrive, they ate up the very dinner and drank the wines and etc. that I had prepared for the President's party. When the news of peace arrived, they were crazy with joy. Ms. Sally Coles, a cousin of Mrs. Madison, and afterwards wife of Andrew Stevenson, since minister to England, came to the head of the stairs, crying out, peace, peace, and told John Freeman, the butler, to serve out wine liberally to the servants and others. I played the President's march on the violin, John Souset, and some others were drunk for two days, and such another joyful time has never been seen in Washington. Mr. Madison and all his cabinet were pleased as any, but did not show their joy in this manner. Mrs. Madison was a remarkably fine woman. She was beloved by everybody in Washington, white and colored. Whenever soldiers marched by during the war, she always sent out and invited them in to take wine and refreshments, giving them liberally of the best in the house. Madeiro wine was better in those days than now, and more freely drank. In the last days of her life, before Congress purchased her husband's papers, she was in a state of absolute poverty, and I think sometimes suffered for the necessaries of life. While I was a servant of Mr. Webster, he often sent me to her with a market basket full of provisions, and told me whenever I saw anything in the house that I thought she was in need of to take it to her. I often did this, and occasionally gave her small sums from my own pocket, though I had years before bought my freedom over. Mr. Madison, I think, was one of the best men that ever lived. I never saw him in a passion and never knew him to strike a slave, although he had over one hundred. Neither would he allow an overseer to do it. Whenever any slaves were reported to him as stealing or cutting up badly, he would send for them and admonish them privately, and never mortify them by doing it before others. They generally served him very faithfully. He was temperate in his habits. I don't think he drank a quart of brandy in this whole life. He ate light breakfasts and no suppers, but rather a hearty dinner, with which he took invariably but one glass of wine. When he had hard drinkers at his table, who had put away his choice Madeira pretty freely, in response to his numerous toasts, he would touch his glass to his lips or dilute it with water as they pushed him out the decanters. For the first fifteen years of his life, he drank no wine at all. After he retired from the presidency, he mused himself chiefly on his farm. At the election for members of the Virginia Legislature in 1829 or 30, just after General Jackson's ascension, he voted for James Barber, who had been a strong Adam's man. He also presided, I think, over the convention for amending the Constitution in 1832. After news of peace and of General Jackson's victory at New Orleans, which reached here about the same time, there were great illuminations. We moved into the seven buildings corner of 19th Street in Pennsylvania Avenue, and while there, General Jackson came on with his wife, to whom numerous dinner parties and levies were given. Mr. Madison also held levies every Wednesday evening, at which wine, punch, coffee, ice cream, etc. were liberally served, unlike the present custom. While Mr. Jefferson was president, he and Mr. Madison, then his secretary of state, were extremely intimate. In fact, two brothers could not have been more so. Mr. Jefferson always stopped overnight at Mr. Madison's, in going and returning from Washington. I have heard Mr. Madison say that when he went to school, he cut his own wood for exercise. He often did it also, when at his farm in Virginia. He was very neat, but never extravagant in his clothes. He always dressed wholly in black, coat, breeches, and silk stockings, with buckles in the shoes and breeches. He never had but one suit at a time. He had some poor relatives that he had to help, and wished to set an example of economy and a matter of dress. He was very fond of horses and an excellent judge of them, and no jockey ever cheated him. He never had less than seven horses in the Washington stables while president. He often told the story that one day, a riding home from the court with Tom Barber, father of Governor Barber, they met a colored man who took off his hat. Mr. M. raised his, to the surprise of old Tom, to whom Mr. M. replied, I never allow a Negro to excel me in politeness. Though a similar story is told of General Washington, I have often heard this, as above, from Mr. Madison's own lips. After Mr. Madison retired from the presidency in 1817, he invariably made a visit twice a year to Mr. Jefferson, sometimes stopping two or three weeks till Mr. Jefferson's death in 1826. I was always with Mr. Madison till he died, and shaved him every other day for 16 years. For six months before his death, he was unable to walk, and spent most of his time reclined on a couch. But his mind was bright, and with his numerous visitors, he talked with his much animation and strength of voice. As I ever heard him in his best days, I was present when he died. That morning, Suki brought him his breakfast as usual. He could not swallow. His niece, Mrs. Willis, said, What is the matter, Uncle James? Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear. His head instantly dropped, and he ceased breathing as quietly as the snuff of a candle goes out. He was about 84 years old, and was followed to the grave by an immense procession of white and colored people. The Paul bearers were Governor Barber, Philip P. Barber, Charles P. Howard, and Reuben Conway, the two last for neighboring farmers, and the her colored man's reminiscences of James Madison by Paul Jennings. The common milkweed, an excerpt from The Wayside Flowers of Summer, a study of the conspicuous herbaceous plants blooming upon our northern roadsides during the months of July and August by Harriet L. Keeler, 1917. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The milkweed stands by the roadside, sometimes a solitary stem, but often two to five, sustain and support one another. It is a plant of dignity rather than beauty. Each flowering stem bears many large, broadly oblong leaves that are of a gray screen, soft to the touch above, and velvety beneath, and near the summit are two to five limp clusters of drooping flowers. Each cluster borne in the axle of a leaf. The color of the clusters varies from youth to age, but this is never quite pure, always more or less muddied. One does not pick the milkweed for a most excellent reason. A striking peculiarity of the plant is the abundance of milk white sticky juice that pervades it and which pours out of the slightest wound, whether this be upon stem, flower, pedestal, or leaf vein. The authorities say that this is a kind of crude rubber. If the stem is carefully cut and the end dried with a blotter, the center is seen to have around it a dark green ring, and outside of this another pale green ring. The milk exudes from the dark green ring. This milk is not the sap of the plant. It is a special secretion and very accurate to the taste, which is a sufficient explanation why the milkweed is immune to attacks of grazing animals. The milkweed blossom is a peculiar construction and almost as highly organized as an orchid. The sepals and petals, each five in number, fold back as soon as the flower opens and press closely against the flower stock. Indeed, they take themselves out of the way so thoroughly that one almost forgets they are there. At any rate, it is the hoods and horns of the corona that attract attention. This corona consists of five hooded cups, nectaries, with an incurved horn in each. Within this circle of honey jars are the five stamens, difficult to separate because of their peculiar growth and arrangement. They grow from the base of the corona and the filaments connect with each other and surround the pistol, which consists of two carpals. Not only do they surround the pistol, the anther sacks have in looking scariest tips which unite and form a five-sided disc. The whole stamen system has been compared to a cup upside down, standing in the midst of the flower, the sides being the filaments of the stamens, and the top, the united tips of the anthers. The pollen of each anther is collected into a club-shaped mass, which is joined to a similar mass formed by the pollen of the next anther. Thus, the connected pollen mass that looks like two clubs joined belongs to two separate stamens, which stand side by side. This entire arrangement shows very clearly and can be most easily studied in a fading flower. The pistol has an ovary of two carpals with two short styles united at their summits by a five-lobed stigmatic disc. In order to get a complete comprehension of the flower, it is well to study it in bud, in full flower, and when about to fall. The pollination of the flower has been clearly pointed out by Mueller as follows, quote, between the hoods at the point where the edges of the stamen disc lie together is a narrow notch. There are five of these in each blossom. The bee, of course, seeks the nectar at the center of the flower, but this droops on a yielding pedestal so that she must continually struggle to keep her place, with the result that she slips and slides, and finally, perhaps, a foot slips into one of these notches. The bee draws up her leg in the effort to escape and her foot catches here. If she is strong enough, she pulls it out and pulls with it two tiny club-shaped masses which cling to her leg. After the fashion of bees, she goes to another milkweed blossom and deposits the pollen mass there. The entire arrangement is extremely intricate and not extremely successful, for many flowers fail of fertilization. Many insects, flies, bees, wasps, and butterflies come to the milkweed feast, but only bees seem able to pollinate the flower. If one compares the number of blossoms of a milkweed stem with the number of pods it bears, it becomes apparent that but very few indeed of the blossoms achieve fertilization, end quote. Anna B. Comstock, writing of milkweeds, says, quote, to open a milkweed pod is a joy and a delight. Take a pod still green, though full-grown, opened by pulling apart along the seam. This is not a seam with a raw edge, but is furnished with a perfect selvedge. Below the opening is a line of white velvet at one end and with their heads all in one direction are the beautiful pale rimmed brown overlapping seeds, and at the other end we see the exquisite milkweed silk with the skein so polished that no reel could give us a thread of such luster. If we remove the contents of the pod as a whole, we see that the velvety portion is really a seed support, and that it joins the pod at either end. Pull off a seed, and with it comes its own skein of floss shining like a pearl. If we hold the seed in the hand a moment, the skein unwinds itself into a fluff of shining threads. Each thread thrusts itself out and rests upon air, and here is a balloon, end quote, end of the common milkweed, an excerpt from The Wayside Flowers of Summer, a study of the conspicuous herbaceous plants blooming upon our northern roadsides during the months of July and August by Harriet L. Keeler. Read for LibriVox by Sue Anderson. Elementary Lessons in Cookery by Mary L. Wade. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. An outline of three lessons. Lesson eight, quick does and batters. Quick does and batters can be made light by the mixture of acid and alkali. When they are united, moistened and heated, they set free a gas called carbon dioxide. Soda is the alkali commonly used, but the gas cannot escape freely until this is mixed with an acid and liquid. The most common acid used is cream of tartar, which with soda and a little flour or cornstarch constitutes the best baking powders. Other acids used with soda are sour milk, molasses and sometimes vinegar or lemon juice. A mixture stiff enough to be needed or handled on a board is a dough. General directions for soft doughs. Carefully sift all dry ingredients together when baking powder is used so that it may be free from lumps and mixed with the flour. Always add liquid by degrees and cut it into the flour with a knife. Handle dough as little as possible. Flour must be sifted before measuring. Batters. Batters are thin mixtures of flour and liquid. They are made light by the mixture of air or gas and by quick cooking before the air has a chance to escape. Air at 70 degrees expands to about three times its volume when exposed to the temperature of a hot oven. As the mixture heats in cooking, the expansion of the air in the batter makes it light and porous. We entangle air in batters by beating the mixture thoroughly, by beating air into eggs and by the gas obtained by the use of an acid with an alkaline carbonate. There are several degrees of thickness in batters. Thin batters have about the consistency of thin cream. Thick batters are like thick cream. Still thicker batters are stiff enough to keep shape when poured from a spoon. To illustrate the different methods of making batters light, the following recipes are good. Breakfast puffs. One cup of milk, one cup of cold water, two cups of flour. Mix the milk and water together and pour slowly onto the flour. When all are mixed together, smooth, beat five minutes with the Dover egg beater. Bake in hissing hot buttered gem pans 35 minutes. Popovers. One half a cup of entire wheat flour, one half a cup of white flour, one cup of milk, one egg, salt. Mix the salt and the flour. Add a little of the milk and stir until smooth. Add the remainder of the milk and the egg beaten light. Eat well and bake in a hot oven one half an hour. Riddle cakes. One cup of gram meal, one cup of white flour, one teaspoon full of salt, one and one half cups of sour milk, four teaspoon fulls of melted butter, three fourths a teaspoon full of soda. Sift dry ingredients together. Add a little milk and mix thoroughly to press out the lumps. When all the milk is used and the batter is smooth, add the butter and beat it well. Pour by spoonfuls onto a slightly greased griddle smoking hot. When brown on one side turn, serve very hot. Teacakes. Two and one half cups of flour, one quarter a cup of sugar, three teaspoon fulls of baking powder, one teaspoon full of salt, sift it together. Beat one egg light, add to it one cup of milk and two tablespoon fulls of melted butter or drippings. Add this to the dry mixture and beat well. Fill greased muffin pans two thirds full and bake one half an hour. Gingerbread. One half a cup of molasses, one half a tablespoon full of ginger, one quarter a teaspoon full of salt, one half a teaspoon full of soda, one tablespoon full of dripping, one quarter a cup of boiling water, one cup of flour. Sift the ginger, salt and soda into the molasses, add the dripping melted in the hot water, then the flour and beat well. Lesson nine, cakes and pastry cake. General directions. One, see that the fire is in the right condition that no fresh coal be needed while the cake is baking. Two, have the pans buttered and dredged with flour or lined with buttered or oiled paper. Three, have all ingredients together ready to measure. Four, have measuring cups, spoons, egg beater, etc. in readiness. There are two kinds of cakes, butter cakes and sponge cakes. All cakes are a variety of these two. In making butter cakes, first cream the butter and add the sugar gradually. Beat the eggs very light and add then the flour in which the baking powder is sifted and milk alternately, unless special directions are given with a recipe. Always sift the flour before measuring. Have the butter where it will be softened, but not melted or heated. In making sponge cakes where no baking powder is used, beat first the yolks very light, then add the sugar, then the flour and the whites beaten very stiff. Do not beat after adding the flour and whites, only mix the ingredients. Where baking powder and a liquid are used, the egg may first be beaten very light, then add the sugar and liquid and it lasts the flour and baking powder, but do not beat. Bake cakes on the bottom of the oven. Thin cakes require a hotter oven than those baked in thick loaves. Butter cakes require a hotter oven than sponge cakes. Divide the time of baking into four parts. The first quarter it should rise and be full of bubbles, but not brown. The second quarter it should be spotted with brown and the bubbles burst. The third quarter it should be light brown all over. The last quarter it should be shrinking from the sides of the pan. Never slam the oven door while baking, but open and close the door softly. Pastry. One and one-half cups of flour, three tablespoons fulls of drippings, three tablespoons fulls of butter, cold water enough to moisten. Sift the salt with the flour. Rub the drippings into the flour with the tips of the fingers. Mix into a stiff dough with a little very cold water. Put the dough onto a floured board. Pat and roll into a long narrow strip. Spread on the butter and fold in three. Turn quarter round. Pat well out again, then fold into three again. Turn quarter round again, then roll out to one-fourth an inch thick and roll over and over like a jelly roll. Cut in two pieces, making one piece a little larger than the other. Do not handle any more than necessary. Have everything cold. Apple pie. Wipe and pair the apples. Cut into eights and remove the cores. Allow one tablespoon full of sugar to each apple unless very tart. Then allow a little more. Cover the plate with the crust rolled thin. Fill three-fourths full with the apples. Add the sugar and a little cinnamon or nutmeg. Put on more apples till the dish is filled. Wet the edges of the pastry with cold water. Cover loosely with the pastry and press firmly on the edge. Cut two or three small gashes on the top. Bake in a hot oven till the apples are soft. For rhubarb or berry pies, do not use a lower crust but make in a deep pie plate. Put a strip of pastry around the edge of the plate and proceed the same as for apple pies. Rhubarb pie. Wash, wipe and cut the stalks into one-half inch pieces. Allow one-third a cup of sugar to each cup of rhubarb. Custard pie. One pint of scalded milk, two eggs, speck of salt, speck of nutmeg. Beat the eggs. Add sugar, salt and nutmeg. Stir in the scalded milk. Line the plate with the pastry rolled thin having it extend over the edge of the plate about one-fourth an inch. Pinch this up around the edge and pour in the custard. Bake in a moderate oven about 30 minutes. Squash pie. One and one-half cup of squash, one cup of hot milk, one-half a cup of sugar, one-half a teaspoon full of salt, one-fourth a teaspoon full of cinnamon or nutmeg, one-eighth a teaspoon full of ginger, one egg. Use a dry mealy squash. Stew and sift it then add the other materials. Bake 30 minutes or till it puffs up all over. Lesson 10. A plain three-course dinner illustrating principles in the preceding lessons. Menu. Lamb broth with rice. Roast shoulder of lamb. Creamed onions, red sticks, mashed potatoes, lettuce and tomato salad, ice cream, sponge cake. Have the shoulder boned and rolled and make the broth from the bone. Ices. General directions for freezing. Chop the ice very fine. Use coarse salt. Use one-fourth salt and three-fourths ice. Put the can into the pail. Cover the can. Put in a layer of ice, then one of salt. Fill within an inch of the top of can. Pour in the mixture to be frozen. Fit on the crank and turn slowly. As the ice settles, add more ice and salt. When the crank begins to turn hard, wipe carefully the top of the can and remove the dasher. Put a cork in the top of the cover. Pour off the water from pail and fill the pail with ice and salt. Cover with a thick cloth and set away till ready to serve. Vanilla ice cream. One quart of milk, one pint of thick cream, or one quart of thin cream and one pint of milk. One cup of sugar, one tablespoon full of vanilla. Scald the milk and cream. Dissolve the sugar in it. When cool, add the flavoring and freeze. Chocolate ice cream. Melt two squares of chocolate with two tablespoons of hot water. Add two tablespoons of sugar. When smooth, add to the above recipe and freeze. End of Elementary Lessons in Cookery by Mary L. Wade Read by Betty B. Sermon No. 1043 by Charles Persian Glorious Predestination Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 24, 1872, at Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording is narrated by Layton Garner in May, 2018, Panama City, Panama. For whom he did for no, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, Romans 829. You will have noticed that in this chapter Paul has been expounding a very deep, inward spiritual experience. He has written concerning the spirit of bondage and the spirit of adoption, the infirmities of the flesh, and the helpings of the spirit, the waiting for the redemption of the body, and the groanings which cannot be uttered. It was most natural, therefore, that a deep spiritual experience should bring him into a clear perception of the doctrines of grace. For such an experience is a school in which alone those great truths are effectually learned. A lack of depth in the inner life accounts for most of the doctrinal error in the church. Sound conviction of sin, deep humiliation on account of it, and a sense of utter weakness, and unworthiness naturally conduct the mind to the belief of the doctrines of grace. While shallowness in these matters leaves a man content with a superficial creed. Those teachings which are commonly called Calvinistic doctrines are usually most beloved and best received by those who have had much conflict of soul, and so have learned the strength of corruption and the necessity of grace. Note also that Paul in this chapter has been treating of the sufferings of this present time, and though by faith he speaks of them as very inconsiderable compared with the glory to be revealed, yet we know that they were not inconsiderable in his case. He was a man of many trials. He went from one tribulation to another, for Christ's sake. He swam through many seas of affliction to serve the church. I do not wonder, therefore, that in his epistles he often discourses upon the doctrines of fore knowledge and predestination and eternal love, because these are a rich cordial for a fainting spirit. To be cheered among many things which otherwise would depress him, the believer may be take himself to the matchless mysteries of the grace of God, which are wines on the leaves well refined. Sustained by distinguishing grace, a man learns to glory in tribulations also, and strengthened by electing love, he defies the hatred of the world and the trials of life. Suffering is the college of orthodoxy. Many a Jonah, who now rejects the doctrines of the grace of God, only needs to be put into the whale's belly, and he will cry out with the soundest, free-grace man, salvation is of the Lord. Prosperous professors, who do no business amid David's billows and waterspouts, may set small store by the blessed anchorage of eternal purpose and everlasting love, but those who are tossed with tempest, and not comforted, are of another mind. Let these few sentences suffice for a preface. I utter them not in the spirit of controversy, but the reverse. Our text begins by the expression, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. And many sentences have been given to this word, foreknow, though in this case one commends itself beyond every other. Some have thought that it simply means that God predestined men whose future history he foreknew. The text before us cannot be so understood, because the Lord foreknows the history of every man, an angel, and devil. So far as mere prescience goes, every man is foreknown. And yet no one will assert that all men are predestined to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus, but it is further asserted that the Lord foreknew who would exercise repentance, who would believe in Jesus, and who would persevere in a consistent life to the end. This is readily granted, but a reader must wear very powerful magnifying spectacles before he will be able to discover that sense in the text. Upon looking carefully at my Bible again, I do not perceive such a statement. Where are those words which you have added, whom he did foreknow, to repent, to believe, and to persevere in grace? I do not find them either in the English version or in the Greek original. If I could so read them, the passage would certainly be very easy, and would very greatly alter my doctrinal views. But as I do not find those words there, begging your pardon, I do not believe in them. However wise and advisable a human interpolation may be, it has no authority with us. We bow to holy scripture, but not to glosses, which theologians may choose to put upon it. No hint is given in the text of foreseen virtue, any more than of foreseen sin. And therefore we are driven to find another meaning for the word. We find that the word know is frequently used in scripture. Not only for foreknowledge, but also for favor, love, and complacency. Our Lord Jesus Christ will say, in the judgment concerning certain persons, I never knew you. Yet in a sense he knew them, for he knows every man, he knows the wicked as well as the righteous. But there the meaning is, I never knew you in such a respect as to feel any complacency in you or any favor towards you. See also John 10 14 through 15 and 2 Timothy 2 19. In Romans 11-2 we read, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew, where the sense evidently has the idea of forelove, and it is so to be understood here. Those whom the Lord looked upon with favor as he foresaw them, he has predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. They are, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Ephesians, predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will. I am anxious not to tarry overcontroverted matters, but to reach the subject of my sermon this morning. Here we have in the text conformity to Christ, spoken of as the aim of predestination. We have secondly predestination as the impelling force by which this conformity is to be achieved, and we have, thirdly, the firstborn himself set before us as the ultimate end of the predestinations and of the conformity, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. First, mark then, with care, that our conformity to Christ is the sacred object of predestination, and to predestination itself I will not now pry. The deeper things shall be left with God. I think it was Bishop Hall who once said, I thank God I am not of his councils, but I am of his court. If I cannot understand, I will not question, for I am not his counselor, but I will adore and obey, for I am his servant. Now today, seeing we are here taught the object of his predestination, it will be our business to labor after it, to bless God that he has set such an object before him, and pray that we may be partakers in it. Here stands the case. Man was originally made in the image of God, but by sin he has defaced that image, and now we who are born into this world are fashioned, not in the heavenly image of God, but in the earthly image of the fallen Adam. We are born, says the apostle, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, the image of the earthly. The Lord in boundless grace has resolved that a company whom no man can number, called here many brethren, shall be restored to his image, in the particular form in which his eternal Son displays it. To this end Jesus Christ came into the world, and bore our image, that we, through his grace, might bear his image. He became a partaker of our infirmities and sicknesses, that we might be partakers of the divine nature, in all its excellence and purity. Now, therefore, the one thing to which the Lord is working us through his spirit, both by providence and by grace, is the likeness of the Lord from heaven. He is ever more transforming the chosen, removing the defilement of sin and molding them after the perfect model of his Son, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who is the first born among the many brethren. Now, observe that this conformity to Christ lies in several things. First, we are to be conformed to him as our nature. What was the nature of Christ, then, as divine? We must not pry into it, but we know that he was, verily, of the nature of God. Begotten, not made, says the Athanasian Creed, and it says truly, too, being of one substance with the Father. Now, we also, though we at our conversion are new creatures, are also said to be begotten again, into a lively hope. To be begotten is something more than to be made. This is a more personal work of God. And that which is begotten is in closer affinity to himself than that which is only created. As Christ was, as the only begotten of the Father, far above mere creatures, so also to be begotten of God, in our case, means far more than even the first and perfect creation could imply. As to his humanity, our blessed Lord, when he came into this world, underwent a birth which was a remarkable type of our second birth. He was born into this world in a very humble place, amidst the oxen, and in the manger, but yet he lacked not the songs of angels, and the adoration of the heavenly hosts. Even so, we also were born of the Spirit, without human observation. Men of this world saw no glory whatsoever in our regeneration, for it was not performed by mystic rites, or with saccharodotal pomp. The Spirit of God found us, in our lowest state, and quickened us without outward display. Yet at that self-same moment, where human eyes saw nothing, Seraphic eyes beheld marvels of grace, and angels in heaven rejoiced over one sinner that repented, singing once again, glory to God in the highest. When the Lord was born, a few-choice spirits welcomed his birth. An Anna and a Simon were ready to take the newborn child into their arms and bless God for him. And even so there were some that hailed our new birth, with much thanksgiving. Friends and well-wishers who had watched for our salvation were glad when they beheld in us the true heavenly life. And gladly did they take us up into the arms of Christian nurture. Perhaps also there was one who had prevailed in birth till Christ was formed in us the hope of glory, and how happy was that Spirit to see us born unto God. How did our spiritual parent ponder each gracious word which we uttered, and thank God for the good signs of grace which could be found in our conversation? Then, too, a worse than Herod sought to kill us. Satan was eager that the newborn child of grace should be put to death, and therefore sent forth fierce temptations to slay us. But the Lord found a shelter for our infant spiritual life, and preserved the young child alive. In us the living and incorruptible seed abode and grew. As many of you as have been born again have been conformed to the image of Christ in the matter of his birth, and you are now partakers of his nature. It is not possible for us to be divine, yet it is written that we are made partakers of the divine nature. We cannot be precisely as God is, yet as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, whatever that image may be. The new birth as surely stamps us with the image of Christ, as our first birth impressed us with a resemblance to the fathers of our flesh. Our first birth gave us humanity. Our second birth allies us with deity. As we were conceived in sin at the first, and shape and in iniquity, even so in regeneration our new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us. He that sanctifyeth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Furthermore this conformity to Christ lies in relationship as well as in nature. Our Lord is the Son of the Highest, the Son of God, and truly beloved. Now are we the sons of God, and at death not appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Jehovah has declared that he will be a father unto us, and that we shall be his sons and daughters. As surely as Jesus is a son, so surely are we. For the same spirit bears witness to both, as it is written, and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. When Jesus came into the world as God's son, he was not left without attesting proofs. His first public appearance, when he came to the waters of baptism, was signaled by a voice out of the excellent glory which said, This is my beloved son, and the descending spirit like a dove rested upon him. So it is also with us. The voice of God in the Word has testified to us our Heavenly Father's love, and the Holy Spirit has borne witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. When first we dared to come forward and say we are on the Lord's side, some of us had sacred tokens of sonship which have never been forgotten by us, and oftentimes since then we have received renewed seals of our adoption from the great Father of our spirits. He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself, so that he can with his brethren say plainly, We know that we have passed from death unto life. God has given us full assurance and infallible testimony, and in all this we rejoice. We have believed in Jesus, and it is written, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his name. Our Lord was declared to be the Son of God by the actions which he performed, both towards God and towards man. As a son he served his Father. You could see the nature of God in him, in his deep sympathy with God, and in his exact imitation of God. Whatever God would have done under the circumstances that Jesus did, you perceive it once by his deeds that his nature was Godlike, his works bore witness of him. It was ever more most clear that he acted towards God as a son towards a Father. Now in proportion as God's determination has been carried out in us, we also act to God as children towards a loving Father, and whereas the children of darkness speak of their own, and like their Father, who is a liar, speak the lie, and like their Father, who is a murderer, act out wrath and bitterness. Even so the children of God speak the truth, for God is true, and they are full of love, for God is love, and their life is light, for their God is light. They feel that they must act under the circumstances in which they are placed, as they would suppose Jesus would have acted, who is the Son of the Ever-Blessed Father. Moreover, Christ brought miracles of mercy towards men, which proved him to be the Son of God. It is true we can work no miracles, yet can we do works which mark God's children? We cannot break the bread and multiply it. We can, however, generously distribute what we have, and thus, in feeding the hungry, we shall prove ourselves children of our Father who is in heaven. We cannot heal the diseased with our touch. Still we can care for the sick. And so, in love towards the suffering, we can prove ourselves to be children of the tender and ever-pitiful God. But our Lord has told us that greater works than his own shall we do, because he has gone to his Father, and these greater works we do. We can work spiritual miracles. Today can we not stand that the grave of the dead sinner, and say Lazarus come forth, and has not God often made the dead to rise at our word by the power of his spirit? Today also we can preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, casting it about as it were our garment, and he that touches the hymn thereof, shall he not also be made whole today, even as when Jesus was among men? This day, if we do not break fish and barley loaves, we bring you better food. This day, if we cannot give to men open to eyes and unstopped ears, yet in the teaching of the gospel of Jesus, by the power of the spirit, the mental eye is cleansed, and the soul's ear also is purged, so that in every child of God, in proportion as he labors in the power of the spirit for Christ, there works what he does bear witness of him, that he is the Son of God. His zeal in doing them proves that he has the spirit of a child of God, and the result of those works proves that God works in him, as he will never do in any but his own children. This in relationship, as well as in nature, we are conformed to the image of Christ. Thirdly, we are to be conformed to the image of Christ in our experience. This is the part of the subject from which our craven spirit often shrinks, but if we were wise it would not be so. What was the experience of Christ in this world? For that ours will be. We may sum it up as referring to God, to men, to the devil, and to all evil. His experience with regard to God, what was that? Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Though without sin he was not without suffering. The firstborn of the divine family was more sorely chastened than any other of the household. He was smitten of God and afflicted till, as the climax of all, he cried, O the bitterness of that cry, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was the Father bruising the firstborn son, and if you and I, brethren, are to be conformed to the image of the firstborn, though we may expect from God much fatherly love, we may also reckon that it will show itself in parental discipline. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. But if you be true sons, like to the firstborn, the rod will make you smart, and sometimes you will have to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? For whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth, and scourgeeth, every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chasening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chaseneth not? If we are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, the Lord has predestinated us to much tribulation, and through it shall we inherit the kingdom. Next, survey our dear covenant head, and his experience in relation to men. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. He was despised, and rejected of men. He said, reproach hath broken mine heart, and I am full of heaviness. Now, brethren, in the very proportion in which we are conformed to the image of Christ, we shall have to go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For the disciple, if he be a true disciple, is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. If they have called the master of the house, Belzebub, much more will they call them of his household by some yet more uproberious title, if they can invent it. The saints of God must not expect crowns, where Christ found a cross. They must not reckon to ride in triumph, through the streets, which saw the Savior hurried to a malfactor's death. We must suffer with him, if we would be glorified with him. Fellowship in his sufferings is needful to communion with his glory. Then consider our Lord's experience with regard to the Prince of the Power of the Air. Satan was no friend to Christ. But finding him in the desert, he came to him with this accursed, if—if thou be the Son of God. With that attack upon his sonship, the fiend commenced the battle. If thou be the Son of God. You know how thrice he assailed him with those temptations, which are most likely to be attractive to poor humanity. But Jesus overcame them all. The arch enemy, the old dragon, was always nibbling at the heel of our great Michael, who has forever crushed his head. We are predestined to be conformed to Christ in that respect. The serpent's subtlety and cruelty will assail us also. A tempted head involves tempted members. Satan desires to have us, and to sift us as wheat. He attacked the shepherd, and he will never cease to worry the sheep. In as much as we are of the seed of the woman, there must be enmity between us and the seed of the serpent. And as to all evil, our Lord's entire life was one perpetual battle. He was fighting evil in the high places, and evil in the low. Evil among the priests, and evil among the people. Evil in a religious dress, in Phariseeism. And evil in the dress of philosophy, among the Sadducees. He fought it everywhere. He was the foe of everything that was wrong. False, selfish, unholy, or impure. And you and I must be conformed to Christ in this respect. We are to be holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. You are of God, little children, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one. We are chosen out of the world to be peculiar people, adversaries to all evil, never sheathing our sword until we enter into our rest. We are to be like him then, in nature, in relation, in experience. Fourthly, we are to be conformed to Christ Jesus as to character. Time and ability alike fail us to speak of this. I only pray that God's spirit may make our lives too speak of it. He was consecrated to God, so are we to be. The zeal of God's house ate him up. So should it consume us also. He went about his father's business. So should we be ever occupied. Towards man he was all love. It becomes us to be the same. He was gentle and kind and tender. As he was, so are we to be in this world. He did not break the bruise, read. Nor quench the smoking flax. Neither should we. Yet was he stern in the denunciation of all evil. So should we be. Purity, holiness, unselfishness. All the virtues should glow in us as they shone in him. Ah, and bless be God, they will too, by the work of the spirit. Our text speaks not only of what we ought to be, but of what we shall be, for we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son. My brethren, what a glorious model. Behold it, wonder at it, and bless God for it. You are not to be conformed to the mightiest of the apostles. You will one day be purer than were Paul or John while here below. You are not to be conformed to the sublimest of the prophets. You shall be like the prophet's master. You are not to be content with your own conception of what is beautiful and lovely. But God's perfect conception incarnated in his own Son is that to what you will certainly be brought by the predestination of God. Just a sentence upon another point. We are to be conformed to the image of his Son. Fifthly, as to our inheritance, for he is heir of all things. And what less are we heirs of, since all things are ours. He is heir of this world. Thou madeest him to have dominion over all the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea. And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. We see not yet all things put under man. Yet we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor. And in the person of Christ Jesus this day we, the men who are made in his image, have dominion over all things. Being all made kings and priests unto God, and in Christ Jesus ordained to reign with him forever and ever. If children then heirs, says the apostle, therefore whatever Christ has we have, and though we may be very poor and unknown, yet whatever belongs to Christ belongs to us. The good of all the land of Egypt is yours, said Joseph to his brethren. And Jesus said this to all the people, all are yours, for ye are Christ's and Christ is God's. I must close this point. Time goes much too swiftly this morning when discounting upon the delightful theme by observing that we are to be conformed to Christ in his glory. We will think of our bodies, for that is a point surrounded with consolation, since he shall change our vile body and make it like unto his glorious body. We are like Adam now in weakness and pain, and will shall soon be like him in death, returning to the ground once we were taken, but we shall rise again to a better life, and then shall we wear in glory and in corruption the image of the second to Adam, the Lord from heaven. Conceive the beauties of the risen Redeemer. Let your faith and your imagination work together to portray the unutterable glories of the manual, God with us, as he sits at the right hand of the Father. Such and so bright shall our glorious be in the day of the redemption of the body. We shall behold his glory, we shall be with him where he is, and we shall be ourselves glorious in his glory. Is he exalted? You also shall be lifted up. Is he king? You shall not be uncrowned. Is he a victor? You also shall bear a poem. Is he full of joy in rejoicing? So also shall your soul be filled to the brim with delights. Where he is every saint shall be ere long, thus much upon the sacred end of predestination. Now observe that predestination is the impelling force towards this conformity. The truth divides itself thus. It is the will of God that conforms this to Christ's image rather than our own will. It is our will now, but it was God's will when it was not our will, and it only became according to our will when we were converted, because God's grace has made us willing in the day of its power. We cannot be made like Christ unwillingly. A consenting will is essential to the likeness of Christ. Unwilling obedience would be disobedience. Naturally we never will towards good without God, but God works in us to will and to do. God treats us as men responsible and intelligent, and not as stone or metal. He made us free agents, and he treats us as such. We are willing now to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Yay, we are more than willing. We are anxious and desirous for it. But still the main and first mode of power lay not in our will, but in his will, and today the immutable force, which is best to be dependent upon, does not lie in our fickle, feeble will, but in the unchanging and omnipotent will of God. The force that is conforming us to Christ is the will of God in predestination. And so too it is rather God's work than our work. We are to work with God in the matter of our becoming like to Christ. We are not to be passive like wood or marble. We are to be prayerful, watchful, fervent, diligent, obedient, earnest, and believing, but still the work is God's. Sanctification is the Lord's work in us. Thou hast wrought all our works in us, from the first, and now, and to the last. He that hath wrought us to the same self thing is God, who also hath given to us the earnest of the Spirit. There is no holiness in us of our own creating, no good thing in us of our own fashioning. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be praised. Still true as it is that we are free agents, yet the Lord is the potter, and we are the clay upon the wheel. And it is his work, and not ours, that makes us like to Christ. If there be a touch of our finger anywhere upon the vessel, it marrs, and does not beautify. It is only where God's hand has been that the vessel begins to assume the form of the model. Therefore, beloved, all the glory must be unto God, and not to us. It is a great honor to any man to be like Christ. God does not intend that his children should have no honor, for he puts honor upon his own people. But still the true glory lies with him, since he has made us and not we ourselves. Cannot we say this morning with thankful hearts, by the grace of God I am what I am. And do we not feel that we shall lay all our honors, whatever they may be, at his dear feet, who hath, according to his abundant mercy, predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son. Now I must come to the third point, upon which with brevity. It sweetly appears that the ultimate end of all this is Christ, predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, that he God is always driving at something for him, his well-beloved Son. He aims at his own glory, in the glory of his dear Son. If he blesses us, the text of the Last Sabbath is true. Not for your sakes do I this. It is for the sake of a higher, a better one than we are. It is that he might be the firstborn. Now, if I understand the passage before us, it means this. First, God predestinates us to be like Jesus, that his dear Son might be the first of a new order of beings, elevated above all other creatures, and nearer to God than any other existences. He was Lord of Angels, Seraphim, and Cherubim, obeyed his behests. But the Son desired to be at the head of a race of beings, more nearly allied to him than any existing spirits. There was no kinship between the Lord Jesus and Angels, for too much of the Angels had the Father set at any time. Thou art my Son. They are by nature's servants, and he is the Son. This is a wide distinction. The Eternal Son desired association with beings, who should be sons as he was, towards whom he could stand in a close relationship, as being like to them in nature and sonship. And the Father therefore ordained that a seed whom he had chosen should be conformed to the image of the Son, that his Son might head up and be chief among an order of beings, more nearly akin to God than any other. The Serpent said to Eve, God doth know that ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. That lie had in it a residuum of truth. For, by sovereign grace, we have become such. There were no obedient creatures in the world of that sort, knowing good and evil in the days of Eden's glory. The Angels in heaven had known good, and only good, and preserved by grace had not fallen. The Evil Spirit had fallen, and he knew evil, but he had forgotten good, and was incapable of ever choosing it again. He is now forever banished from hope of restoration. But here are we who know both good and evil. We understand the one and the other too. And now there is begotten in us a nature which loves holiness and cannot sin. Because it is born of God, we are left free agents. Yea, we are freer than ever we were. And yet in this life, and in the life to come, our path is like that of the just, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Angels know not evil, have never had to battle with evil known and felt within. They have not tried the paths of sinful pleasure, and through grace been turned from them, so with full purpose of heart to cleave to holiness forever. Jesus now heads a race, assailed, but victorious. Sortly tempted, but enabled to overcome. Joyfully and cheerfully, forever shall it be our delight to do the Father's will. Forever with Christ at our head, we shall be the nearest to the eternal throne, the most attached of servants. Because also sons, the most firmly adhesive to good, because we once knew the bitterness of evil. Even as Christ had to drink the cup of suffering for sin, we also have sipped of it. We have known horror caused by yield, and therefore for the future shall be throughout eternity a nobler race, freer to serve, and serving God after a nobler fashion than any other creatures in the universe. I take it that it is the meaning of the text, that the Lord would have Christ to be the first of a nobler order of beings. But secondly, the object of grace is that there may be some in heaven whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. Note the expression, many brethren, not that he might be the firstborn among many, but among many brethren, who should be like unto himself. Our blessed Lord delights in fellowship, such as the greatness of his heart, that he would not be alone in his glory, but would have associates in his happiness. Now I speak with bated breath. God can do all things, but I see not any way by which he could give his only begotten son beings that should be akin to himself, except through the processes which we discover in the economy of grace. Here are beings that no evil and no also good, being placed under infinite obligations by bonds of love and gratitude, to choose for ever the good, beings with a nature so renewed that they always must be holy beings. And these beings can commune with the incarnate God upon suffering as angels cannot, upon the penalty of guilt as angels cannot, upon heart throes, conflicts, reproaches, and brokenness of spirit as angels cannot. And to them the Lord Jesus can reveal the glory of holiness, the bliss of conquering sin, and the sweetness of benevolence, as only they can comprehend them. Renewed men are made fit companions for the Son of God. He shall feast all the more joyously, because they shall eat bread with him in his kingdom. He shall be joyful when he declares the Lord's name unto his brethren. He shall joy in their joy, and be glad in their gladness. No doubt, however, the text means that these will forever love and honor the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The children look up to the firstborn. In the East the firstborn is the Lord and King of the household. We love Jesus now, and esteem him our head and chief. How will we, when we get to heaven, love and adore him as our dear elder brother, with whom we shall be on terms of the closest familiarity and most reverent obedience? How joyfully we will serve him. How rapturously adore him. Shall we not want our voices to be made more loud until they become as thunders, or like many waters, or surely we would not be able to praise him as we would? If there be work to do for him in future ages, we will be the first to volunteer for service. If there be battles to be fought in times to come with other rebellious races. If there be wanton servants to fly over the vast realms of the infinite to carry Jehovah's messages, who shall fly so swiftly as we shall? When once we feel that in his courts we shall not dwell as mere servants, but as members of the royal family, partakers of the divine nature, nearest to God himself, but bliss to note that he who is very God, a very God, and sits on the eternal throne, is also of the same nature with ourselves, our kinsmen, who is not ashamed even amidst the royalties of glory, to call us brethren. O brethren, what honors are ours? What a heritage lies before us. Who among us would change with Gabriel? We need have no need to envy angels. For what are they but mere ministering spirits, servants in our father's halls? But we are sons, and sons of no inferior order, no sons of a secondary rank, like Abraham's children born of Keturah, or like the son of the bond woman. But we are the Isaacs of God, born according to the promise, heirs of all that he hath, a seed beloved of the Lord forever. O what joy ought to fill our spirits this morning, as the prospect which this text reveals, and which predestination secures? Perhaps our fullest thought upon the text is this. God was so well pleased with his son, and saw such beauties in him, that he determined to multiply his image. My beloved said he, thou shalt be the model by which I shall fashion my noblest creatures. I will, for thy sake, make men able to converse with thee, and bound to thee by bands of love, who shall be next akin to myself, and in all things like to thee. Behold from heaven's mint, golden pieces of inestimable value are sent forth, and each one bears the image and superscription of the son of God. The face of Jesus is more lovely to God than all the worlds. His eyes are brighter than the stars. His voice is sweeter than bliss. Therefore doth the Father will to have his son's beauty reflected in ten thousand mirrors than saints may like to him, and his praise is chanted by myriads of voices, of those who love him, because his blood has saved them. The Father knew how happy his son would be to associate his chosen with himself. For of old his delights were with the sons of men. As a shepherd loves his sheep, as a king loves his subjects, so Jesus loves to have his people around him. But deeper yet is the mystery, as it is not good for man to be alone. And as for this cause, doth a man leave his father and mother, and is joined unto his wife, and they twain or one flesh. Even so it is with Christ and his church. He was made like to her for her salvation, and now she is made like to him for his honor. In what way could the Father put greater honor on his son than by forming a race like to himself, who shall be the many brethren among whom he is the well-beloved firstborn? Now, brethren, this word I say, and send you home. Keep your model before you. You see what you are to come to. Therefore set Christ before your eyes always. You see what you are predestinated to be. Aim at it. Aim at it every day. God worketh, and he worketh in you not to sleep, but to will and to do according to his own good pleasure. Brethren, grieve at your failures. When you see anything in yourselves that is not Christ-like, mourn over it, for it must be put away. It is so much dross that must be consumed. You cannot keep it. For God's predestination will not let you retain anything about you, which is not according to the image of Christ. Cry mightily to the Holy Spirit to continue his sanctifying work upon you. Beseech him not to be grieved and vexed, and therefore in any measure to stay his hand. Cry, Lord melt me, pour me out like wax, and set thy seal upon me, until the image of Christ be clearly there. Above all, commune much with Christ. Communion is the fountain of conformity. Live with Christ, and you will soon grow like Christ. They said of Achilles, the greatest of the Grecian heroes, that when he was a child they fed him upon lion's morrow, and so made him brave. Feed upon Christ, and be Christ-like. They record on the other hand of bloodthirsty Nero, that he became so because he was suckled by a woman of a ferocious barbaric nature. If we drink in our nutriment from the world, we shall be worldly, but if we live upon Christ and dwell in him, our conformity with him shall be readily accomplished, and we shall be recognized as brethren of that blessed family of which Jesus Christ is the firstborn. How I wish everyone here had a share in the text, I mourn that some have not, for he that believeth not on the Son hath not life, and therefore cannot have conformity to a living Christ. God grant to you all to be believers in Christ, now and forever. Amen and amen. End of Charles Spurgeon's Sermon, Number 104-3, 1872, Glorious Predestination Help for the Hard Times, by George Washington Carver. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Help for the Hard Times. Important to Farmers. Take note. I have asked Professor George W. Carver to make a careful study of the condition and needs the farmers in Macon and surrounding counties, and to publish something that would be of immediate and practical help to the farmers in this section. It will pay, in my opinion, for every man interested in farming, whether a large farmer or a small farmer, to read carefully the suggestions which Professor Carver has made. If these suggestions are followed, even in a site degree, I believe that the result will be that prosperity and happiness will come to many farmers who now feel depressed and discouraged. If the farmers will follow the advice given by Professor Carver, instead of the present low price of cotton proving a drawback, it is going to prove a permanent blessing to all the people. If additional copies are the circularly needed, they can be secured in small or large quantities by applying to this institution, Booker T. Washington, Principal Tuskegee Institute, Alabama. Important things to be done in February, March, and April. Now is the most important time of all to lay a good foundation for a prosperous year in the matter of food supplies and providing for a little ready cash at all times. This can be done by having a good garden, a few fowl well cared for, a pig or two, and always being on the alert to take advantage of many little opportunities to make a few dimes as they present themselves to you from time to time during the year. February. The first essential is a good garden. One cannot really estimate its value in dollars and cents. A well kept garden should furnish directly and indirectly one half of the food supply of the family, besides going to a long way towards keeping the family healthy. With a little intelligent effort, every person can have a good garden. Begin now by hauling out leaves, rich earth from the woods, and muck from the rich swamps. Spread this on the ground at least six inches deep. Spade or turn under with a plow to a depth of eight or nine inches. Spread on another layer of rich earth leaves, etc. In the same way, except to every two loads of leaves, muck, etc. Mix one of barnyard manure, plow again just deep enough to cover the manure up well, rake or harrow thoroughly, and begin planting the following. Irish white potatoes, English peas, onion sets and shallots, so early jersey wakefield, extra selected Charleston, improved early drumhead, and early flat dutch cabbage seed, parsnips, beets, spinach, carrots, lettuce, radish, mustard, parsley, eggplants, pepper, and tomato seed should be planted in boxes in the house, hotbeds, cold frames, or protected places. About the middle of the month, plant a patch of early corn, march. Make another sowing of English peas, cabbage, cauliflower, more onion sets, shallots, etc. may be planted. Also plant collards, corn, cow peas, peanuts, okra, squash, kushas, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, cantaloupes, parsnips, carrots, radish, lettuce, parsley, stack and lima beans, sweet potatoes should be petted. April. Replant all the seeds of last month that made a poor stand. Set cabbage, eggplants, and tomatoes in open ground. Have tin cans, boxes, or paper hoods ready to turn over the tomatoes and eggplants, in case a late frost should make its appearance. In this way, early tomatoes can be had. Cotton seeds may be planted. Ways to make money. First, of the many ways to keep a little cash coming in with a considerable degree of regularity, the following are the most important. Twelve good hens and one rooster well cared for will not only furnish the family with plenty of eggs, but enough for setting and a surplus to sell. Chickens, both old and young, can be sold at all times, and chickens hatched now always bring a fancy price just as soon as they reach the broiling or frying stage. The Rhode Island Reds and Barb Plymouth Rocks have been the most satisfactory all-purpose fellow with us. Select either these breeds you wish and give them good attention, and you will be surprised at the income they will bring you. Second, there is always a demand for early cabbage, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, and eggplants. All of these are easily grown in hotbeds, cold frames, or in boxes and sunny windows. Third, lettuce, parsley, radishes, and onions are easily grown in the same way as above described, and at this time here will sell readily. Fourth, light wood from fat pine trees and stumps sell readily, as well as good dry wood. In many places there are large quantities of old dead trees going to waste that would make excellent wood and kindling, which would sell without any trouble if cut and brought to the market. A few hours a week spent in this way will bring surprising returns. Fifth, homemade shingles, fence palings, baskets, horse collars, quilts, rugs, shuck mats, backs, hatchet, hoe, and four candles can be sold as made well in a reasonable price asked. The same is true with many styles of homemade laced and fancy work. Sixth, nearly everyone prefers home canned and home preserved fruits and vegetables to those put up in a commercial way, and anyone doing this artistically and cheaply would command a patronage. This includes lye hominy. Seventh, have one or two hogs. They can be raised beginning in April with pigs to maturity with practically no cash outlay by giving them all the slops and refuse vegetables from the garden, plus the weeds, etc. that grow in such abundance everywhere. Homemade sausage is a luxury, and all one has to do is to let people know they have it to sell. The demand here is never satisfied. Much the same is true of souse, hogs had cheese, scrapple, pigs feet and ears, chitterlings, together with a fine lot of choice lard and cracklings. I have said nothing for the value of a good cow, taking for granted that she is out of your reach just now, but make your plants a secure one at the earliest possible date. If given the proper care, she will furnish at least half the family's living. These are only a few of the many ways of becoming thrifty and self-supporting. Begin at once to put some of them into effect. Others, I am sure, will suggest themselves to you. Signed GW Carver, Director, Department of Research and Experiment Station, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. End of Help for the Hard Times by George Washington Carver.