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r d • * I. » 8 •4 P ' s » e • e . ' ; September 4. Lesson Xâ€" Evil» of In temperance â€" Isaiah 5: 11-16, 22, 23. Golden Text â€" Do not drink wine nor strong drink.â€" Leviticus 10: 9. ANALYSIS. I. INTEMPERATE LIVING, VS. 11, 12. II. A TERRIBLE "THEREFORE," VS. 13-1(). III. DRUNKENNESS AGAIN, VS. 22, 23. Introduction â€" "To the prophet was granted," says Professor T. H. Robinson, "the insight born of direct communion with God to see with start- ling clarity that a given type of eon- di ct, still more a given attitude of Eoul, carried within itself the .â- 'ecds or prosperity or disaster." Isaiah of Jerusakm had plenty of opportunity to exercise this prophetic insight. H? lived in one of the most critical per- iods of Jsrael's histor" The Assyrian Empire was swiftly subjugating one after another of the smaller nations and bringing them under her ruthless sway. The little kingdom of Judad â- was in imminent danger from that troublous quarter. Yet her leaders were stupidly blind to the danger. In place of giving real leadership, they were living intemperately. They wera guilty of grave social abuses- -greed, luxury, drunkenness ^nd the exploita- tion of the weak .\nd defenceles Isaiah saw clearly that such corrupt conduct on the part of the nation's kading classes, especially in view of the critical international situation, would involve the whole country in ruin. Against the great men of Jeru- salem he delivered a series >f power- ful "woes," vs. 8-24. I. INTEMPERATE LIVING, VS. 11, 12. Life has become easy for the fin- ancial and business magnates of Jeru- salem. They h;.ve held mortgages "vn the farms of the small independent - asants; now they have foreclosed these and have grown rich, v. 3. Wealth breeds indolei ce ; indolence be- gets careless and dissolute living. With elemental courage Isaiah con- fronts these men with their shameful lives. Seven times ( s. 8-24) he pro- nounces on them the weird and ter- rible word, "woe." That "woe" on the lips of a prophet is so ominous a warning that if these profligate gran- dees have any conscience they will surely listen and tremble. With biting satire (of which he is a master) Isaiah attacks them. They are early risers, these great men of Jerusalem â€" but not to go about their work, not for any useful or noble pursuit! They rise early indeed, but ^nly to seek their cups. Even among Israel's heathon ntighbors who knew nothing of Israel's righteous God, such conduct would be a scandal. But so low have these privileged men of Jerusalem sunk, that their drinking bouts last all day. In the cool of the night they are still sitting there, heating them- selves with wine, v. 11. In the even- ing their drunken carousals become, if anything, more abandoned. Great banquets are spread; orchestral music adds to their sensuous frivolity. The deep peace of Jerusale I's night, the slumbers of her hard-workir.g laborers are disturbed with the loud buffoonery and the voluptuous music of her drunken leaders. Wine has befuddled their senses; it has dulled their fac- ulty of spiritual perception. For is not God even now at work among the nations, ceaselessly weaving the pat- torn of the web out of the processes of history? But bleary eyes can never read "the signs of the times"; nor can besotted minds trace eternal pur- pose. II. A TERRIBLE "THEREFORE," VS. 13-lC. Terrible is the word "therefore" on the lips of a prophet. Invariably it introduces coming doom. There is no call for repentance here. Isaiah real- izes that the leading men of Jeru- salem have gone too far in trifling with God's righteousness. Retribu- tion is already at the door. Their des- tiny in exile is seaKd. Further, the leadership of the wine-bibbers is bringing ruin on the whole nation. V/ith its strength impaired throusrh difoolute living, it will fail an ea.5y prey to -A.syria. It w'U Ipe driven into e.\ile. As invariably happens in his- tory, the innocent tuffer with the guilty. The oppressed masses must share in the retribution overtaking their corrupt leaders â€" thi "honor- able" gentlemen of Jerusalem. And note â€" the sin of the latter is to be punished in kind. They have been gluttonous; now in exile they will face starvation. They have been wine- bibbers; now they will feel a madden- ing thirst. V. 13. Nor is this all. Death will take its fcr.rfu! toll. Sheol, the shadowy abode of the dead â€" per s nifiod by Isaiah as a greedy monster â€" opens its hungry maw. and down goes ihe once glorious Jerusalem â€" c'.-sses and masses together! v. 14. Such ruin of a nation is neither acci- dental nor meaningkss. It is nothinu; less than the vindication and triumph 0- the righteousness of God. In his grim judgment of the nation, God's holiness is made manifest, v. 16. .\t the same time the presumption of man, who feels no seise of his crea- tureliness before the holy majesty ot God, but rather rises up in his pride to live without God or to defy hinn, is shown in all its futility, v. 15. III. DRUNKENNESS AGAIN, VS. 22, 23. With withering words Isaiah .-e- turns to his attack on the drunkards. Heroes they are â€" but only in consum- ii g wine! Men of mightâ€"but only in mixing a bowl of drink! Only of such exploits can they boast, v. 22. Th-j prophet tracks the drunkp.rds from their cups to the courts of ^ istice. Tiiere they sit as judges. Oh, the irony of it! The gu:ity they J'smiss for a bribe; the innocent they con- demn. They have lost even tha .sense of the distinction between right ana wrong. Truth in Fiction For Trans-Africa Service ly Andre Maurois, in Petite Gironde, 3ordeaux Is this a true sto.y? Are your ch >racters taken from life? These are a few of the questions that the reader usually asks the novelist. It so happens that the relationship b« tween action and reality is far too complic.nted to be settled v/ith a few superficial question."!, even if it were possible to give an exhaustive reply to them. An event that has actually occur- red may be the starting point for a long meditation, the outcome of which will be action. In "War and Peace" Tjlstoi described the love stories of his youthful sister-in-law when he created the character of Natasha. Merimee was inspired to write "Car- men" by a story told to him by Ma- dame De Montijo. But neither a real occurrence nor a t>tory told casually provides the necessary stuff for a novel. They can be told or d.-:scribed in a few words. W'.iat is really im- I.>ortant is the physiological process of transformation of this initial cell into a complete and perfect literary creation. The fact, the occurrence of real life, actt on a novelist's imngination like the fecundj.ting shock on the 0-' .m. The novolist is ceaselessly tor- mented by the demon of the untold. He harbors in himself a painful past. â-  an unsatisfied craving, or unsolved problems. He rtrives to find some f< rm of expression for the thoughts which haunt him, and very often oven an ordinary occurrence is just that noving force which will release these hidden thoughts. This explains why there is always a lin;c, a relationship, between the sucess'vf books of a great novelist. Again and again Stendhal turns to the conflict between success and happiness. Tourgueney clings to the theme of the weak male, prey to a strong and ardent female. Andre Gide sees in everything the conflict between puritan conscience and unfettered sensuality. Once the fecundation has taken place the inner development of a novel is just as mysterious a process as that of the child in the mother's -. 1 mb. Most of this work is uncon- scious. Often it happens that at a certain point the writer suddenly stops because he cannot find the right form for an episode. He lays the novel aside and takes it up maybe nany months later. In the meantime his thoughts have taken a definite shape, if not on paper, then in his mind. What we call "atmosphere" is â- mostly the fruit of kng and patient observation of the surroundings into which the novelist intends to place his hero. Slowly but systematically definite characters, types of flesh and blood, ewerge from the depth of the writer's mind. The process is often reversed, that is, a type across whom the writer comes in real life strikes his imagination. The action must ti.en be built up aro"..nd this type, although it seldom happens that a character of fiction is copied after one model only. Several "real" types are usually necessary for the writer to be able to create his imaginary hero. The mistake the public only too often makes is that it picks out a type or an episode from a book and very definitely associates it with a type or an occurrence of real life, for- getting that there are many replicas of the same picture in nature, and The .\talanta, lirat ot a tleet of eight machines constructed for service en r),5uO-mile route of the Imperial Airways trans-African service. The four air-cooled engines develop 1,400 horsepower and 150 miles per hour. / that the best drama is that of all ages. However, this illusion is benefi- cial for the writer because it helps to enhance the veracity of fiction. Convinced of the historic truth of a minor detail, the reader lavishes upon a book more attention and emotion than he would otherwise do. There comes a moment when tne character has taken such definite shape in the author's mind that it becomes independent. It then speaks for itself, and the novelist can io nothing but li.sten. So Dickens must have listened to Mr. Pickwick and Balzac to Pe Grandet. They could not have spoken differently, even if they had found themselves in different situations. They are characters mod- eled after innumerable types of real life. But they are given life by the breath of the writer's soul, which i? always the same. There is, of course, something that must be taken from reality. That is the atmosphere, or rather the back- ground of the historical novel. A novelist cannot and should not invent history. That is why the so -called political novel has always been con- sidered the most difficult form of fic- tion. Perhaps the only writers that have more or less satisfactorily solved this problem were Disraeli and Bar- res. They took their characters from history, from reality. They placed a real Wellington or Peel next to un imaginary Coningsby. This trick helped to gain the confidence of the reader. To our mind fiction should never bo in open conflict with reality, but neither should it attempt to create an illusion of reality. A picture never steps out of its framr , and, similarly, a character of fiction sl.ould not speak and behave like a human DeiTig in flesh and blood. Reality stimulates action, v.hile fiction invites meditation and contemplation. Thorofore, if l:he reader asks whether i story is true, the writer should reply; "No, not quite, for, if it were a true story, it would be poor fiction." «. Old Houses Have Secrets Old houses, like old gentlefolk, are shy, For shabbiness and quaint, old-fas- hioned ways Mark them the relics of those other days Before men worshipped speed's ef- ficiency. They seem to sit apart ,to draw aside From life's Insistent urge. In mus- ings deep They dream; and tender rendezvous they keep With all the treasured memories they hide. A footstep â€" whispers â€" scent ot rare perfumes â€" An old love song â€" faiut rustle ot a gown â€" A sobbing cry â€" gay laughter drifting down â€" A sobbing cry, like old hearts, are loath to tell Dear secrets they have hidden long and well. â€" Pearle R. Casey. A strong will is firmness. A strong wont is obstinacy. Why We Take Soup Before Fish A man some time ago, to win a wager, ate a dinner backwar.is, begin- ning with the coffee and liqueurs and ending with the hors d'oeuvre. Was the meal a freak one, or is there any justification tor assuming that the order of the courses sanc- tioned by tradition is more than a con- vention? Fashions in food change. In the eyes o' the heroes of Homer, for ex ample, fish had little favor, and 3,000 years ago a starving king swallowed a fish, under protest, for lack of any- thing better suited to his kingly appe- tite. Today fish is a staple article ot diet. Psychic influence Is there any reason, therefore, why soup should be regarded as an excel- lent first course for dinner or porridge for breakfast? The answer is yes. The active work of digestion begins In the stomach, and the digestive medium is the gastric juice, the production of which is governed by two factors, one psychic and the other chemical. The psychic factor operates first. A well-liked dish makes the mouth water and initiates the production of gastric juice before any food enters the stom- ach. Hence it is true to jay that, as a general rule, we best digest the foods we best like. This psychic influence is soon suc- ceeded by a chemical one, and it has been definitely proved that meat ex- tracts and soups â€" the traditional first courses of the largest meal ot the day â€" effectively stimulate the secretion ot gastric juice. To ijegiu dinner with a small portion ot soup is an insurance policy which guarantees that the stom- ach will be in the fittest possible con- dition for dealing with the later courses. There are three bulky types ot foods: Carbohydrates, such as bread; fats, such as butter, and proteins, such as lean meat. Meals fall into one or two classes. They either consist In the main of carbohydrates and fats such as tea, or of Cr bohydrates and proteins, such as dinner. The nature of a food determines the speed with which it is digested. Car- bohydrates are digested more quickly than proteins, and proteins more quickly than fats. To mix fats with carbohydrates delays the digestion of the carbohydrates and ives to such a meal a satisfying quality which It would not otherwise possess. Rules of Digestion Agaiu, carbohydrates are not stimu lating foods in the sense ot encourag- ing the production ot gastric juice. It is, therefore, desirable that the protein portions of a meal (fish or meat) should be in the lower or active part of the stomach while the secretion ot g.-istric juice is at a maximum. For these and other reasons, porridge as the first course at breakfast, the add! tion ot bread, potatoes, and other vegetables to the meat course at din ner, the taking of meat before pudding and dessert at the end of a meal are all sound rules which help to ensure a good digestion. Fishes Do Not Drink When you say a man "drinks like a fish," you really imply that he does not drink. For fishes swallow no water for refreshment. When you see a fish opening and closing Its mouth it is merely breathing. Water is taken In, but it does not pass down the throat to the body. Wliile the fish breathes, Its gullet Is tightly constricted at the back by means of muscles encircling the throat, and the water flows away over the gills. While water does not pass the closed gullet, solid food can force an en- trance. When it presses against the back ot the gullet, the muscles relax enough to allow it to force a way down into the stomacli. Fishe'» :eo.Te fresh â- ! 's much as humans do. â€" <} â€" Yankees in Argentina .. The Review of the River Plate, an excellent weekly published in Argen- tina, in a recent number, gives some Interesting details ot American in- fluence in .-Vrgentine history. We find that during the British invasions, when General Beresford with his handful of British soldiers was be- sieged in the fort of Buenos .Vires, an American, William White, was the first to intercede in an endeavor to arrange terms for the i)aciflc with- drawal ot the British garrison. Wil- liam Wheelwright, another Ameri- can, descendant ot one ot the May- flower emigrants, was a great bene. factor to this country,. In addition to founding the Pacific Steam Navi- gation Company. Jlr. Wheelwright developed the Central Argentine Railway in Argentina, as well as coal mines in the neighboring Re public of Chile, 'and had proposed the cutting of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama long before De Lesseps and the Suez Canal were heard of. This latter anecdote shows clearly how everyone speaking English in those days was consider- ed an "Ingles" or "Ingles loco," ac- cording to his ordinary or extraordin- ary capabilities, and after a time Mr. Wheelwright found it difilcult to es- tablish his identity as an American. Thus, on the occasion of the Civil War in his native country, when he placed £1000 at the disposal of the .\merican Minister in Buenos Aires, for the care of the wounded, he wrote, "Though generally considered an Englishman. I cannot forget that I was born in Massachusetts." ^ KNOWLEDGE Knowledge is said to be power. ICuowledge is power in the same sense that wood is fuel. Wood on fire is fuel. Knowledge on fire is power. There is no more power in knowledge than there is in the stones or stars which you know, unless there be a spirit and life in the knowledge, which gives it its energy. In proportion as men have this spirit- ual power do they become strong In this world. â€" -Alexander McKenzie. Scout Tales About Fires Every man who goes camping or hunting must, ot course, be able to cook his own food; otherwise ha would be very helpless. Every Wolf Cub, before be can be- come a Scout, must also be able to cook. The best way to begin is to go and help your mother or cook In the kitchen, and see how to peel pot»- toes and to prepare the meat, and to make dough; how to fry, roast, bake and stew. Then, when you know all that, you can go and practice it for your- selves out in the open, making your own fires and using a billy or camp cooking things. To make a cooking-flre out in tho open you want to get a pile 'if red hot embers. This you do by mak- ing your Are with lots of stout sticks, or with logs which, when half-burnt, breaks up into good embers. Very dry cow-dung makes excel- lent fuel; so do old boots it dry. It Is generally best to make your fire in a trough between two rowa of bricks or stones or logs. It burna more easily and keeps hotter than an open fire; and if the sides are firmly made they do to rest your kettle and cooking-pots upon. Then you should make your own pot-hooks and hangers for holding your cooking-pot over the fire or for roasting your food. Many an old camper carries his pot-hook about with him on his belt. Another good way ot making a Are Is to use an old iron bucket as a flreplace. with lots of holes punch- ed in its sides. We used them in South Africa when travelling over the veldt, where you went for days over open plains without seeing a tree or a bush with which to make a fire; so we carried our fire with us, slung under the wagon and we fed it now and then with dry grass-roots, cow- dung, old ox-skins, old boots, or any- thing we could And as we went along. Grass and Forest Fires .\nother advantage of a bucket flra is that it loaves very little mess when you have done cooking, and also it gives loss risk of setting flra to the grass round about your camp; and this in summer-time is a great danger. Old Scouts are very careful about burning bit by bit or cutting away the grass round the spot where they are gv.is to make their camp-flre; so that when it is alight it wiU not spread to the surrounding veldt Then, when they have finished cooking, old campers are very careful indeed to pull their fire to pieces and to tread it all down, and to pour water over fllio smiouldering ashes 30 that there is not a spark left which might later start a new fire. Grass and forest fires are never started by true Scouts, but by silly, careless Tendereet. WORSE THAN EVER Miss Thortlebury had been In- vited to be a bridesmaid at a smart wedding, and spent much time plan- ning her new frock. At last It was ready; and when she tried it on she asked Mrs. Jones, from next door, to come and see it. "It's sweet, my dear!" said Mrs. Jones, admiringly. "And certainly you look a lady, whatever you are." Miss Thortlebury's face told het' she had made a mistake, so she cor- rected herself hurriedly. "No. I mean you are a lady, what- ever you look! " . .> GONE! The employer called his staff to- gether and informed them that ow- ing to taxation and bad trade there would have to be a further reduc- tion in wages. "This will mean that wo shall have to tighten our belts," ho said, and then, more sharply, to a junior clerk who did not appear to be lis- tening, "Do you understand what I'm saying. Smith?' "Sir," replied Smith, "It's no good tellng me that. My belt broke at the Budget before last." The influence of Charity Is essen- tial to the peace and prosperity ot human life. â€" Adams. MUTT AND JEFF- By BUD FISHER And With a Voice on the Air. LU IS AND CACNN AS AN) CMPTV A0o^RlO^^ iM T>\e MOTT MuTTSw^ we Hwe BetNi J VCARS. JUST THlf^k; l^^^^ft?' tT 'YOUtx'nk ABOOT iT,