Year: 1879

| VI
talking of humanity as if it were a mass of
disembodied spirits temporarily misplaced
and with no duty but that of getting back
to heaven as safely and speedily as posi-
Bile. The fact seems to be overlooked that,
according to the only record that the clergy
| consider inspired, men and women are what
they are and where they are according to
sequently, every one is charged with grave
responsibilities. By strange inconsist-
ency many of the preachers who talk as if
the sole purpose of being on earth is to get
to heaven by the surest route are the most
earnest in condemnation of the men who
used to secude themselves from the world
and its cares SO as to give themselves wholly
! to thoughts of Paradise and to deeds
which should be wholly devotional.
What effect, for good, do such teachers
imagine their efforts produce in the
pews? merchant goes to church after
week of earnest competition with his fell
lows he has suffered by scoundrel or
two, perhaps, and certainly has been
tempted to make some one else suffer by
means that are neither Christian nor moral.
The hard working day laborer, as he kneels,
cannot Danish thoughts of the contractor
who has left him unpaid, or the tempta-
tions he has had to force his overtasked
frame with drink, or, maybe, the removal
of the strain Of the week has reduced him
to that dangerous dependency from which
nearly every hard worker of any sort is
likely to suffer on Sunday. The mother,
with several boys and girls of whom she is
proud, is wondering how best to direct the
superabundant energies of each, and the af-
fairs of everyday life are what she must have
in mind as she ponders. All Of these rep
resentative people, and thousands of others
who might be instanced, are compelled to
pay almost unremitting attention to earthly
affairs, and they need stimulus and direc-
ton for their courage, honesty, patience,
love, endurance and all other moral quail
ties. That this stimulus is to be found in
religion no one will deny; for even sceptics
admit the moral force of Christianity in
material affairs; that the reflex influence of
spiritual life of the individual will certainly
not be denied by their clergy. 1t is not for
us to inform the pulpit of the many refer
ences of Scripture to the fact that men have
something besides their future ease and Sc
curity to live for, but it may not be imper-
tinent to suggest that since the world began
the men, in the pulpit or out of it, who
have most raised humanity are those who
have come down to it and concerned them
selves with its practical life and needs, and
that the most prominent and successful
worker in this direction was the being
whom all the churches recognize as Master.
Arctic Advices and Theories OF the
Ice.


| We print to-day an interview of repre-
| sentative Of the San Francisco Call with
several captains commanding the whalers
that have arrived from the hunting grounds
in the Behring Sea. The fears of Cap
tain Campbell that the Jeanette has
been caught in the pack ice that fills
the space between Herald Island and
Wrangel Land will attract attention.
The action Of the equatorial river, called
the Kuro-siwo or Japan current, that
passes from the North Pacific through
Behring Strait to the Arctic Ocean is in
every way similar to that of the Gulf Stream
which flows along our Atlantic coast.
During the months of July, August, Sep
tember and October the former stream brings
up the warm waters from tho equatorial
zone in the Pacific; but, unlike the Gulf
Stream, it spreads over large area before
approaching the Aleutian Islands. This
causes a large percentage of it's heat to be
given off before it passes through the
strait, so that it is late in the season before
the effects of the warm water and air are
felt by the ice formed in the north during the
long winter. The Kuro-siwo has also coun-
ter, or polar current, like the Gulf Stream,
and when the ice is broken up or loosened
by the warm current it is held as il were in
an eddy formed by the contact of those two
opposite forces great deal and it is
probable the most Of the loosened ice is
carried in a northeastery direction by the
equatorial current but, as is noticed by
all Arctic mariners, large percentage is
brought down toward the Siberian coast by
the action of the polar stream. Just as
the icebergs are drfted toward the New
foundland coast the pack ice is brought
down along the eastern shore of Wrangel
Land. There is one difference, however,
between what may be called the Atlantic
and Pacific ice foes. The former is made
up of great bergs, some of which are many
hundred feet In height. The latter Is,
with but few exceptions, field ice
that has been packed by the action
of the sea and wind. Therefore the
Pacific ice will not be acted upon so strongly
by the polar current as that of the Atlantic,
because the volume under the water will be
considerably less. This would cause the