Zion's Young People. put into their hands some such books as these. Many persons consider these subjects too delicate for the ears of their children and so they refrain from speaking about them, while at the same time their sons are listening to low, vile, filthy, degrading yarns in secret places. If we do not teach our children laws of purity other people will teach them laws of impurity, and God alone knows what the end will be. To our own knowledge we know of one bad boy who corrupted the boys of a whole community. He grew from bad to worse, and is at present in the penitentiary serving a term of fiftten years for an unmentionable crime. We are living in the last days. The world is full of sin and iniquity of every kind. Temptations innumerable lie in the path of our young people. Shall we as parents and teachers sit idly by and watch them fall over the precipice into the depths of immorality? If we do God will not hold us guiltless. Parents, look to your boys! Teach them the laws of purity; place in their hands books which will tel them how to build and preserve their manhood. God requires this at our hands. Let us see that we A FEW days ago we received tiary serving a from Elder John T. Miller two books which we have read with a great deal of interest. One of these volumes is "A Plain Talk to Boys on Things a Boy Should Know," by N. N. Riddell, Ph. D.; the other is "Child Culture," by the same author, with a supplement on "Educational Problems," by Prof. Miller. These books are pearls of great price, and it would pay parents to get them even if they had to sell some of their necessaries in order to do so. They contain the gospel of moral purity and are sure to do much in saving our young people from becoming addicted to practices which have sapped the life blood of nations. Thousands of precious lives have been sacrificed on the altar of selfpollution that might have been saved had parents taught their children to know themselves, or do it. "A Plain Talk to Boys," 10c; "Child Culture," 50c. On sale at this office. The Church Publications Are on sale at the office of Zion's Young People. Orders filled the same day as received. We can get you any book you want, at publisher's price. Money must accompany all orders. minds of her children, while the other mother held honor very lightly and one's sacred words as a farce. Oh, mothers all, teach your children words of truth, that they may honor and respect you and grow up to call you blessed. Mrs. Phipps was So overcome that the tears came to her eyes. "Heaven bless my dear child; she must have been sorely tempted!" Calling Louisa to her she kissed her and praised her until she felt more than paid for the loss of the boat ride. Her dear father also spoke words of loving approval, calling her his dear, brave little girl; that he was proud of her to think that she had the strength to obey her dear mother, to withstand temptation so well. Louisa scampered off to play, as happy as a lark, with that true happiness that only the consciousness of having done right can give. DONT'S FOR GIRLS. Don't borrow money or jewels from your chums; the first you may find difficult to pay back, the last, if lost, must be replaced, Don't rob your old father of comforts in order to be stylish. The wage-earner should be given his rights before fashion has her privileges. Don't go out with men unless you are well acquainted with their habits, station in life, even financial position in a degree, for you may be taking from another needed expenditure. Don't touch any sort of beverage that has alcohol in it in a public cafe. Scandal lurks in cafes habitually. Don't stare. Girls do too often, then unjustly resent return stares from strangers. Don't swing your arms while walking. The habit is common; it looks coarse. Girls think it looks athletic. Don't permit men to use your name familiarly. Be self-respecting in order to be respected. Don't boast. If you are one of God's favorites it will be manifested; boasting is vulgar. Don't go into debt; it is remorseless; it robs one of sleep; it turns day into night, and it harasses brain and body. Beter a few things paid for than many with debts. Don't be moody. Fresh air, wholesome thoughts and cheery company are to be had by any girl, and the blues and moodiness flee at the sight of them. TWENTY-FIRST PAPER, WM. H. BURTON. WITH all his faults of mind and WITH heart Saul was beloved of his people. After the fatal battle of Gilboa, which was his undoing, the Philistine leaders, following the cruel practice of a barbarous age, exposed the headless body of the fallen king, with those of his sons, nailed to the wall of the city Beth-shan, the fighting men of Jabesh-Gilead made a forced march by night and rescued the pitiful remains of his fallen greatness. They took the bodies back to their own place and cremated them, burying the ashes under a tree with honors befitting a king. But though Saul was no more, and David had been anointed to be king over Israel, it was not without a long and bitter civil war that he was to come into the undisputed possession of the throne. There was yet one of the sons of Saul (Isbosheth) living, and taking advantage of the idea of heriditary right to the throne, which even thus early seems to have taken firm root in the Hebrew mind, Abner, an ambitious military leader, set up a claim to the kingship for this surviving son, with so much success that the greater part of Israel accepted him, even a large part of the tribe of Judah rejecting the Lord's anointed. To the student of human nature and history the story of King David and his times is a veritable mine of interest. It is undoubtedly true that man in his countless aspects is the most interesting object in this boundless universe, and nowhere in the whole range of the written word is so much said between the lines as within the covers of the Bible, and even there few portions are more striking in this respect than the story of David. "Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker." How is it possible to sum up the net result of the contest between David and Ishbosheth in fewer words than is thus done in the third chapter of the second book of Samuel? Abner, that ancient king-maker, finding his power waning in every encounter, sought to make his peace with David, even if it were necessary to sacrifice his old master's son. David finding himself growing stronger, boldly claimed Michal, who had been the wife of his youth, and whom Saul had taken away and given to another. Isbosheth took her from her hus band and sent her by Abner to David. What a pathetic picture is here shown. So long as her husband was permitted he followed her weeping, only turning back when ordered to do so by Abner. There was no asking the consent of the woman herself in that age, and for centuries later woman had not the disposition of herself. She was the creature of man, subject to his unchallenged disposal. Only in our age has she risen to her proper plane. As for Isbosheth, the act shows how weak he had become; it was the complaisance of fear. Measured by twentieth century standards of morality, Israel at this period does not appear in a good light. All her great men, David alone excepted, were guilty of acts always questionable, often reprehensible, and even he had lapses from the straight and narrow path. Abner, after setting up the son of Saul as king in Israel, and finding himself unable to maintain him in that position, hastened to make his peace with David, even at the price of perfidy to Isbosheth. With this purpose he made a journey to Hebron, and after coming to an understanding with David, he left with the intention of winning over the tribes to him. Soon after his departure Joab, David's chief captain, returned from the chase of a marauding party, and learning of the visit of Abner and his departure, sent after him and brought him back under a false pretence and without the knowledge of David. He murdered him in revenge for the death of his own brother, whom Abner had killed in self-defence in battle. But In justice to himself and his people David repudiated the act of Joab and pronounced a malediction on him and his house. this did not deter Joab from his evil deeds, for after being deposed as chief captain he murdered his successor and assumed command of the forces in battle with the Philistines, David seeming powerless to restrain him. There were two captains in the army of Ishbosheth who thought to curry favor with David by the killing of their master and bringing his head to his rival; but instead of finding a reward they were very properly executed for their treachery. In this instance, as in several others, David appears to have had a sense of justice far in advance of his time. But it is unfair to measure the Hebrews of that day by the standards of today. They were far in advance of the people around them. The Mosaic law had by its insistence on the worship of but one God, the great Jehovah, raised them from the moral quagmire in which idolatry had sunk their neighbors. Still it was no violation of the sense of justice of even the best of them to wreak vengeance on their enemies in the most pitiless manner. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was their rule. It was yet ages in the future before the lowly Nazarine should drop that seed which has never ceased to germinate—“If thy brother smite thee on the one cheek turn to him the other also." Only today have we seen the beautiful fruits of that teaching in the generous treatment accorded a fallen foe by our own country in its settlement with Spain and by the noble treatment of the Boers in South Africa. The ancients did not feel the milk of human kindness in treating the vanquished, and when David put his fallen foes under saws and harrows of iron, and wiped them from the face of the earth, he only did what they would have done if the advantage had been theirs. The death of Ishbosheth and Abner left the tribes which had followed them without a leader, and in this extremity they sought David as their king, remembering that he had been anointed to that position by the Prophet Samuel. Thus relieved of the burden of civil strife, Israel was in a position to better withstand the encroachments of the people around them, and for a long time David was involved in foreign wars, now with the Jebusites, who still held Jerusalem, again with the Philistines, with whom he had four wars in succession. One notable circumstance of these wars was the killing in each one of them of a gigantic descendant of Goliath of Gath. Then the Assyrian felt the weight of the arm of Israel, so that long before David was an old man the Hebrew kingdom had attained its widest bounds. Still Israel was not at rest. The ambition of some of the sons of David caused much trouble. Several of those sons coveted the kingship before their father had done with it; but the most dangerous of them all was Absolom. He was a young man of great personal beauty and force of character. He led away such a large number of the people that for a time it seemed that he would disposses his father. The latter found it necessary to leave Jerusalem and betake himself to the wilderness, with those who were faithful to him, as he had done in the days of his youth to escape the vengeance of Saul. Entering the capital as undisputed master, Absolom was guilty of criminal excesses less easy to forgive than even treason. But with all his faults, he still held a warm place in his father's heart; and when in the pursuit of that father he had hastened to his fall, it is touching to see the concern for the personal safety of this erring son shown by David. The death of Absolom is at once singular and picturesque. After the rout of his forces, while seeking safety in flight, he had to pass through a wood, and while riding under a spreading oak the heavy tresses of his beautiful hair became entangled in its branches, and the mule which bore him ran from under him, leaving him hanging helpless in the tree. In this position he was found by |