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POETRY.

accounting for the presence of these fishes, is that the tornado, in passing over some lake or river in the immense unknown region of the north-west, drew up water, and with it these animals, which are evidently amphibious. The tornado then sped on its mission of destruction, passing, perhaps, miles above the earth, and occasionally, as at Shipman, striking the earth. Near Taylorville the central body of the storm was dissipated, as is shown by the facts. that the wind blew in gusts from all directions, and these creatures fell to the earth to astonish the people, and perplex the scientific.

Poetry.

IN THE WORLD.

NoT yet, not yet the Sabbath rest

May bid this turmoil cease,

Thou Guide along the path of life,
Which leads me even here,

And hush these week-day voices shrill Where no one breathes Thy sacred

With holy words of peace.

I count the days since last it came,
So few and yet so long!
I wait its healing influence,
So gentle and so strong!

Like surf upon a storm-lashed shore,

Roll in upon my life
These waves of worldliness and care,
Of folly, sin, and strife.

There is no time for solitude;

The blessed dews of prayer
Are dried up in the glare of pomp,
Or flattery's poisoned air.
To-night I think how fair it is

Beyond this scene of mirth,
Where, calm and still, God's holy stars
Look on the slumbering earth.
But here loud music fills the air,

The dazzling gas-lights blaze,
And, faint with rich perfumes, I watch
The dancer's giddy maze.

name,

I know that Thou art near.

Enter, O Lord, the inner shrine,
Within my heart of hearts,
And light it with Thy smile divine,
Which heavenly peace imparts.

If worldly trade or revelry

Hath dared to enter there,
Cleanse it, as once of old thy scourge
Cleansed Salem's temple fair.

Then speak, dear Lord! and though the world

Its thousand claims may bring On eye and ear, on voice and hand, My heart is listening.

So, though no Sabbath bell may ring,
My rest is where Thou art,

And Thou, e'en here, canst breathe
the calm

Of Sabbath in my heart.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Anecdotes and Selections.

THE TWO BIBLES.

SOME good men who were distributing Bibles called on a woman and inquired if she owned a Bible.

"Do you think I am such a heathen?" she angrily asked.

She then bade her little girl run and fetch the Bible from the drawer, that she might shew it to the men.

The Bible was brought, nicely covered up. On opening it the woman exclaimed, "Well, how glad I am that you called and asked me about a Bible! Here are my glasses that I have been looking for these three years, and did not know where to find them."

Was not this woman more of a heathen than many who have never seen a Bible?

A missionary went to see a little Indian boy who was dying of consumption. He found him in an old hut, with a few leaves for his bed, and a dirty blanket for a covering.

"What can I do for you, my poor boy, to relieve your wants ?" be asked.

"Nothing, sir," said the boy. "I want but little; I am very happy. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, died for my sins, and I trust only in Him."

66 Do you find comfort in your Bible ?" "That, sir, is my dear friend," said the dying boy, raising himself on his elbow, and pressing the book to his heart. "Last year I went to visit my sister, two hundred miles up the lake. When I was halfway back, I remembered I had left my Bible. I turned directly round, and myself and my canoe were nine days tossing on the lake before I reached the house. But I got my friend at last, and I never mean to part with it till I am dead; and then, sir, I want you to give it away so that it may do good to others."

My friends, which have you, a dusty or a well-worn Bible? Once a good man offered a little boy the choice between a present of five pounds and a handsome Bible. The little fellow said, "My mother used to tell me the law of the Lord was better than thousands of gold and silver. If you please, sir, I will have the Bible?" May you all make so wise a choice!

KEEP ON PRAYING.

"Do you think," I asked, "that the Lord will let me see, in this life, the salvation of the souls for whom I pray ?"

"I cannot say as to that. When I was a child in the Sabbath school," she continued, "my faithful teacher used to say, 'I have prayed too much for my class for one of them to be lost.' I was a

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

'I shall

thoughtless girl at the time, and remember wondering at it, and thinking it a very self-confident remark. She was so sure. have them all,' she would say. 'I shall say to Christ at the judgment,

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Here am I, and the class thou hast given me.' "And were they all converted ?" I asked.. "Yes; she did not live to see it, but my eyes have seen it-the last of the sixteen gathered into the fold.”

TYPES OF BIBLE TRUTH.-This is a fine passage from Henry Ward Beecher: What if every part of your house should begin to repeat the truths which have been committed to its symbolism? The lowest stone would say, in silence of night, "Other foundations can no man lay." The corner-stone would catch the word, "Christ is the cornerstone." The door would add, "I am the door." The taper, burning by your bedside, would stream up a moment to tell you, "Christ is the light of the world." If you gaze upon your children, they reflect from their sweetly sleeping faces the words of Christ, "Except ye become as little children." If waking, you look towards your parents' couch, from that sacred place God calls Himself your Father and Mother; and disturbed by the crying of your children, who are affrighted in a dream, you rise to soothe them, and hear God saying, "So will I wipe away all tears from your eyes in heaven." Returning to your bed, you look from the window; every star hails you, but chiefest, "the bright and morning star." By and by, flaming from the East, the flood of morning bathes your dwelling, and calls you forth to the cares of the day; and then you remember that God is the sun, and that heaven is bright with His presence. Drawn by hunger, you approach the table. The loaf whispers, as you break it, "Broken for you;" and the wheat of the loaf sings, “Bruised and ground for you." The water that quenches your thirst says, "I am the water of life." If you wash your hands, you can but remember the teachings of spiritual purity. If you wash your feet, that has been done sacredly by Christ as a memorial. The very roof of your dwelling has its utterance, and bids you look for the day when God's house shall receive its top-stone. Go forth to your labour, and what thing can you see that has not its message? The ground is full of sympathy; the flowers have been printed with teaching. The trees, that only seem to shake their leaves in sport, are forming divine sentences; the birds tell of heaven with their love warblings in the green twilight; the sparrow is a preacher of truth; the hen clucks and broods her chickens, unconscious that to the end of the world she is part and parcel of a revelation of God to man. The sheep that bleat from the pastures, the hungry wolves that blink in the forest, the serpent that glides noiselessly in the grass, the raven that flies heavily across the field, the lily over which his shadow passes, the plough, the sickle, the waggon, the barn, the flail, the threshing floor-all of them are consecrated priests, unrobed teachers,

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

revelators that see no visions themselves, but that bring to us thoughts of truth, contentment, hope, and love, all the ministers of God. The whole earth doth praise Him and show forth His glory.

MENTAL ACTIVITY.-If the water runneth, it holdeth clear, sweet, and fresh; but stagnation turneth it into a noisome puddle. If the air be fanned by the winds, it is pure and wholesome; but from being shut up, it groweth thick and putrid. If metals be employed, they abide smooth and splendid; but lay them up, and they soon contract rust. If the earth is laboured with culture, it yieldeth corn; but lying neglected, it will be overgrown with bushes and thistles, and the better its soil is, the ranker weeds it will produce. All nature is upheld in its being, order, and shape by constant agitation; every creature is incessantly employed in action conformable to its designed use. In like manner, the preservation and improvement of the faculties depend on their constant exercise; to it God has annexed the best and most desirable reward-success to our undertakings, wealth, honour, wisdom, virtue salvation-all which, as they flow from God's bounty, and depend on His blessing, so from Him they are usually conveyed to us through the ordinary channel and instrument of attaining them.

DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.-The latest deep-sea soundings show that the waters from the polar seas are constantly distributing over the beds of all the oceans. The equatorial waters form a superficial stratum of about two-thirds of a mile; while below that are the polar waters, which, at the depth of several miles, have a temperature of 39° F., as proved by self-registering thermometers let down to a depth equal to about the height of Mont Blanc. Even at these depths, and with this extreme cold, animal life is found in considerable variety.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN is like the living spring which is not im poverished by sending forth its grateful waters. He is not afraid to freely bestow of that which he has freely received, and the more he gives, the more abundantly does God supply him; but there are too many like stagnant pools, withholding that which tends to poverty. Like the servant with the one talent, they are afraid to use their possessions for God's glory.

SAVED FROM DOUBT.-Keep the heart warm with the love of Christ; keep at work in efforts to do good; keep the sympathies alive for all that relates to the interest and progress of the good cause of religion; keep free from the love of the world and vain conversation; and there will be but little room or time for doubting.

TRIAL OF FAITH.-It is not known whether a ship is seaworthy until it has been tried at sea in winds and storms. So of faith. While untried, we do not know whether it is genuine. And God makes us understand a matter so important. He suffers trial, tribulation, adversity to come. And true faith is not shaken. "The trial of faith is more precious than gold, which perisheth."

THE FIRESIDE.

DON'T LOSE THE SABBATH.-Occasionally Christians cannot attend service on the Lord's-day. There may not be a meeting near, ill health, or the necessity of some remaining at home, may prevent attendance. But the Sabbath should not be lost. It is too valuable for this. Let worldly conversation and visiting be avoided. there be religious reading and prayer, and there may be progress in what is good.

Let

The Fireside.

AUNT JANE.

AUNT JANE was the head of the house-a lady who had spent more than fifty years in educating her brains and battling with her ailments. She had received from her parents a considerable inheritance in the way of whims, and had nursed it up into a handsome fortune. Being one of the most impulsive of human beings, she was naturally one of the most entertaining; and behind all her eccentricities there was a fund of the soundest sense and the tenderest affection. She had seen much and varied society, had been much admired in her youth, but had chosen to remain unmarried. Obliged by her physical condition to make herself the first object, she was saved from utter selfishness by sympathies as democratic as her personal habits were exclusive. Unexpected and commonly fantastic in her doings, often dismayed by small difficulties, but never by large ones, she sagaciously administered the affairs of all those around her-planned their dinners and their marriages, fought out their bargains and their feuds.

She hated everything irresolute or vague; people might play at cat's-cradle or study Spinoza, just as they pleased; but, whatever they did, they must give their minds to it. She kept house from an easy chair, and ruled her dependents with severity tempered by wit, and by the very sweetest voice in which reproof was ever uttered. She never praised them; but if they did anything particularly well, rebuked them retrospectively, asking why they had never done it well before. But she treated them munificently, made all manner of plans for their comfort, and they all thought her the wisest and wittiest of the human race. So did the youths and maidens of her large circle; they all came to see her, and she counselled, admired, scolded, and petted them all. She had the gayest spirits, and an unerring eye for the ludicrous; and she spoke her mind with absolute plainness to all comers. Her intuitions were instantaneous as lightning, and, like that, struck very often in the wrong place. She was thus extremely unreasonable and altogether charming.

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