POETRY.

the vast area, the exquisite tablets inscribed with verses from the Koran, traced skillfully in characters of graceful Arabic; the pulpit, the winding staircase, the curiously-fashioned lamps suspended like so many vases from the ceiling by silken cords; the beautiful figures in the thickly-tufted carpets, the stained windows in the lofty casements elaborately carved, the cornices projecting heavily with pendants as tenuous as frost-work-all these to-day seemed so like the imagined scenery of the Thousand and One Nights, that I could almost bring back the dream of my childhood concerning the times of the good Caliph Haroun Alraschid.

Poetry.

UNBIDDEN GUESTS.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Anecdotes and Selections.

TO BEGIN A WORK OF CHARITY.-Think over your plan well. Mature it in your own mind. Discuss it with one or two whose judgment is worth having. Give it form and shape before you call in others to your aid. Then present it for general support as it is. Don't begin with proclaiming your object, and calling a meeting of all who are friendly to it. Some will come who think they know all about it as well as yourself. They will talk wisely, as they think; make suggestions, propose methods of procedure, without a clear idea of what you design, and the meeting will adjourn upon the appointment of a committee, which may never meet. No: begin in a quiet, natural way. Let the thing develop itself under the fostering sympathies of a congenial few. It may be small and weak for a while, but if it be a germ of true life it will vegetate, it will strike root and grow. When it has acquired a body of its own, then throw it open to all who will, to supply the requisite nutriment for its growth and expansion, but not to trim and fashion it after notions of their own. If they help you in the right way, thank God and take courage. If not, no matter. It will flourish, that is, if it be "a plant which our heavenly Father hath planted." If it be not, they could not keep it alive; and the sooner it withers and dies the better.

FATHOMLESS.-"Look," said the Ambassador of France to the Spanish Ambassador, as he took him into the French King's treasury, "look at my master's gold; how rich he is!" The Spanish Ambassador took his walking stick and began to thrust it down into the bags and into the money chest. "What do you do that for?" said the Frenchman. "I want to see if there is a bottom to it," said he. "O!" said the French Ambassador, "of course there is a bottom." "Ah!" said the Spaniard, "but my master's treasury has no bottom, for he has all the mines of Mexico and Peru." Now, what the Spaniard said boastfully we may say truthfully. The treasury of our God is without a bottom; it is fathomless; and while you can hear God say to you, "I am thy God," you may laugh at penury and distress, at destruction and famine, for you shall lack no good thing; you shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and your mouth shall praise Him with joyful lips.

THE EYE OF A NEEDLE.-The passage from the New Testament, "It is easier for a camel," &c., has perplexed many good men who have read it literally. In oriental cities there are in the large gates small and very low apertures, called metaphorically "needles' eyes," just as we talk of windows on shipboard as "bulls' eyes." These entrances are too narrow for a camel to pass through them in the ordinary manner, or even if loaded. When a loaded camel has to pass

THE FIRESIDE.

through one of these entrances, it kneels down, its load is removed, and then it shuffles through on its knees. "Yesterday," writes Lady Duff Gordon from Cairo, "I saw a camel go through the eye of a needle-that is, the low arched door of an enclosure. He must kneel, and bow his head, to creep through; and thus the rich man must humble himself."

LIFE.-Life is the jailer of the soul in this filthy prison, and its only deliverer is death; what we call life is a journey to death, and what we call death is a passport to life. True wisdom thanks death for what he takes, and still more for what he brings. Let us then, like sentinels, be ready because we are uncertain, and calm because we are prepared. There is nothing formidable about death but the consequences of it, and these we ourselves can regulate and control. The shortest life is long enough if it lead to a better, and the longest life is too short if it do not.

The Fireside.

A USEFUL WOMAN.

A TOUCHING incident has been related to us, which we are sure will be the prompter of serious thoughts in the minds of all who shall hear of it. In a distant city there dwells a lady of refinement and culture, who is celebrated for her musical accomplishments. She is owned to be peerless in musical circles, and the first performer in private or public. But her talents are consecrated to Christ, and she is a devoted labourer in the saving of souls. By the providence of God she was led to connect herself with a mission enterprise in the city, and when she went to offer her services she asked for the care of the worst class in the school. The superintendent was struck by the novel request, and knew not whether to attribute it to pride and self-confidence, or to a gracious and praiseworthy courage. He pointed her to a class of fourteen boys who were standing, lounging, talking, and larking in a corner of the room, and told her that there was material for the fire and hammer of God's word. Nothing daunted, she accepted the charge, and went over to see what could be done. The superintendent introduced her, and left at once for other duties.

"Lads," she said, "do you think that I am a lady?" A glance assured them of that, and assent was given. "Then I should like to see you take off your hats." Hats were removed. "Then, boys, if I am a lady, I would prefer not to have tobacco used where I am. Instantly every quid was removed, and either pocketed, thrown away, or hurled into the face of some distant mate.

It was well known that all of them were profane, and she spent the rest of the morning in dissuading them from that odious vice. One lad

THE PENNY POST BOX.

lads

said to her, "If you only lived where we do, you would swear too; we hear swearing all the time, and are used to it." At the end of the lesson she promised them a book if they would abstain from swearing during the week, and tell her so next Sunday. Next Lord's-day they were all in their places, and every one acknowledged that he had been guilty of swearing, though all had tried to give it up or avoid it. For some weeks this trial was carried on, and some success attended the effort. One said he bad let an oath slip out twice. All along instructions had been given, and this gifted woman had visited the poor at their homes. She had gained influence over them, and her class was orderly. Upon one Sunday morning, as she was going to her seat at the organ to lead the worship of God, one of the class accosted her, and said "he had not sworn during the whole week, and had said his prayers every day." There was a fullness and richness in the voice that day when she began, "We praise Thee, O God;" there was a mellowness and softness in the notes of the instrument, and "the stop that prays" was touched. She longed for the return of the next Sunday, that the progress of the good work might be witnessed. But on opening the paper one morning of that week, she saw the sad tale that the poor boy had been caught in the machinery of a mill where he was at work, and killed!

What was done in that poor soul? Who shall tell or conjecture? Was it the breathing of the wind which bloweth where it listeth, and which wafted the perfume from a flower of the Lord's planting? Was that soul imbued with the new principle of grace? Why not believe and hope such was the case? Such things are enough to encourage effort, and to cause thankfulness for the efficacy of Almighty grace. But the great day alone can clearly declare the result in such cases. It may be that the black and heavy fly-wheel was the chariot of Immanuel, which in an instant broke off the hard shell of carnal nature, broke open the prison of corruption, and let the new man, created by the Holy Spirit, free.

These things are enough to make the labourer for Christ serious and earnest! for day by day the last opportunity may be afforded to us to say, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

The Penny Post Box.

INSTRUCTION IN PRUSSIA.

PRUSSIA excels all other countries in the completeness of her system of national education. Reading and writing are given to every child in her borders, with very rare exceptions. Our country might well learn from her how to educate all children. An adequate number of schools are established in all parts of the kingdom, and all children, from the

FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY.

age of five years, are required by law to attend at these national schools eight years, unless under instruction elsewhere. There are three grades of schools: 1. The elementary, which the great majority of people attend. 2. The city school, which is always attached to a gymnasiam. 3. The gymnasium, which has a course of six or seven years, including Latin, Greek, philosophy, mathematics, religion, German, French, English, singing, &c. The universities of Berlin, Halle, Bonn, &c., furnish higher instruction to those who are able to pass rigorous examinations. In addition, there are real schools for training scholars destined for a mercantile career; normal schools, in almost all towns, for the culture of teachers; Sunday schools for tuition in the catechism, biblical and church history; special technical schools, of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, navigation, architecture, engineering and mining, construction in wood and metal, weaving and dyeing, and trades of all sorts.

Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry.

Facts.

A writer in Good Words says there are 100,000 people and 10,000 houses Wilhelmshohe, or "William's in England enlisted in the support and practice of theft.

Hights," the summer residence of Hesse-Cassel and now the residence to which Louis Napoleon has been assigned by the King of Prussia, is of peculiar interest to Americans. The place was built by Frederick II., Elector of Hesse, out of the money received by him of George III. of England for the 17,000 Hessians hired by King George as Elector of Hanover. Out of these 17,000, 5,000 were sent into Scotland, to maintain English authority there, and 12,000 were sent to America to fight the colonists in the war for independence. The labour and expense of building "Wilhelmshohe" were enormous. It is said to have required the work of 2,000 men for fourteen years, and the accounts were so large that they were burned to destroy all trace of the extravagance.

A noted engineer in Glasgow has made a steam engine so small that it can be covered with a lady's thimble.

Hints.

To feign a virtue is to have its opposite vice.

We should respect gray heads, but above all our own.

We use our conscience chiefly to judge others' actions by.

Virtue lives on our income, but vice eats into the capital.

It seems as if we kept part of that happiness which we gave away.

That experience which does not make us better, makes us worse.

A man's opinions all change, except the good one he has of himself.

The first love which enters the heart is the last to leave the memory.

In gaining self-knowledge, we also lay up a store of indulgence for others. If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to limp.