ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. breadth, and supported by a hundred and twenty-seven pillars of Parian marble, each of which was sixty feet high. These pillars were furnished by as many princes; and the rest were finely polished. Each pillar, it is supposed, with its base, contained a hundred and fifty tons of marble. The doors and paneling were made of cypress-wood, the roof of cedar, and the interior was rendered splendid by decorations of gold, and by the best productions of ancient artists." Nero, the Roman emperor, robbed it of much of its valuable treasure: and it was finally burned by the Goths in A.D. 260. Among the confused ruins of ancient Ephesus, it is now impossible to tell with certainty where this magnificent temple stood. Let us seek our home in a world where the glory is greater and more enduring. ALMOST PERSUADED.-A leaky ship went out to sea, and a passenger was almost persuaded not to trust his life in it, but he did so, and he perished. A bubble speculation was started in the city, and a merchant was almost persuaded not to have shares in it, but he bought the scrip, and his estate went down in the general shipwreck. A person exceedingly ill, heard of a remedy reputed to be most effectual, and he was almost persuaded to take it, but he did not, and therefore the disease grew worse and worse. A man who proposed to go into a subterranean vault in the dark, was almost persuaded to take a candle, but he did not, and therefore he stumbled and fell. You cannot have religion by being almost persuaded to have it. Your hunger cannot be appeased by almost eating, nor your thirst quenched by almost drinking. A culprit was almost saved from being hanged, for a reprieve came five minutes after he was turned off, but, alas! he was altogether dead despite the almost escape. A man who has been almost persuaded to be saved will, at the last, be altogether lost; his being almost convinced will be of no conceivable service to him. This seems so grievous, that the life of God, and the light of God, and the heaven of God, should glide by some of our readers, and you should be almost persuaded, and yet should miss them, through not being Christians. LATE.-Many are on their death-beds before they think rightly of life. They are going out of the world, while they begin to know wherefore they came in it. We come in it for this great business-to save our souls in the faith and obedience of God; but when we have time to do it, we forget that business, and then begin to think of it when the time appointed is gone. We spend much time in doing nothing, and more in doing evil, but little or none in that great matter wherefore we were born. The soul must be in perplexity at the door of death, that seeth the day spent and the assigned business not begun. A traveller that sees the setting sun when he is entering on his journey, must be aghast; the evening of the day and the morning of the task do not well agree together. All the time that remaineth is too short for lamenting the loss of by-gone time.— William Struther. THE FIRESIDE. DEATH.-One may live as a conqueror, a king, or magistrate; but he must die as a man. The bed of death brings every buman being to his pure individuality; to the intense contemplation of that deepest and most solemn of all relation, the relation between the creature and his Creator. Here it is that fame and renown cannot assist us; that all external things must fail to aid us; that even friends, affection, and human love and devotedness, cannot succour us.- -Webster. THE CROSS OF CHRIST. THE Cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that I ever bore; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or as sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my desired haven. Those who by faith see the invisible God and the fair city, make no account of present losses and crosses. Truly, it is a glorious thing to follow the Lamb; it is the highway to glory; but when you see Him in His own country at home, you will think you never saw Him before. More than Christ I can neither wish, nor pray, nor desire for you. I am sure that the saints are at best but strangers to the weight and worth of the incomparable excellence of Christ. We know not the half of what we love when we love Him. That Christ and the sinner should be one, and should share heaven between them, is the wonder of salvation; what more could love do? -Rutherford's Letters. The Fireside. "I NEVER LOVED CHILDREN.' THIS sentence was spoken carelessly by the mother of a beautiful little prattling girl who was showing me her "little dollie" and other playthings with so much glee as to cause her mother to call her from me, lest she should annoy me. It made me thoughtful. "Do not fear," I replied, "I always loved children; they seldom annoy me. Then came, "I never loved children" from that woman who was the mother of six lovely boys and girls, in the presence of two or more of them. It seemed to me to be a grievous thing for a child to know that its mother did not love it. I remember a time when I was a little girl, in which I feared my mother did not love me, from the fact that she made comparisons between an elder sister and myself, by which I generally came out second best. That and the fact that she seldom commended me, caused me to conclude that she did not love me. How trying that conclusion I only knew. THE PENNY POST BOX. Now I do not expect to induce every mother to love her children, if this delightful and necessary passion is already absent, but I would like to impress upon their minds the importance of cultivating the most tender regard for them, and convincing them, if possible, that you seek their welfare in the most earnest and anxious manner. A little commendation judiciously disposed is certainly very useful. Many a young heart, as well as those more advanced in life, has been cheered by it, and many a weary hour has been made less weary by a few words of commendation. Above all, do not let your children hear you say that you do not love them. Ambition sometimes takes the place of love, as an incentive to parents to make exertion for their children; but how heartless, how hollow, when not governed by love! I have seen children looked upon as a burden, because they did not, or could not, fulfil the ambitious desires of their parents. The Penny Post Box. THE TRUE CHURCH. THE church of Christ consists of all true believers of every land, age, complexion, and tribe. This structure is bounded by no narrow ecclesiastical limits. It is greater than any titled organization. It cannot be fully represented by theological views; nor can its census be taken from denominational statistics. No sect ean justly claim, however correct its orthodoxy or high its standard of spiritual proprieties, to be the only church of Christ. The New Testament knows of no exclusive community organized as the alone visible church. No society of kindred believers can arrogate to itself the ministry, the means of grace, and the sacraments. The foundation is Christ, the apostles, and the prophets Jesus Christ being the chief, the corner-stone, binding the old and the new dispensations into one. The church of God is the purchase of His blood-not a company united under a human head or by a human bond. The base and boundary of all believers are broad as the Bible, the Christ, the apostles, and the prophets. The Lamb's Book of Life is the only correct register of believers. The Church of the First Born is not Roman nor Protestant, Greek nor Anglican, Episcopal nor Presbyterian, Baptist nor Methodist, although it includes members in all these branches. It is no national church, for no nation under heaven is big enough to give it a name. It is nothing less nor lower than the great multitude which no man can number, of all kindreds, and peoples, and tongues. The foundation laid in Zion is immensely broad-broader than Plymouth Rock-broader than all the Augsburgs in Germany-broader than the seven hills by the Tiber. The corner-stone in Zion is firm enough for an immortal superstructure that shall rise above the sun. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. Sicily has not its match in the production of limestone. It exports about 300,000 tons annually. The cost of leeches sold in Europe exceeds £2,000,000 per annum. The finest are said to come from the Murray River, Australia. Ostrich farming is now a regular branch of industry at the Cape of Good Hope, where the bird has already become a member of the "fancy poultry" family. Not the least serious loss to the French arising from the present war is that of the timber which has been so ruthlessly wasted, and which will take many a long year to restore. The latest London blessing is called the digitorium-a small dumb piano. It is said that by means of it pupils can learn to play on all instruments keyed like the piano, without making a noise. Hints. Never exceed your income. Gems. The latter part of man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions he had contracted in his former. Slander is like a salad, which every one will season to his own taste, or to the taste of those to whom he offers it. He who lives with a good wife becomes better thereby, as those who lie down among violets arise with perfume upon their garments. If a good act benefits no one else, it benefits the doer. Recluseness has its uses. Men, like trees, must stand apart to grow large. Truth scorns all kind of equivocation. The chiefest properties of wisdom are to be mindful of things past, careful of things present, and provident of things to come. Where folly is seed, shame is fruit; and where lust is the work, sorrow is the wages. He travels safe, and not unpleasantly who is guarded by poverty, and guided Never exceed the bounds of deco- by love. rum. Always brush your hat when you take it off. Be careful how you interfere with another man's fire. Do not sit in damp clothes. Study the polity of the State, and be at your post, although of the meanest order, when the walls of the State are threatened. The true citizen never omits to have his boots properly blacked every morning. Seem, rather than be. Build your garden wall higher if your neighbour can look over it. Tread warily if your path is strewn with broken bottles. Poetic Selections. A SABBATH WITH CHRIST. How still the restless world has grown! Earth is a holy place; My soul in solemn rapture waits POETIC SELECTIONS.-THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. O, Sun of the eternal day! O, Star of mortal night! O King once crucified, for whom How stoop'st thou to our sight! Their radiant passage trace; What must the eternal Sabbath be The tiny voice of a childish song That comes to you through the gloom, When the evening shadows are long without, And the light grows dim at home. The murmuring rustle of the leaves The voice that you have waited for so long, The word that calls back to your heart That sealed the promise your soul has held, There are many sounds in these hearts of ours That speak to us alone:- From the past with a muffled tone. Oh, is there naught in those sounds to you? Can you not hear their echoes now, The Children's Corner. WHEN TO SAY "NO." A MERRY-LOOKING little boy was standing with a group of playfellows, when one said: "Come, sing us one of your funny songs.' "No," answered the little boy. "No?" said the great boys, "no? Do, Willie, do. Come, we will give you something." “ My "No," cried the little boy, shaking his head, "I won't do that thing." "Where did you learn that 'No,' Willie ?" asked the big boys. "I learned it at the Sunday-school," said the little boy. teacher told me to say 'No' to anybody that asked me to sing wicked songs; and all the coaxing in the world will not make me do it." When tempted do not argue with the tempter, but say at once, "No." Or, like young Joseph, say, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" |