History tells us that when drawn up in camp, they had the appearance of a venerable Senate. O, ye aged Christians, the Master hath need of you yet! When your work is done He will call you home.

16. Animalism.

Man has two natures - an animal and a spiritual. The animal should be in subordination to the spiritual, but, alas! how often is it just the reverse! The Egyptians were fond of symbolism and some of their monuments were very suggestive; for instance, there is the Sphinx standing alone and solitary in the desert sands. Now what is the Sphinx? It is a figure with a human head and the body of a beast. It has been said to be suggestive of the civilization of ancient Egypt, and of the position that Egypt occupied between the East and the West, Asia and Europe; in the one was the worship of nature and in the other, of mind. It represents the boyhood of the human spirit just passing into youthhood.

But the Egyptian had another figure that represented Egypt in her decline. In this figure the body was that of a man and the head that of a brute. Anubis had a dog's head and a man's body. The Egyptians sank into animalism. The West produced a Paul, the East a Cleopatra; the one produced modern Christianity; the other produced Mohammedanism.

17. Anchor-One that Always Holds.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." How simple the plan of salvation! Only believe! Faith in Christ begets hope, "which hope

ANCIENT ART AND SCHOLARSHIP.

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we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail." This anchor never fails in the most tempestuous sea and the most stormy weather.

Says a gentleman: "As we lay off Queenstown harbor, one blustering afternoon, I saw the anchor lowered. I could scarcely believe my eyes that such a small piece of iron could be expected to check the drift of the huge ship amid such a boiling sea, but the implicit confidence of the officers reassured me. They had tested it before. Small as it was, it held the ship amid the fury of the hurricane."

Faith in Jesus seems to be a little thing, but it has been tested and has never failed. Our boat is tossing on life's troubled sea, but the chain that binds us to the Eternal is a chain of love, and it is easier, far easier, for heaven and earth to pass away than for one link to fail - every link is a promise of the Everlasting God—and the flukes of the anchor take hold of the "Rifted Rock" within the vail.

"Then let the tempest roar,

The billows heave and swell;

We hope to reach the peaceful shore
Where all the ransomed dwell.

"And when we gain the land,

How happy shall we be!

How shall we bless the mighty hand
That led us through the sea!"

18. Ancient Art and Scholarship Why Destroyed.

Scholars and artists have mourned for ages over the almost universal destruction of the works of ancient

genius. I suppose that many a second rate city, in the time of Christ, possessed a collection of works of surpassing beauty, which could not be equaled by all the specimens now existing that have been discovered. The Alexandrian library is believed to have contained a greater treasure of intellectual riches than has ever since been hoarded in a single city. These, we know, have all vanished from the earth. The Apollo Belvidere and the Venus de Medicis stand in almost solitary grandeur, to remind us of the perfection to which the plastic art of the ancients had attained. The Alexandrian library furnished fuel for years for the baths of illiterate. Moslems. I used myself frequently to wonder why it had pleased God to blot out of existence these magnificent productions of ancient genius. It seemed to me strange that the pall of oblivion. should thus be thrown over all to which man, in the flower of his age, had given birth. But the solution of this mystery is found, I think, in the remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii. We discover that every work of man was so penetrated by corruption, every production of genius was so defiled with uncleanness, that God, in introducing a better dispensation, determined to cleanse the world from the pollution of preceding ages. As when all flesh had corrupted His way, He purified the world by the waters of the flood, so, when genius had covered the earth with images of sin, He overwhelmed the works of ancient civilization with a deluge of barbarism. It was too bad to exist: and He swept it all away.-F. WAY

LAND.

A WISE ANSWER.

19. Answer-A Wise.

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A young woman in Scotland, in the days of persecution in that land, one Sabbath was on her way to a place of worship, when she was met by a company of hostile cavalry, and required by its commander to make known her destination. At this crisis this promise presented itself to her mind, namely, "It shall be given you at that hour what you ought to answer;" and she put up a silent prayer that the Spirit of God would put the right words into her mouth. In a moment these words suggested themselves and she uttered them as suggested: "I am going to my Father's house. My Elder Brother has died; His will is to be read today, and I have an interest in it." The commander bid her go on her way, expressing the hope that she would find a rich portion left to herself.

20. Atheism.—Psalms 14 : 1.

The owlet, Atheism,

Sailing on obscene wings across the noon,
Drops his blue-fringed lids, and shuts them close,
And, hooting at the glorious sun in heaven,
Cries out, "Where is it?"

21. Atheism Destructive of National Life.

I cannot now pause to explain, how or why it has been; but I say that in a nation, if atheism continues. for a time to kindle its dim torches at the fount which is denied, those torches soon die out in smouldering fumes. A nation may walk for a short time in the dubious twilight left on the Western hills

when the sun is set; but the twilight soon rushes down into the deep, dark night when God is denied, when faith is quenched, when prayer has ceased. It is never long in a nation before the holy warfare of ideas is abandoned for the base conflict of interest; never long before hatred and envy usurp the place of charity, and lust takes the place of honorable love.-FARRAR.

22. Banner of Love. Song of Solomon 2: 4.

A man once left England, came to America and was naturalized, and thus became an American citizen. He went to Cuba during the time when the civil war raged there. In 1867 this man was arrested and condemned to be shot by the Spanish government. He was brought out sitting on his coffin in a cart. A grave was dug. The black cap was drawn over his eyes. The Spanish soldiers awaited the order to fire. The English and American consuls came on the ground-one spreading over him the British flag, the other the American flag. Then turning to the Spanish officers they said: "Fire upon those flags, if you dare." They did not fire upon these flags because the armies of two great nations stood behind them to avenge any insult. What those banners were to the poor, trembling man, Christ is to those who flee to Him for refuge. "He brought me to the banqueting-house, and His banner over me was love."

23. Banquet The Heavenly.

At a feast given to the chief officers of his army Cyrus presented to some of them costly gifts ---- to