POETRY. are economical. Now carry this package to the express office, and let me see how smart and punctual you can be." When John went out with the bundle under his arm, he met the other boys, who had returned from the fire. They were much disappointed at John's good luck, and one cried out, "Did you tell him you had been to jail?" And another said, "Don't steal that bundle." But John kept bravely on, undisturbed by their taunts. He trusted me," he said to himself. I shall pray every night to be kept out of temptation, for if I miss this time, I shall hardly come out right again." For two years John Dawson faithfully served Mr. Blake, and never once did he deviate from the straight path of duty. Then he went to a business college, and after he got through there he entered business for himself and prospered well. But he found time always to attend the noon prayer meetings that were daily held by a religious association in the town where he lived. Once he told the history of his life, and how Mr. Blake saved him from temptation and sin, "because," he ended by saying, "he trusted me.' Then an elderly man arose, a stranger, and with much agitation said, "I thank God for this hour. One soul saved through me lightens every cross, and makes even my crown grow lighter. He has trusted me, even as I trusted the boy who had done wrong." "Have I not laid before thy shrine Have I not bade youth's joys retire, But sad and tender was the voice,- Have I not, Lord, gone day by day More sad, more tender was the voice, 66 My child, give me thy heart!" "Have I not worn my strength away With fast and penance sore? Have I not watched and wept," she cried; "Did Thy dear saints do more? Have I not gained Thy grace, O Lord, And won in heaven my part?" It echoed louder in her soul,- For I have loved thee with a love A love so deep, my saints in heaven I loved thee with undying love Immortal and divine! I loved thee ere the skies were spread; To gain thy love my sacred heart Vain are thy offerings, vain thy sighs, Give it, my child, thy heart to me, In awe she listened, and the shade In a low and trembling voice she cried,— ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Break Thou the chains of earth, O Lord, Send from above Thy sacred fire! That sacred flame Thy saints have known, Thou above all the rest henceforth, And all the rest in Thee!" The blessing fell upon her soul; Her angel by her side Knew that the hour of peace was come; The place was glorified; Shadows still fell from roof and arch, Dim was the incensed air, But Peace went with her as she left The sacred Presence there! -Adelaide A. Proctor. Anecdotes and Selections. READERS AND WRITERS.-Reading without purpose is sauntering, not exercise. More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye. A cottage flower gives honey to the bee, a king's garden none to a butterfly. Youths who are destined for active careers, or ambitious of distinction in such forms of literature as require freshness of invention or originality of thought, should avoid the habit of intense study for many hours at a stretch. There is a point in all tension of the intellect beyond which effort is only waste of strength. Fresh ideas do not readily spring up within a weary brain; and whatever exhausts the mind not only enfeebles its power, but narrows its scope. We often see men who have over-read at college entering upon life languidly, as if they were about to leave it. They have not the vigour to cope with their own generation: for their own generation is young, and they have wasted the nervous energy which supplies the sinews of war to youth, in its contest for fame or fortune. Study with regularity, at settled hours. Those in the forenoon are the best, if they can be secured. The man who has acquired the habit of study, though for only one hour every day in the year, and keeps to the one thing studied till it is mastered, will be startled to see the way he has ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. made at the end of the twelvemonth. He is seldom overworked who can contrive to be in advance of his work. If you have three weeks before you to learn something which a man of average quickness could learn in a week, learn it the first week, and not the third. Business despatched is business well done, but business hurried is business ill done. In learning what others have thought, it is well to keep in practice the power to think for one's self; when an author has added to your knowledge, pause and consider if you can add nothing to his. Be not contented to have learned a problem by heart; try and deduce from it a corrollary not in the book. Spare no pains in collecting details before you generalize; but it is only when details are generalized that a truth is grasped. The tendency to generalize is universal with all men who achieve great success, whether in art, literature, or action. The habit of generalizing, though at first gained with care and caution, secures, by practice, a comprehensiveness of judgment and a promptitude of decision which seem to the crowd like intuitions of genius. And, indeed, nothing more distinguishes the man of genius from the mere man of talent, than the facility of generalizing the various details, each of which demands the aptitude of a special talent; but all of which can be only gathered into a whole by the grasp of a mind which may have no special aptitude for any. 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 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 conformably to its designed use. In like manner, the preservation and improvement of our faculties depend on their constant exercise; to it God hath 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 our industry, as the ordinary channel and instrument of attaining them.-Barrow. YOUR NAME IN THE BIBLE.The Dutch farmers in Africa have held the black natives in great contempt, the same as the planters once despised their slaves. As one of these farmers was riding out one day, he saw one of these blacks sitting by the roadside reading. Checking his horse, he jeeringly asked, "What book have you got there?""The Bible," replied the Hottentot." The Bible! Why, that book was never intended for you.' "Indeed it was," replied the black, confidently, " for I see my name here."—" Your name! Where?" ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. 39 asked the farmer, getting off his horse; show it to me.' "There!" said the poor fellow, putting his finger on the word sinners (1 Tim. i. 15) ; "There! sinners! that's my name. I am a sinner-so that means me." HISTORY OF FEMALE SUFFRAGE.-Mrs. Stanton, in a recent address on this topic, gave the following history of female suffrage:"So long as political power was absolute and hereditary, woman shared it with man by birth. In Hungary, and some provinces of France and Germany, women, holding this inherited right, confer their right of franchise on their husbands. In 1858, in the old town of Upsal, the authorities granted suffrage to fifty women holding real estate, and to thirty-one doing business in their own name. The representative their votes elected was to sit in the House of Burgesses. In Ireland, the Court of the Queen's Bench, Dublin, restored to women in 1864 the old right of voting for town commissioners. In 1864, too, the government of Moravia decided that all women who were tax-payers had the right to vote. In Canada, in 1850, an electoral privilege was conferred on women, in the hope that the Protestant might balance the Roman Catholic power in the school system. 'I lived,' said a friend of mine, 'where I saw this right exercised for four years by female property holders, and never heard the most cultivated man, even Lord Elgin, object to its results.' Women vote in Austria, Australia, Holland, and Sweden on property qualifications. There is a bill before the British Parliament, presented by John Stuart Mill, asking for household suffrage, accompanied by a petition from 11,000 of the best educated women in England." 66 ONE MINUTE TOO LATE.-The bell tolled, the cables were loosed, and the boat set sail. We had scarcely cleared the dock, when I saw a man addressing one of the boatmen very earnestly, and I drew near that I might know the cause. The first words that fell upon my ears were these: "Can't you put me ashore? I must go ashore; 1 will pay you to put me ashore." "I cannot tell," replied the boatman, you must go to the captain." So the man went to the captain, and besought him to put him ashore. But the reply was, "No, you had plenty of time to get on shore while the bell was tolling; I cannot delay my passengers for one person; you must now be content to go with us. One minute too late, thought I, as I walked away from the scene. There was plenty of time for this man to leave the boat, and the bell tolled to warn him that he must leave, or be carried off; it is surely his own fault. Now he is compelled to go away from home and friends, and they know not where he is, or what has become of him. While reflecting on the conduct of this man, I could not avoid comparing the case with that of my fellow-creatures. All the impenitent are on board a vessel whose frail cords will soon be cut, and they are then launched on the boundless ocean of eternity. The gospel bell is tolling its solemn notes of warning, but oh! how many are one minute |