ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. him. He took his diamond ring from his finger, went up to the window, and wrote these words upon the glass-" One thing thou lackest." He could not summon courage to say a word to the inmates, but went his way. No sooner was he gone, than the general, who had a great veneration for him, went into the room he had occupied; and the first thing that struck his attention was the sentence upon the window, "One thing thou lackest." That was exactly his case. The Spirit of God blessed it to his heart. HOW OUR ANCESTORS LIVED.-Erasmus, who visited England in the early part of the sixteenth century, gives a curious description of an English interior of the better class. The furniture was rough, the walls unplastered, but sometimes wainscotted or hung with tapestry, and the floor covered with rushes, which were not changed for months. The dogs and cats had free access to the eating rooms, and the fragments of meat and bones were thrown to them, which they devoured among the rushes, leaving what they could not eat to rot there, with the draining of beer vessels and all manner of unmentionable abominations. There was nothing like refinement or elegance in the luxury of the higher ranks; the indulgences which their wealth permitted consisted in rough and wasteful profusion. Salt beef and strong ale constituted the principal part of Queen Elizabeth's breakfast, and similar refreshments were served to her in bed for supper. At a series of entertainments given by the nobility in 1669, where each exhausted his invention to outdo the others, it was universally admitted that Lord Goring won the palm for the magnificence of his fancy. The description of this supper will give us an idea of what was then thought magnificent. It consisted of four huge, brawny pigs, piping hot, bitted and harnessed, with ropes of sausages, to a huge pudding bag, which served for a chariot. CHRISTIAN GROWTH BY LABOUR. We have tried to make Christians without giving them anything to do; which is like trying to make swimmers without use of hands or feet. The churches are all full of religious dyspeptics, feeble of purpose, weak in faith, indifferent, languid, listless, of little use to themselves or anybody else, and all for want of the natural exercise which would come from doing God's waiting work in the world. Admit that Christian character is the great thing; that piety and personal holiness are the very highest states and attainments; but to acquire those qualities, and rise up to that serene elevation, we must do something more than to sit even in a closet, and muse, and meditate, and try to magnetize our souls by pious exercises; we must go out into the world, and put our heavenly thoughts into heavenly deeds of love and mercy. CARVING CHARACTER. Did you ever watch a sculptor slowly fashioning a human countenance? It is not moulded at once. It is not struck out at a single blow. It is painfully and laboriously wrought. Α thousand blows rough cast it. Ten thousand chisel points polish and perfect it-put in the fine touches, and bring out the features and expres ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. sion. It is a work of time; but at last the full likeness comes out, and stands fixed and unchanging in the solid marble. So does a man carve out his own moral likeness. Every day he adds something to the work. A thousand acts of thought, and will, and effort shape the features and expressions of the soul, Habits of love, piety, and truth-habits of falsehood, passion, or goodness-silently mould and fashion it, till at length it wears the likeness of God or the image of a demon. REPOSE IN PRAYER.-Prayer is the secret breathing of the soul. This breathing of the air of eternity is as necessary to the life of the soul, as breathing the air of the earth we live in is to that of the body. The world of God, however, is a world of peace and strength, and prayer diffuses a spirit of peace over our life. In prayer the soul gains repose. Then are the storms and passions of the heart silenced; the disturbances of its cares and anxieties, of its sufferings, and even of its joys, cease. And thus fresh vigour and cheerfulness break forth upon us. As the bracing air of the mountains fills us with a sense of renewed power, so do we in prayer breathe an atmosphere of divine encouragement, and come forth from the inner sanctuary of communion with God to enter with new alacrity into eternal life with its tasks, its duties, its burdens, and its griefs; while still, in the midst of the troubles and turmoils of our daily work, our hearts dwell in the Sabbath and sanctuary for prayer. Life is a compound of prayer and work. It is not as though there were two separate agencies in merely external alternation; they must ever be united with and in each other. The one does not exclude, but requires the other, as the inner and outer man, as body and soul. PRACTICAL USEFULNESS.-Oliver Cromwell was a staunch Puritan, and could not brook the least approach to Popery. "What are these ?" he once inquired, as he saw a dozen silver statues in the niches of a chapel. "The twelve apostles," replied the trembling dean. "Take them down," said Cromwell, "and coin them into money, so that they may go about doing good." BEAUTIFUL ANSWERS. A PUPIL of the Abbe Sicord gave the following extraordinary answers:- What is the difference between hope and desire? Desire is a tree in leaf, hope is a tree in flower, and enjoyment is a tree in fruit. What is eternity? A day without yesterday or to-morrow; a day without end. What is time? A line that has two ends-a path that begins in the cradle and ends in the grave. What is God? A necessary being, the sun of eternity-the machinist of nature the eye of justice-the matchless power of the Universe-the soul of the world. Does God reason? Man reasons because he doubts; he deliberates, he desires; God is omnipotent; He never doubts; therefore never reasons. THE FIRESIDE. The Fireside. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A TRUE GENTLEMAN. In an old manor house in Gloucestershire may be found the following sketch or portrait of a true gentleman written, framed and hung over the mantlepiece of a tapestried sitting room : The true gentleman is God's servant, the world's master, and his own man; virtue is his business, study his recreation, contentment his rest, and happiness his reward; God is his father, the church is his mother, the saints his brethren, all that need him his friends; devotion is his chaplain, charity his chamberlain, sobriety his butler, temperance his cook, hospitality his housekeeper, providence his steward, charity his treasurer, piety his mistress of the house, and discretion his porter, to let him in or out as most fit. Thus his whole family is made up of virtues, and he is the true master of the house. He is necessitated to take the world on his way to heaven; but he walks through it as fast as he can, and all his business by the way is to make himself and others happy. Take him in two words— a man and a Christian. A TRUE CHRISTIAN MOTHER. DR. M'CRIE, the celebrated biographer of Knox, records with filial love and reverence the fidelity of his own mother in training him to Christian life. An incident in his experience is of rare beauty. In his sixteenth year he left home to attend the classes of Edinburgh University, and his devoted mother, apprehensive of the temptations to which he would be exposed in city life, walked with him a part of the way to give him her last words of counsel. She parted from him in Coldingham Moor. Before bidding him farewell, she led him to a rock a little distance from the road, and kneeling behind it, with her hands upon his head, implored, in a fervent prayer, that God would shield him from danger, and make him an intelligent and zealous Christian, useful to the church in his generation. Such a mother's faith could not go unblessed. Such prayers must secure God's blessing. In a year from that time the mother was a saint in heaven, but the son, over whom she had yearned and prayed, was not forgotten of God." He was converted, and became one of the eminent ministers of Scotland, and a biographer of some of her great worthies. A curious incident is told of his closing life connected with this prayer of his mother at the roadside. Nearly fifty years had passed. He had lived a life of toil, and trial, and success. He was ripe in years, and service, and experience. One night in a dream his mother appeared to him, standing behind the rock on the moor, and beckoning him to follow. He promised to obey her, and the vision passed. Dr. M'Crie was not a THE PENNY POST BOX-FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. weak or superstitious man, but he regarded the dream as a warning that his work was nearly done. In a few weeks he was called away, and the mother and son were united for ever in a better world. The Penny Post Box. LEARN TO BE BRIEF. If you would be pungent be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams-the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.-SOUTHEY. TALK to the point, and stop when you have reached it. The faculty some possesses of making one idea cover a quire of paper, is not good for much. Be comprehensive in all you say or write. To fill a column upon nothing is a credit to nobody; though Lord Chesterfield wrote a very clever poem upon nothing. There are men who get one idea into their heads, and but one, and they make the most of it. You can see it, and almost feel it, when in their presence. On all occasions it is produced until it is worn as thin as charity. They remind one of a twenty-four pounder discharged at a humming bird. You hear a tremendous noise, see a volume of smoke, but you look in vain for the effects. The bird is scattered to atoms. Just so with the idea. It is enveloped in a cloud, and lost amid the rumblings of words and flourishes. Short letters, sermons, speeches, and paragraphs are favourites with us. Commend us to the young man who wrote to his father, "Dear Sir, I am going to be married;" and also to the old gentleman who replied," Dear Son, go ahead." Such are the men for action. They do more than they say. The half is not told in their cases. They are worth their weight in gold for every purpose in life. Reader, be short; and we will be short with the advice. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. There is often a history in words. "Bigot," for instance, in Spanish, means "mustachio," and was associated with the hateful influence made by the cruel conduct of the Spanish Papists in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; "dunce," arose from the followers of Duns Scotus being looked upon at the Reformation as weak and foolish men. To be a Dunsman, or a Duns, was to be an object of scorn. Hints. Talk to the point; and stop when you have reached it. You should forgive many things in others, but nothing in yourself. The mill cannot grind with the water that is passed. The follies of the fool are known to the world, but hidden from himself. Passion is a fever that leaves us weaker than it finds us. A suspicious parent makes an artful child. An idle brain is the devil's workshop. A handful of good life is better than a bushel of learning. Every man's censure is first moulded in his own nature. We do it soon enough if we do it well. Whatsoever was father of the disease, ill-diet was the mother. Little losses amaze, great ones tame. Gems. The hours of a wise man are beguiled by his ideas, those of a fool by his passions. Christian piety is to be prized for its secret intrinsic quality, rather than for its quotable results. He that tries heartily to do Christ's will shall know of the doctrine. Know it more and more; know it deeper and deeper, know all that he needs. Christ lessened himself to dependency for the sake of mediation. Christ is the only way to peace, heaven, and God. Poetic Selections. AWAY FROM GOD. AWAY from Thee, my God! Sin's surging wave Hath borne me far away from Thee, my rest; Stretch out Thine arm omnipotent to save, breast. Long have I toiled to stem the billowy tide, And yet, Alas! no progress have I made; My faith is sinking; o'er the waters wide, Q! let me hear Thee say, ""Tis I; be not afraid." Again within the haven of Thy love, O! let my weary spirit sheltered be; Forgive my waywardness, nor let me rove, To risk my happiness on sin's deceitful sea. What is time? It is the life of the Hope of the erring, Pardoner of the vile, soul. Marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner. Pleasure is a shadow, wealth is vanity, and power is a pageant; but knowledge is ecstatic in enjoyment, perennial in space, and infinite in duration. There is one art of which every man should be a master-the art of reflection. If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all? Who hearest all that truly seek Thine aid, E'en through the gloom I see Thy beaming smile, And hear Thee say, "Tis I; be not afraid." A DREAM OF SUMMER. BLAND as the morning breath of June, |