POETRY.-ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Poetry.

A WALK IN A CHURCHYARD.

WE walked within the churchyard | The sunshine on no other grass

My little boy and I; [bounds, He laughing, running happy rounds, I pacing mournfully.

"Nay, child! it is not well," I said,

66 Among the graves to shout,
To laugh and play among the dead,
And make this noisy rout."

A moment to my side he clung,
Leaving his merry play,
A moment stilled his joyous tongue,
Almost as hushed as they.
Then, quite forgetting the command,
In life's exulting burst
Of early glee, let go my hand,
Joyous as at the first.

And now I did not check him more,
For, taught by Nature's face,
I had grown wiser than before,

Even in that moment's space.
She spread no funeral pall above
That patch of churchyard ground,
But the same azure vault of love

That hung o'er all around.

And white clouds o'er that spot would
As freely as elsewhere;

[pass

A richer hue might wear.

And formed from out that very mould
In which the dead did lie,
The daisy, with its eye of gold,
Looked up into the sky.

The rook was wheeling overhead,
Nor hastened to be gone;
The small bird did its glad notes shed,
Perched on a gray head-stone.

And God, I said, would never give

This light upon the earth,
Nor bid in childhood's heart to live

These springs of gushing mirth,—
If our one wisdom were to mourn,
And linger with the dead,
To nurse, as wisest, thoughts forlorn
Of worm and earthy bed.

O no; the glory earth puts on,

The child's unchecked delight, Both witness to a triumph won

(If we but judge aright),

A triumph won o'er sin and death:
From these the Saviour saves;
And, like a happy infant, Faith
Can play among the graves.

Anecdotes and Selections.

UNDYING MEMORY.-How vividly came the period of my early days stealing on my remembrance at this terrible time. I do not say stealing on memory, for the one is far nobler than the other. Often, in a moment when man is not aware, does memory assert majestically her undying nature, and bring forth from her mysterious crypt in the soul the deeds of the distant past, unasked, and full often unwished. The sinner sitteth at ease, cherishing many a false way; but an avenger

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

is within him, who starts forth with the deep diapason of a lion, and the crushing grip of a bear, crying, "I am memory; remember the sins of years gone by." It is as if poison were poured into the goblet, the cup falls from the conscience-palsied hand, music ceases to breathe melody, the Cyprian eye of beauty loses its fires, ill-gotten gains are loathed, and the cringing soul shrinks within itself, crying, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy.' What would not a fallen world give, could it, when it listeth, destroy memory. But it cannot be. So far from this, memory's greatest, grandest part has yet to be enacted. Deity-to whom be glory—will one day fire it like a train, and then will it light up the remembrance of the whole arcanum of the past, "for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." The day of judgment that.

A PASSAGE FROM LATIMER.—In Bishop Latimer's famous old sermon, "Of the Plough," is a passage, which though written three hundred years ago, applies admirably to what is now going on in the Church of England. Where the devil is resident, and has his plough going, there away with books and up with candles: away with Bibles and up with beads; away with the light of the gospel, and up with the light of candles, yea, at noonday. Where the devil is resident, that he may prevail, up with all superstition and idolatry; censing, painting of images, candles, palms, holy water, and new service of men's inventing, as though man could invent a better way to honour God with, than God himself hath appointed. Down with Christ's cross, up with purgatory pick-purse, up with him, the Popish purgatory, I mean. Away with clothing the naked, and up with gay garnishing of stocks and stones; up with man's traditions and his laws; down with God's traditions and His most holy Word. Down with the old honour due to God, and up with the new god's honour.'

WHO KNOCKS?-Oh, careless sinner! this is the Saviour whom we have always been preaching to you; this is the Divine Redeemer whom you have always trodden under foot. You would think it a great thing if the king left his throne, and knocked at your door, and besought you to accept a little gold; but, oh! how much greater a thing is here. The King of Kings has left His throne and died, the just for the unjust, and now knocks at your door. Careless sinner, can you still resist?-McCheyne.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE.-"I am on the bright side of seventy," said an aged man of God; "the bright side, because nearer to everlasting glory." "Nature fails," said another, "but I am happy." "My work is done," said the Countess of Huntingdon, when eighty-four years old; "I have nothing to do but to go to my Father." To an humble Christian it was remarked, "I fear you are near another world." "Fear it, sir!" he replied; "I know I am; but, blessed be the Lord! I do not fear it; I hope it."

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

CHRIST IN THE GOSPEL NARRATIVE.-No biographer, moralist, or artist can be satisfied with any attempt of his to set forth the beauty of holiness which shines from the face of Jesus of Nazareth. It is felt to be infinitely greater than any conception or representation of it by the mind, the tongue or the pencil of man or angel. We might as well attempt to empty the waters of the boundless sea into a narrow well, or to portray the splendour of the rising sun and starry heavens with ink. No picture of the Saviour, though drawn by the master hand of Raphael, or Durio, or Rubens; no epic, though conceived by the genius of a Dante, or Milton, or Klopstock, can improve on the artless narrative | of the gospels, whose only but all powerful charm is truth.-Schaff.

WHAT JESUS IS ABLE TO DO.

"Able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Phil. iii. 21). "Able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Cor. ix. 8).

"Able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24).

"Able to succour them that are tempted" (Heb. ii. 18).

"Able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him" (Heb. vii. 25).

"What He had promised, able also to perform" (Rom. iv. 21). "Able to make him stand" (Rom. xiv. 4).

"Able to keep that which I have committed unto Him" (2 Tim. i. 2). "Able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts xx. 32).

"Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. iii. 20).

"BELIEVE YE THAT I AM ABLE TO DO THIS?" (Matt. ix. 28.)

WHAT THE SAINT. CANNOT DO.

He cannot forget the city of the Great King. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning" (Psalm cxxxvii. 5). He cannot forget the mercies of the Great King. “They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lam. iii. 23).

He cannot forget the power and justice of the Great King. "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work" (Psalm lxii. 11, 12).

He cannot forget the condescension of the Great King. "Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off" (Psalm cxxxviii. 6).

He cannot forget the message of the Great King. beloved Son: hear him" (Luke ix. 35).

"This is my

THE FIRESIDE.-THE PENNY POST BOX.

The Fireside.

HOW LONG WE MIGHT LIVE.

PROFESSOR Faraday adopts Flourin's physiological theory that the natural age of a man is one hundred years. The duration of life he believes to be measured by the time of growth. When once the bones and eiyphysus are united, the body grows no more, and at twenty years this union is effected in man. In the camel it takes place at eight; in the horse at five; in the rabbit at one. The natural termination of life is five removes from these several points. Man, being twenty years in growing, lives five times twenty years, that is, one hundred; the camel is eight years in growing, and lives five times eight years, that is to say, forty years; the horse is five years in growing, and he lives twenty-five years; and so with other animals. The man who does not die of sickness lives everywhere from eighty to one hundred years. Providence has given to man a century of life, but he does not attain it because he inherits disease, eats unwholesome food, gives license to passions, and permits vexations to disturb his healthy equipoise. He does not die; he kills himself. The learned Professor divides life into equal halves, growth and decline, and these halves into infancy, youth, virility, and age. Infancy extends to the twentieth year; youth to the fiftieth, because it is during this period that the tissues become firm; virility from fifty to seventy-five, during which the organism remains complete; and at seventy-five old age I commences, to last a longer or shorter time, as the diminution of reserved forces is hastened or retarded.

The Penny Post Box.

WHO IS A GENTLEMAN ?

WHO is a Gentleman? Is it.

The one well-known to be

Possessed of wealth, or large estates

Of landed property?

Is it the person proud to show

His diamonds rich and rare,

Who ne'er with labour soiled those hands

So delicate and fair?

Is it the person proud of dress,

Who bows at Fashion's shrine,

And aims with well-cut coat and boots

All others to outshine?

FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. '

Is it the one who talks precise,

With elegance and ease,

And strives with conversation fair
The company to please?

How many make their boast of wealth,
With Fashion's rules comply,

While in politeness and address
But few with them can vie:
Yet they may not be gentlemen,
Though styled as such they are;
Towards them the title's misapplied-
True gentlemen are rare.

That man is one, whate'er his rank,
Who honest is and true,

And daily strives to do to all

As he would have them do:
Who, swayed by true benevolence,
Does all the good he can,

And makes it his delight and aim
To help his fellow-man.

The one who loves and honours God,

And loves his neighbour too!

Who by the rules of rectitude

Doth his whole course pursue;

He is a Gentleman indeed,

Although he may not be

Rich, gay, or learned-his conduct proves

His true gentility.

Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry.

Facts.

THE SUN.

THE sun is the stronghold of the solar system.

It is ninety-five millions of miles from the earth.

If we could travel forty miles an hour continuously, it would take us more than two hundred and seventy years to reach the sun from the earth.

A cannon ball, which dashed from a gun four hundred yards a second, would be a eleven years and a quarter reaching the sun.

J. DORE.

In three days from the extinction of the sun, all vegetable and animal life would die off the earth.

The very coal we burn, but for the sun's light and heat, would have had no existence.

The heat thrown out from every square yard of the sun is equal to the burning on that square yard of six tons of coal an hour.

The surface of the sun is twelve thousand times bigger than the earth. Of the sun's light, one class of rays affect the eyes as light; one as heat; one as a colouring power.

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